Drinking a bottle of wine a day can cut heart disease risks
A controversial new study has revealed drinking up to a bottle of wine every day reduces the risk in developing heart disease in men by 50 per cent.
The study has shown that low levels of alcohol protect against heart disease but also found that high level of consumption still reduced the risk of developing the condition.
However experts cautioned that the protective effects against heart disease did not rise given the more people drank, but the risk of cancer, accidents, mental health problems and liver cirrhosis do increase with higher consumption.
The study, published in the journal Heart, was undertaken in Spain, one of the world’s biggest producers of wine, but with one of the lowest rates of death from heart disease in the world.
The results showed that the protective effect did not increase significantly with the more people drank and those with the highest consumption, 11 units or more, equivalent to a bottle of red wine a day, still had 50 per cent lower chance of heart disease.
The study was conducted by a team of epidemiologists and doctors at Government departments and Universities across Spain, and involved questioning over 41,000 people aged between 29 and 69, who did not have heart disease when they enrolled and who were followed up for an average of ten years.
Director of the centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University, Professor Mark Bellis, said that the message from the study is that the coronary protective effort of alcohol begins and low levels and does not increase the more people drink.
He went on to warn that the study could be interpreted that there were no health harms from drinking large amount of alcohol, as a further 40 different diseases and the risk of accidents increases with high consumption of alcohol, particularly cancers.