Heart Association Advises Docs to Downplay Alcohol's Benefits
Jan. 22, 2001 -- Those killjoys at the American Heart Association have done it again: an AHA science advisory panel recommends that doctors soft-pedal the possible but unproven heart benefits of red wine in favor of the tried and true, but much less appealing steps of diet and exercise.
"What the advisory says is that there are clearly benefits from a moderate intake of alcohol, but it's not like there is a special benefit, the so-called 'French Paradox,' where you can eat foie gras ad nauseam and just take this little antidote of some nice red wine," says panel member and co-author Edward A. Fisher, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and director of lipoprotein research at the Cardiovascular Institute at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. The recommendations are published in the Jan. 23 issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
The panel members, who reviewed the evidence for the reputed association between moderate wine consumption and prevention of heart disease and stroke, say that lifestyle factors other than wine consumption -- such as diets high in fish, fruits, and vegetables and low in dairy -- could account for the healthy hearts of those who report drinking wine.
And while the positive side of the ledger for red wine lists the possibilities of reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke, they are balanced on the negative side by risks associated with drinking any kind of alcohol, including car accidents and other forms of trauma, increased breast cancer risk, elevated blood pressure, and increased risk for stroke due to bleeding in the brain, the panelists note.
They also acknowledge that while there is indeed evidence to support the notion that wine has an antiblood clotting effect and can raise blood levels of "good" cholesterol, the same could be said for nonalcoholic sources. "If the antioxidant effect that's in wine is coming from the grapes themselves -- and studies have shown that grape juice has the same effect in laboratory studies on [blood cell clotting] as wine does -- you don't need to have the alcohol with the antioxidants in order to get what's extracted from the grapes," Fisher tells WebMD.
Heart Association Advises Docs to Downplay Alcohol's Benefits
Jan. 22, 2001 -- Those killjoys at the American Heart Association have done it again: an AHA science advisory panel recommends that doctors soft-pedal the possible but unproven heart benefits of red wine in favor of the tried and true, but much less appealing steps of diet and exercise.
"What the advisory says is that there are clearly benefits from a moderate intake of alcohol, but it's not like there is a special benefit, the so-called 'French Paradox,' where you can eat foie gras ad nauseam and just take this little antidote of some nice red wine," says panel member and co-author Edward A. Fisher, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and director of lipoprotein research at the Cardiovascular Institute at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. The recommendations are published in the Jan. 23 issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
The panel members, who reviewed the evidence for the reputed association between moderate wine consumption and prevention of heart disease and stroke, say that lifestyle factors other than wine consumption -- such as diets high in fish, fruits, and vegetables and low in dairy -- could account for the healthy hearts of those who report drinking wine.
And while the positive side of the ledger for red wine lists the possibilities of reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke, they are balanced on the negative side by risks associated with drinking any kind of alcohol, including car accidents and other forms of trauma, increased breast cancer risk, elevated blood pressure, and increased risk for stroke due to bleeding in the brain, the panelists note.
They also acknowledge that while there is indeed evidence to support the notion that wine has an antiblood clotting effect and can raise blood levels of "good" cholesterol, the same could be said for nonalcoholic sources. "If the antioxidant effect that's in wine is coming from the grapes themselves -- and studies have shown that grape juice has the same effect in laboratory studies on [blood cell clotting] as wine does -- you don't need to have the alcohol with the antioxidants in order to get what's extracted from the grapes," Fisher tells WebMD.
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