A Cardiologist’s Perspective on
Wine and Health

Wine Philosophy   |   Dr. Madaiah Revana   |   A Cardiologist’s Perspective on Wine and Health

As a cardiologist with an active practice, I treat many people whose heart disease might have been prevented through lifestyle changes. If they had eaten more wisely, exercised more or learned to manage stress better, my patients might have avoided, or at least postponed, some serious medical problems. 

Cardiologists also know, from numerous studies, that moderate daily wine consumption can be good for the heart. Although I am reluctant to recommend wine drinking to patients who don’t drink and don’t care to start, I am convinced by the medical evidence that a glass or two of wine a day—especially red wine—provides significant health benefits. And not just for the heart.

Many studies show that moderate drinkers benefit whether they consume wine, beer or spirits. Ethanol helps raise levels of HDL, the so-called “good cholesterol,” and helps reduce the blood clots that can lead to heart attack and stroke. But over the years, research has suggested that red wine confers special protection. Scientists don’t entirely understand the “how,” but they have some promising theories:

Unlike white wine, beer or spirits, red wine has high levels of certain phytochemicals that work as antioxidants. Tannin is one of these compounds, and its antioxidant activity explains why tannic red wines age so slowly. Oxidation plays a role in human aging, too. The oxidation of LDL (low-density lipoproteins, the “bad cholesterol”) leads to plaque deposits in arteries (atherosclerosis), a warning sign for heart attack and stroke. If polyphenols like tannin can slow or prevent that oxidation, and it appears that they do, they can reduce the rate of coronary heart disease.

Red wine also contains pigments, known as anthocyanins, not present in white wine, beer or spirits. These anthocyanins help keep blood platelets from aggregating and causing the clots that produce heart attack and stroke.

With all the good news about “moderate wine consumption,” it behooves us to know what that phrase means. What is moderate for a 200-pound man may be too much for a petite, 100-pound woman. We all vary in our ability to process alcohol, and women typically have less of the enzyme that breaks down alcohol than men do. Based on current research, many medical professionals would support the U.S. government’s definition of moderate wine consumption as two glasses a day for men and one glass a day for women.

Of course there are people who shouldn’t drink at all. People with weakened heart muscles from advanced coronary disease should avoid alcohol. And if you know or fear that you can’t control your alcohol consumption, abstinence makes sense. Alcoholism is a serious illness with serious consequences.

I grew up on a farm in India and never touched alcohol until my early 20s. But I have come to believe that moderate wine consumption, in the proper setting, can be a healthful and medically defensible daily pleasure. Louis Pasteur, the eminent scientist, said that wine is the most hygienic of drinks. My own habit is to drink wine daily, with dinner, and almost always in the company of family or friends. From my perspective as a cardiologist, wine is one of nature’s most welcome and wholesome of gifts when enjoyed in moderation at the table.