When it comes to the relationship between good health and wine drinking, the proverbial cat has been out of the bag for not just years but decades. It was originally postulated when people in the late 20th Century noticed that the French suffer a lower rate of heart disease than any other Western Country, and drew the obvious correlation between their consumption of wines and this health. Then, with the discovery of the important role that LDL and HDL cholesterol play in determining a person's chances of heart disease, science uncovered a clear connection between wine, alcohol, and the risk of heart disease. So the simple point is that middle-aged people who regularly consume one to two glasses of red wine a day, closer to eight to nine glasses a week for women, have a lower risk of heart disease and other heart problems than those who don't.
However, there has been a great deal of back and forth argument about how effective this preventative measure is and how exactly it works. The first point that many contemporary experts make is that consuming alcohol has its own risks, even when done in moderation, and the science isn't strong enough to suggest that everyone should pick up drinking wine if they aren't already likely to enjoy the beverage.
The first theory was that by raising HDL (high-density lipoproteins) levels - the more desirable cholesterol - and lowering LDL levels, red wine lowers blood pressure. While this remains essentially true, the effect has been documented and it is not strong enough to cause the benefits some argue red wine has. The next line of science suggested that this happens because certain antioxidants in wine have a positive effect on blood pressure. However, recent studies have shown that these polyphenols have no direct correlation with decreased blood pressure.
Some other proven benefits include decreasing plaque buildup in veins and arteries, thinning the blood, and flavonoids fighting free radicals to prevent cell damage including to the interior lining of veins. Recent studies even show that wine includes a cocktail of healthy, natural elements that also combine to reduce the severity of aging-related diseases such Alzheimer's, dementia, and even skin inelasticity. But the fact remains that every population the exhibits the kinds of characteristics that suggest a strong correlation between wine and improved health practice regular and moderated drinking with little to no binging. There is even some argument that this general area of benefits to health and longevity can be found in other populations that moderately consume various alcohols, not just wine.
Wine is unique in that its production introduces chemicals from the seeds, skin, and stems into the liquid. It seems that the substances contributed by this process that were first identified as being responsible for wine's health benefits may not be as important as was initially thought. But this just suggests that more research is necessary to identify exactly what it is about drinking wine that makes regular, moderate consumption so strongly correlated with a lower incidence of heart disease.
