Health professionals have promoted red wine (in moderation) as a heart-healthy beverage for the past thirty years. To correct the record, however, the World Heart Federation (WHF) released a policy brief in January 2022. “Alcohol tends to have deleterious effects on practically every form of cardiac disease,” according to Dr. JoAnn Manson, the Michael and Lee Bell Professor of Women’s Health at Harvard Medical School. No alcohol, not even wine, is good for your heart. It raises the possibility of
- heart failure, stroke, and hypertension
- Cardiomyopathy (heart muscle illness)
- Aortic aneurysm: a hazardous protrusion in the aortic wall
- An erratic heartbeat is known as atrial fibrillation.
- According to Dr. Manson, it might possibly be involved in coronary artery disease. However, the
- evidence for this is less convincing.
“People should clearly recognize that drinking is linked to various heart-related problems,” she explains. “It is a misconception; the message they may have heard that alcohol is helpful for the heart has been discredited.”
Modifying advice
What changed, you might ask? If this is not true, why did specialists claim that alcohol is heart-healthy?
According to Dr. Manson, one explanation for the change is that researchers are now aware of some procedural errors in earlier studies. Previous research frequently contrasted alcohol consumers with a heterogeneous group of nondrinkers. While some members of the nondrinking group had never consumed alcohol, others had given up because they were in recovery from alcohol use disorders and had been heavy drinkers for years. “When studies excluded former drinkers and people with underlying health problems, they did not show the same alcohol-related cardiovascular benefits,” says Dr. Manson. Others had stopped drinking due to health issues like diabetes or heart disease, or because they were taking medications that interacted with alcohol.
The WHF also pointed out that observational studies, rather than the more trustworthy randomized controlled trials, made up a large portion of earlier research on alcohol and heart health. Randomized experiments have not shown that alcohol consumption is beneficial to the heart. Additionally, research funded by the alcohol business had revealed some of the best effects of alcohol, which increased the possibility of bias.
Women are more vulnerable
According to Dr. Manson, women may be more vulnerable than men to a number of health issues brought on by alcohol, even though more men than women die from alcohol-related causes (such as liver disease and accidents). “Women metabolize alcohol more slowly than men and, generally, can tolerate only about half as much alcohol as men before experiencing adverse effects,” she says.
Alcohol consumption has been associated with an increased risk of some malignancies, such as those of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and liver, as well as an increased risk of heart-related issues and liver disease. Additionally, Dr. Manson notes that even little alcohol consumption can increase the risk of breast cancer.
Additionally, drinking raises the risk of atrial fibrillation, which is more harmful to women than to males. According to Dr. Manson, “women are more likely than males to have a stroke if they have atrial fibrillation, and women who have a stroke are more likely to have a fatal stroke.”