There is an opinion that red wine in moderation helps improve heart health and normalizes blood pressure. Another issue is that it is very easy to lose the measure. The study debunks the myth about the benefits of alcohol – it's all about the properties of grapes, not alcohol.
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To assess the impact of moderate alcohol consumption on health, an international team of scientists collected data from 446,000 people aged 40-69 from the UK Biobank. All participants reported how much beer, cider, wine, champagne and spirits they drank each week.
The volunteers were followed for seven years, with data on mortality and diagnosed diseases, including coronary heart disease, stroke and cancer, entered into the Biobank.
The analysis of the data showed that drinking beer, cider and spirits was associated with higher rates of death, cancer and cardiovascular disease.
At the same time, people who drink 8-11 glasses of red wine a week have a 40% lower risk of developing coronary heart disease compared to teetotalers and those who like to “get drunk”. The same benefits were seen in the British, who drink no more than 4-5 glasses of white wine and champagne.
The biggest discovery was that non-alcoholic red wine had the same effect as regular wine: scientists found that drinkers of this drink also had a reduced risk of developing coronary heart disease.
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This suggests that all the benefits of red wine are not associated with alcohol, but with polyphenols – powerful antioxidants that are found in abundance in grapes, says the lead author of the study, Rudolf Schutte from Anglia Ruskin University.
The scientist added that conclusions about the benefits of alcohol often follow from comparing the health and mortality rates of drinkers and teetotalers, which is not very correct.
“The control group of non-drinkers will also include people who abstain from alcohol due to health problems. Therefore, comparisons with them may falsely indicate the benefits of alcohol,” Schutte explained.