How Wine Works-Emerging Research on Mealtime Alcohol Consumption

How Wine Works-Emerging Research on Mealtime Alcohol Consumption

It is known that alcohol consumption reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and overall mortality. [JM - This statement is a bit strong. Statistical studies show a relationship between two variables (here, moderate alcohol consumption and reduced incidence of heart disease), but they do not establish a cause and effect relationship - ˇ°proofˇ± that one causes the other. The recent wealth of data should give us more confidence in a cause and effect relationship, but we are not nearly to the point of ˇ°proof.ˇ± It took decades and hundreds of studies before the Surgeon General was willing to declare that smoking causes cancer.] But it has been less clear just how alcohol works to protect the body against heart disease and death.

A new study from researchers at the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland. identifies a mechanism for how alcohol favorably effects arterial muscle cells. According to Wilhelm Vetter, M.D., and colleagues, alcohol, when consumed around mealtime, reduces the proliferation of smooth muscle cells (SMC) within the arteries. SMC growth is a key element in the develop-ment of atherosclerosis, which commonly leads to heart attacks and strokes.

The study found that the ingestion of alcohol. equivalent to two glasses of wine or three beers, with a high-fat meal resulted in a 20% decrease in the growth of arterial muscle cells.

Researchers suggest these results could have a profound effect on heart disease ˇ°considering the amount of time humans spend in the postprandial state during their lifetimes.ˇ±

Other mechanisms may be at work. Several researchers have suggested that the apparent health benefits of wine ingested at mealtime may be due to the ability of alcohol and other phenolic compounds in wine to counter adverse effects of fatty foods during the critical digestive phase. Renaud has written of the positive effect of wine during meals on platelet aggregation , finding that wine ˇ°consumed with meals is absorbed more slowly, and thus has a prolonged effect on blood platelets at a time when they are under the influence of alimentary lipids known to increase their reactivity.ˇ±

An Israeli study by Fuhrman et al, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that drinking red wine with meals resulted in a 20% reduction in the LDL (ˇ°badˇ±) cholesterol oxidation. A Dutch study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that alcohol consumed with a meal may prevent blood clotting triggered by fat.