The Healthy Wine Affair !

How good is drinking Red Wine? What are its health benefits? Many people believe that drinking red wine is good for our health. The other day I have been told by one person that it is good for blood circulation and another one said it is good for our heart and her relative is having red wine daily to combat hypertension. Are these things true?

First person was sitting with a headache when we started the talk (who attended a party the night before) and I asked,

“What did you drink”

“Red wine, its good for blood circulation”

I called it nonsense, coz, look at the situation. Do we need to suffer a headache to increase the blood circulation? NOT AT ALL… just go for a brisk walk or do a stationary running at your own room and your blood circulation becomes better and that’s why EVERY doc ask us to do some cardio, or 20 minutes of walk, and not wine (in general).

What about the second person? She don’t drink wine to improve her health ! But just passed me the information. Good.

So, what is the scientific truth behind these stories? Anybody did a research on this?

Well, there are many research papers available for public and I had gone through many such documents and reports.

There is one secret about most of the research happening around the world. It has a lot to do with who sponsors the research. And the research result is twisted to favor them. This is may not be applicable to individual or independent research bodies.

Same is applicable to red wine too. I happened to read both the ones supporting it and not favoring it…… I read about the ability of the red wine to increase the blood circulation on a page which named a particular wine telling it was used for the research and the page had the ad of wines. But the research vaguely adds these facts too:

" .. However, the study was limited, as there were only a few participants who were observed for only short periods of time. Additional longer-term studies, for a period of more than six months, really need to be done to truly determine the long-term health impact, relevant to responsible red-wine drinking "

But that part wasn’t highlighted at all, but the heading of that report was ;

Red Wine Helps Circulation in the Young as Well as the Old, Study Finds

It says taking red wine helped in increasing antioxidants and helped in controlling the cholesterol level (only 40 participants).

If its about antioxidants, the best option is drinking green tea and not red wine. And what about red wine controlling the cholesterol levels? If you eat anything you want, will it still control the levels? How was the diet for the participants? Researches don’t provide any such data, conveniently.

Another research, which was published during this month, in Science Daily, says the truth about red wine is, one should take only one shot. What happens when one takes red wine?

“After one drink of either red wine or alcohol, blood vessels were more “relaxed” or dilated, which reduced the amount of work the heart had to do. But, after two drinks, the heart rate, amount of blood pumped out of the heart, and action of the sympathetic nervous system all increased. At the same time, the ability of the blood vessels to expand in response to an increase in blood flow diminished. This counteracted the beneficial effect of one drink of red wine or alcohol”.

Well well , look, NOW it is said that , its not an exclusive feature of red wine. So one can take any alcoholic drink, for that matter, but only one drink per day.

There is a similar research by a Canadian firm:

“One drink of alcohol results in vasodilation and reduces cardiac output, but a second cancels out these beneficial effects, increasing the heart rate, cardiac output, and sympathetic nervous activityThese acute effects are the same with red wine or ethanol, suggesting that red wine polyphenols offer no advantage in the short-term cardiovascular benefits of drinking alcohol”

May be the research was sponsored by some company who were into liquor business other than red wine and hence the research rules out the special advantage of red wine and distributes it over to all other alcoholic drinks.

So, once again, one drink is good and it can give you vasodialation. Second drink damages your health. Red wine is known to trigger headache in many, and a guaranteed trigger for migraine. So, what happens when people with a history of any kind of vascular headache (cluster headache, migraine toxic headache etc), drinks red wine? Even one drink MIGHT give the damage; more drink can give more damage, for sure.

There are enough research reports available to show that red wine, beer and any other alcoholic drink has almost same effect on hypertension. If we check out the non pharmacological treatment for hypertension, the best option suggested is life style modification. Look at one of such report

“Discontinuing tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking has been shown to lower blood pressure. The exact mechanisms are not fully understood, but blood pressure (especially systolic) always transiently increases following alcohol and/or nicotine consumption”

Mayo clinic suggests to avoid drinking when one has hypertension. And for heavy drinkers, they ask to drink in moderation (maximum two drinks for man and one for woman). (‘Avoid drinking or drink in moderation’ is a tricky statement)

Does an otherwise-healthy-person need to do such vasodialation with wine in order to have a healthy heart?

