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Winetech support biomedical research to study the beneficial effects of moderate alcohol consumption on the heart
Right: Dr Michael Sack and Mr James Meiring from the Cape Town Medical School who are doing a study on the beneficial effects of moderate alcohol consumption on the heart. The research is founded by Winetech.
It has been known for the last decade that modest alcohol consumption may have a beneficial effect on longevity, predominantly by reducing the incidence of heart attacks.1-3 A new study now again shows that a modest amount of wine intake may have a beneficial effect on heart disease.4 In this study from Denmark, the greatest benefit was in individuals who consumed one to three glasses of wine per day.4
An intriguing question that has been raised by these epidemiological studies is whether alcohol has a direct beneficial effect on the heart muscle. In this regard, scientific studies in the last three years have demonstrated that alcohol may make the heart muscle more resistant to heart attacks.5 To further these studies, Winetech is supporting the research of Mr James Meiring in the laboratory of Dr Michael Sack at the Hatter Institute for Cardiology Research at the University of Cape Town Medical School. In these studies, Mr Meiring has demonstrated that human heart cells do indeed develop increased resistance to low oxygen (the result of heart attacks).
In his studies, Mr Meiring has also demonstrated that the dose of alcohol which promotes this resistance to heart attacks is pivotal. In fact, doses that correlate to one to three drinks daily seem protective and higher doses have a direct harmful effect on heart cells. Dr Sack states that these findings are very interesting and support the epidemiological data that show that modest consumption of alcohol may be good for the heart, but that higher doses have a direct toxic effect on the heart muscle.
Dr Sack believes that understanding the mechanisms underlying this heart protective effect of modest amounts of alcohol may give physicians greater confidence in the results from the epidemiological studies published. However, Dr Sack states that initiating wine consumption purely because there may be beneficial effects is not justified at this stage. However, people that do drink modest amounts of wine could feel that the pleasure they derive from this consumption may have added important beneficial effects on their health. Finally, Dr Sack cautions that as is shown in multiple studies, excessive alcohol consumption, including wine, still has detrimental effects on one's health with regard to heart disease, liver disease and cancers, and should not be consumed at all during pregnancy.
For further information on this article Dr Sack can be contacted at:
The Hatter Institute for Cardiology Research
References:
1. Klatsky AL, Armstrong MA, Friedman GD. Alcohol and mortality. Ann Intern Med 1992; 117:646-54.
2. Doll R, Peto R, Hall E, Wheatley K, Gray R. Mortality in relation to consumption of alcohol: 13 years' observations on male British doctors. Bmj 1994; 309:911-8.
3. Fuchs CS, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Giovannucci EL, Manson JE, Kawachi I, Hunter DJ, Hankinson SE, Hennekens CH, Rosner B. Alcohol consumption and mortality among women. N Engl J Med 1995; 332:1245-50.
4. Gronbaek M, Becker U, Johansen D, Gottschau A, Schnohr P, Hein HO, Jensen G, Sorensen TI. Type of Alcohol Consumed and Mortality from All Causes, Coronary Heart Disease, and Cancer. Ann Intern Med 2000; 133:411-419.
5. Miyamae M, Diamond I, Weiner MW, Camacho SA, Figueredo VM. Regular alcohol consumption mimics cardiac preconditioning by protecting against ischemia-reperfusion injury. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1997; 94:3235-9.
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