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Alcohol and cholesterol

In a world where it seems that you need to give up all your pleasures in order to remain healthy, the fact that a moderate consumption of alcohol can actually be beneficial to you is good news. In actual fact, it is not news at all - the first scientific study to show that moderate drinkers exhibit greater longevity than non-drinkers or heavy drinkers was published in 1926. Hundreds of studies have followed since.

French Paradox 

It has long been known that the incidence of death from coronary heart disease (CHD) in France is half that of the USA, despite the amount of saturated fat in the diet being roughly the same. This is often called the French Paradox.

According to FAO data, in 2002, the average French person consumed 108 grams per day of animal fat,compared to 72 grams by the average American. The French eat four times as much butter, 60 percent more cheese and nearly three times as much pork. Although the French eat only slightly more total fat (171 g/d vs 157)than Americans, they eat much more saturated fat because Americans eat a much larger proportion of fat in the form of vegetable oil and most of that as soybean oil.

On the face of it, you would expect the French to have higher rates of CHD than the US, however according to data from 1999, rates of death from coronary heart disease among males between the ages of 35-74 was 230 per 100,000 people in the US but only 83 per 100,000 in France.

Red wine reduces risk of CHD

This paradox is often attributed to France's high red wine consumption. It is well known that there are anti-oxidants and other chemicals in red wine that reduce the risk of CHD.These include Resveratrol, Procyanidins and Saponins; resveratrol and procyanidins are believed to block cholesterol oxidation, saponins are believed to work by binding to and preventing the absorption of cholesterol.

Many of these substances are found in the skin of grapes (as well as other fruits and vegetables), which explains why red wine is more beneficial than white. White wine is made from grapes that have been peeled first.

Alcohol in moderation improves cholesterol levels 

However, it appears that it is not just these chemicals in red wine that are beneficial, but also the alcohol itself. Alcohol in moderation appears to reduce coronary fatalities by about 40% to 60%. Much research has been done on the mechanisms by which alcohol reduces coronary heart disease. Researchers have found that there is a direct link between alcohol and cholesterol - alcohol improves blood cholesterol ratio (increases HDL and reduces LDL), and also reduces clot formation and the risk of heart attack or stroke by making the blood platelets less sticky, reduces blood pressure, increases coronary blood flow, and reduces blood insulin levels.

One of the mechanisms which affect HDL levels appears to be that moderate alcohol intake is associated with enhanced insulin sensitivity and this improvement in sensitivity results in higher HDL cholesterol levels.

In fact, moderate drinkers are less prone to CHD than either non-drinkers or heavy drinkers. Moderate drinking is defined as 1 or 2 drinks a day for men, 1 a day for women, however, you cannot save up your daily allowance and have it all at the weekend.

A study (published in New England Journal of Medicine 2003) here of 38,077 male health professionals over a 12-year period showed that moderate drinkers were 30-35% less likely to have had a heart attack than non-drinkers. This reduction in risk was the same whether the men drank wine, beer, or spirits, and it made no difference whether they drank with meals or outside of meal time. The study suggests that the frequency of drinking may be important - those who drank every day had a lower risk of heart attack than those who drank once or twice a week.

If you do not already drink alcohol, the American Heart Association recommends that you do NOT start drinking alcohol to control cholesterol - the beneficial effects of raising HDL levels can also be achieved through exercising, not smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight. Excessive drinking can lead to alcoholism, high blood pressure, stroke, sudden cardiac death, obesity and suicide.

But for those of us who do drink alcohol in moderation, it is good to know that not only is it not bad for us, but it is actually beneficial and can reduce our chances of suffering from coronary heart disease, due to the connection between alcohol and cholesterol.

 

 

 

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