Not at all required. There are other healthy options like, Aerobics, brisk walk, treadmill , cycling, swimming, badminton……

So, will taking a shot of any alcoholic drink leads to a healthy living? Why there is such a belief?

Lets look into a marketing story. This thing happened long ago. One toothpaste company wanted to boost the sales and they consulted a highly paid marketing expert. He gave a simple solution.

“Make the opening of the tube a little more wider”

And it worked; how many of us take the exact amount of paste we need to clean our teeth? What about kids? And can we put the excess paste back? Or do we ever try for it?

Why do many docs stick to certain brands? Coz of the quality of the medicine? Did they try it on their own body? Nope, they have their benefits.

Same with alcohol. The liquor lobby ‘bought’ some docs and asked them to tell (not just my idea, but I heard a known personality telling this fact in a TV show) :

‘Just one shot of drink is healthy for you’.

(They are not at all specific in telling the public, that one should take many other things into consideration (like family history towards liver problems and diabetics etc). Nor do they are specific in telling that they are talking about a healthy/normal person)

They knew that, once somebody is into alcohol or drugs, they will stay there as a customer, at least as a social drinker for sure (I know lots of people who drinks and I don’t know not even a single person who quit drinking coz he/she thought drinking is bad for health – though it is written on most of the cans and bottles, these days ) . Some of them (mostly who fear death) quit when they face medical problems.

This lobby sponsored many research too. Take most of the research work available to public, its short term studies with lesser number of participants. Docs, who really care for your health, will not recommend you to start drinking to avail health benefits.

I happened to read another published research which showed that drinking alcohol of any kind, including wine and beer, can trigger breast cancer in women (science daily, dated September 28, 2007)

American Heart Association asks to consider drinking as one to one basis (ie, doc and you). Talk to your doc and then you decide. They suggests a man to not to cross more than two drinks per day and for a woman, one drink per day. It’s not their recommendation, but they are suggesting the maximum limit. And they clearly say that there is no justification for a non drinker to start drinking for health benefits.

(Please read the next post 'one 2 one' also)

There is no solid evidence to prove that drinking will help you maintain your health, especially in the long run. Where as there are lots of cases where people died of drinking (including one of my friend’s brother and a cousin of mine). Drinking can lead to cardio-vascular disorders, neurological disorders, high blood pressure, liver cirrhosis, cancers, pancreatitis and motor vehicle accidents, suicides.. to name a few.

Most of the ‘scientists say’…. ‘doc advise’ ….. ‘research says’ kinda stuff are from the cardiology sector and one need to understand that heart is not the only vital organ you have got. If you maintain a healthy heart alone, it won’t help you survive. Mayo clinic says , one of the benefits of drinking is that there is less chance for you to die of heart attack. Heart attack is just one reason for death. Drinking can do more damage to your liver than saving your heart. Many people don’t know that alcohol with some pain killer like acetaminophen/paracetamol (OTC drugs) is more damaging to liver.

(There is some other section that drinks to fight stress or gather courage to face some issues or realities in life. If someone finds shelter in alcohol for running away from realities, it is unwise. Coz, once you are back as a sober, once again you need to face the problem. And finally it will lead to addiction. I have a friend who can not sleep without his regular ‘quota’. If drinking is habit of both partners in a relationship (including marriage) , and if there is minor issues between them, nothing more is required to lead that minor differences of opinions into a breakage. I have seen it happening with my own eyes. After divorce, the guy married again and he decided to cut on liquor. He kept his word for the initial days and now its problems again and his wife blames it on his drinking habit. She talked to me and asked me to advise him since he is a friend of mine who respects me. Whenever he called me up, he was drunk and he even started lying to me (he never used to do that to me long ago, he was very open to me). Alcohol helps us to lie very easily without much guilty feeling. If we feel guilty, just have a couple of drinks and there comes the courage!! Alcohol helped him to worsen our friendship, the relationship with his wife and his own parents….. and what not?) .

So, there is no point in drinking looking at the health benefits. For a healthy person, these things are not applicable. But can follow the one drink per day theory ( one drink - 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1 ounce of 100-proof whiskey., as per Mayo clinic) as long as you stay healthy and reach 60-65 years of age. That is what the docs who support alcohol says, at least as on today.

If somebody is drinking for health reasons, best bet is quitting it and starting physical workouts and yoga, which can give you overall health ( and good looks too) and not just about avoiding a heart attack in the unknown future.