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Health See other Health Articles Title: Is the 'Red' in Wine Protective Color? Hi. I am Dr. Henry Black, Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine and former President of the American Society of Hypertension. An interesting and paradoxical issue about what we eat or drink is alcohol. Much of the earlier data on alcohol consumption have shown that there doesn't seem to be a limit to how much cardiovascular protection you receive from alcohol, unless a person has other problems, such as accidents or liver disease. The US Dietary Guidelines[1] recommend a limit of 1-2 drinks daily for men and 1 drink daily for women; the British have a somewhat higher limit. The question has been, does it matter which type of alcohol is consumed? Is red wine better than other forms of alcohol? How much should you drink and how much is it going to help? We think that alcohol lowers blood pressure, possibly because we relax and it might prevent cardiovascular disease by some element in the red wine, but other studies have shown that it doesn't seem to matter whether it's red wine, white wine, spirits, or any other form of alcohol. A recent study published in Circulation Research [2] from Spain accomplished a very interesting thing in a surprisingly inadequate study. They studied a group of 60-year-olds with cardiovascular risk factors, many of whom had diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. In a crossover study, participants drank 3 drinks: red wine, gin, and dealcoholized red wine (a merlot) in a random order. No washout period was used between the 3 drinks, which was one of the study's flaws. They also asked these people not to drink for 2 weeks and then to start drinking, but compliance was not reported. Investigators validated the fact that the participants hadn't been drinking right before the start of the study, but what occurred in the 12 preceding days is unknown. They showed that the dealcoholized red wine lowered blood pressure by approximately 6/3 mm Hg. Red wine also lowered blood pressure a small amount, and gin had no effect. Is this going to replace drugs or exercise? Is it going to replace watching sodium intake or any of the other nonpharmacologic things we do? I am not sure, but it certainly showed that modest amounts of alcoholic or nonalcoholic red wine can certainly be beneficial with respect to blood pressure and hopefully with respect to cardiovascular outcomes. This was a 4-week study for each arm, so we have no idea what the long-term effects are going to be. They also showed that nitric oxide concentrations increased, although they didn't look at endothelial function, which is why nitric oxide is important. So, if you go to the store, you can probably get merlot or grape juice, but I don't know if the preparation that these individuals drank is available. Poster Comment: Dyslipidemia: A disorder of lipoprotein metabolism, including lipoprotein overproduction or deficiency. Dyslipidemias may be manifested by elevation of the total cholesterol, the "bad" low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and the triglyceride concentrations, and a decrease in the "good" high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentration in the blood. Dyslipidemia comes under consideration in many situations including diabetes, a common cause of lipidemia. For adults with diabetes, it has been recommended that the levels of LDL, HDL, and total cholesterol, and triglyceride be measured every year. Optimal LDL cholesterol levels for adults with diabetes are less than 100 mg/dL (2.60 mmol/L), optimal HDL cholesterol levels are e4qual to or greater than 40 mg/dL (1.02 mmol/L), and desirable triglyceride levels are less than 150 mg/dL (1.7 mmol/L). From dys- + lipid (fat) + -emia (in the blood) = essentially, disordered lipids in the blood. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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