Red wine and resveratrol: Good for your heart?

Red wine and something in red wine called resveratrol might be heart healthy. Learn the facts, and hype, regarding red wine and its impact on your heart.

Red wine has long been touted as heart healthy. Some have suggested that the apparent health benefits of red wine, namely reducing your risk of heart disease, are behind the so-called French paradox. The French are regular drinkers of red wine and have relatively high amounts of saturated fat in their diet. Despite this fat intake, the French have lower rates of heart disease.

While the news about red wine might sound great if you enjoy a glass of red wine with your evening meal, doctors are wary of encouraging anyone to drink alcohol because too much alcohol can have a host of harmful effects on your body.

But despite the caution, doctors do agree that something in red wine appears to help your heart, though it's unclear just exactly what that "something" is. Recent research has indicated a substance called resveratrol, which is found in the skin and seeds of grapes used to make wine, has promising heart-healthy benefits.

Resveratrol isn't the only substance in red wine that looks promising. The alcohol in red wine also appears to be heart healthy. Understand what's known — and not known — about red wine and its possible heart-health benefits.

How does alcohol help the heart?

Various studies have indicated that moderate amounts of all types of alcohol benefit your heart, not just alcohol found in red wine. Some heart-healthy benefits of alcohol include:

• Raises high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the "good" cholesterol
• Inhibits the formation of blood clots
• Helps prevent artery damage caused by high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the "bad" cholesterol

Is red wine better?

Red wine in particular seems to have even more heart-health benefits than other types of alcohol, according to a large Danish study from 2000. The study, known as the Copenhagen City Heart Study, found that those who drank red wine had about half the risk of dying of heart disease as those who didn't.

Additional studies have given mixed results — some confirming the Danish finding, others showing red wine isn't any better than beer, white wine or liquor for heart health. As a result, the American Heart Association says there's no clear evidence yet that red wine is superior to other forms of alcohol when it comes to possible heart-health benefits.

The pro-red wine studies suggest antioxidants in red wine called polyphenols help protect the lining of blood vessels in your heart. These antioxidants come in two main forms: flavonoids and nonflavonoids.

• Flavonoids. These antioxidants are found in a variety of foods, including oranges, apples, onions, tea and cocoa. Other types of alcohol, such as white wine and beer, contain small amounts, too, but red wine has higher levels.
• Nonflavonoids. These antioxidants found in red wine have recently been of particular interest because they appear to help prevent arteries from becoming clogged with fatty blockages. However, these studies mostly involved mice — not humans. Resveratrol is the nonflavonoid that researchers are most interested in.

Resveratrol in red wine

Some researchers believe that resveratrol might be the key ingredient in red wine that helps prevent damage to blood vessels, reduces "bad" cholesterol and prevents blood clots.

Research in mice given resveratrol has indicated that the antioxidant might also help protect them from obesity and diabetes, both of which are strong risk factors for heart disease. However, those findings were reported only in mice, not in people. In addition, to achieve the dose of resveratrol used in the mice studies, a person would have to consume 100 to 1,000 bottles of red wine a day.

Some companies sell supplements containing resveratrol. However, doctors caution that not enough is known about resveratrol's effects to endorse resveratrol supplements. Research into the potential heart-health benefits of resveratrol is continuing.

Resveratrol in grapes and other foods

The resveratrol in red wine comes from the skin of grapes used to make wine. Because red wine is fermented with grape skins longer than is white wine, red wine contains more resveratrol. Simply eating grapes, or drinking grape juice, has been suggested as one way to get resveratrol without drinking alcohol. Some studies have suggested that red and purple grape juices have some of the same heart-healthy benefits of red wine.

Other foods that contain some resveratrol include peanuts, blueberries and cranberries. It's not yet known how beneficial eating grapes or other foods might be compared with drinking red wine when it comes to promoting heart health. The amount of resveratrol in food and red wine can vary widely.

Drink in moderation — or not at all

Red wine's potential heart-health benefits look promising. Those who drink moderate amounts of alcohol, including red wine, seem to have a lower risk of heart disease. However, more research is needed before we know whether red wine is better for your heart than are other forms of alcohol, such as beer or spirits.

The American Heart Association doesn't recommend that you start drinking alcohol just to prevent heart disease. Alcohol can be addictive. Too much increases your risk of high blood pressure, high triglycerides, liver damage, obesity, certain types of cancer, accidents and other problems. In addition, even small amounts of alcohol can cause cardiomyopathy — weakened heart muscle — and heart failure in some people. If you have heart failure or a weak heart you should avoid alcohol completely.

If you already drink red wine, do so in moderation. Moderate drinking is defined as an average of two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women.

• A drink is defined as 12 ounces (oz.) of beer, 5 oz. of wine or 1.5 oz. of 80-proof distilled spirits.

The limit for men is higher because men generally weigh more and have more of an enzyme that metabolizes alcohol than women do.