Study reveals that wine consumption has an inverse relationship to cardiovascular mortality
In a recent study published in the Nutrients Journal, researchers aimed to understand the association between wine consumption and cardiovascular mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and coronary heart disease (CHD).
Likewise, studies have shown a positive effect of wine intake on nonfatal CHD, and beer consumption poses a higher risk of a nonfatal stroke. Based on these observations, researchers have hypothesized that wine components might benefit health.
Since studies have never stratified these effects by the type of alcohol, perhaps, the researchers assumed thaut all alcoholic beverages had similar beneficial effects on cardiac health. However, there is a lack of scientific evidence of which alcoholic beverages could be less harmful to CVDs.
About the study
In the present study, researchers explored the association between the incidence of CVD, cardiovascular mortality, and CHD (all cardiovascular events) and wine consumption and attempted to elucidate its nature.
First, they compared the impact of wine on participants who consumed wine against those who did not. Additionally, they analyzed whether the study design characteristics and participant traits like age and smoking affected this association.
This systematic review and meta-analysis included studies with subjects older than 18. The exposure and outcome of included studies were wine consumption and cardiovascular events, respectively.
The team evaluated the risk of bias in cohort studies using the quality assessment tool devised by the United State's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. They used another similar tool to assess the risk of bias in the case–control studies.
Finally, two independent reviewers graded the cumulative risk of bias for each study - as good, fair, or poor; and found that the overall risk of bias for each included study was 100%.
In the meta-analysis, they included studies with a greater sample size. They computed the relative risk (RR) and odds ratios (OR) for the correlation between wine consumption and cardiovascular events and converted hazard ratios (HR) reported in some studies to RR. the researchers performed a systematic review and meta-analysis using longitudinal studies, including cohort and case-control studies retrieved from multiple databases, which they searched from their inception to March 2023.
Study: Association between Wine Consumption with Cardiovascular Disease and Cardiovascular Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Image Credit: Alefat/Shutterstock.com
Background
Cardiovascular diseases account for a high proportion of deaths on a global scale, with CVD-related deaths surging to nearly 18 million in 2017, in which ischemic heart disease (IHD) caused almost half of the deaths.
A previous meta-analysis suggested a J-shaped relationship between wine consumption and cardiovascular events and that moderate wine intake promoted better cardiovascular health.
A positive effect of wine on CVDs was first reported in 1979, wherein researchers also asserted that different wine components exert protective effects against pathologies, such as coronary heart diseases, CHD-associated mortality, and cancers, such as oral cancer.
Moreover, studies have suggested that de-alcoholized wines (in the absence of ethanol) are protective against thrombosis as they conserve antioxidant effects.
Light to moderate alcohol consumption positively affects general health; for instance, it acts on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol to prevent atherosclerosis, lowers the incidence of IHD, and helps with the prognosis of people at higher risk of coronary complications leading to myocardial infarction.
Excessive drinking, on the contrary, causes over 200 diseases, which makes it a leading cause of deaths globally, i.e., up to three million deaths annually. High-dose alcohol consumption also increases the risk of suicide, per psychiatrists.
Alcohol interacts with multiple drugs, altering its metabolism or its own. Decreased alcohol metabolism could lead to increased blood alcohol levels. For example, a component in wine, resveratrol, interacts with certain drugs and modifies their metabolism.
Polyphenols of the non-flavonoid family present in red wine, like tannins, provide multiple cardiovascular health benefits. It is also anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antimutagenic. Nonetheless, all cardiologist agrees that light to moderate alcohol consumption has a positive effect on cardiovascular health, whereas excessive alcohol drinking elevates the risk of CHD mortality, cancers, etc.
Mendelian randomization (MR) approaches analyzed the effects of alcohol consumption on CVDs from a genetic viewpoint and found a much-decreased risk of CHDs in carriers of the alcohol dehydrogenase 1B (ADH1B) gene when they consumed less alcohol.
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