I also pointed out that cancer is only the No.2 cause of deaths, whereas No. 1 is heart disease, as shown in the first figure below (from Leading causes of death in the US, 2019—2023). Indeed, the WHO Cardiovascular diseases 2023 reports an estimated 17.9 million deaths each year, making up 32% of total global fatalities.
So, the thing we should be most interested in is what is known technically as Cardiovascular Disease, the No. 1 cause of deaths in the USA for many years. That is what I will do in this post, noting that it also is fairly safe as far as wine is concerned.
I will proceed in the same manner as last time. As before, it is important to first note that wine is not the same as other forms of alcohol intake, especially in terms of the medical effects. Then we can proceed to look at a recent research publication (17 June 2023) that compiled the results from 25 medical research studies concerning the effects of wine on people in relation to heart disease (Association between wine consumption with cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis). This has made it clear that heart disease is not often associated with wine intake, as opposed to other forms of alcohol or other health issues.
So, this publication (Nutrients 2023, 15:2785) was based on a search of the medical literature, in which 7 suitable studies were found from the 1980s/90s and 18 from the 2000s. The studies were from nine countries, including Australia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The study looked separately at cardiovascular mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and coronary heart disease (CHD).
The detailed summary of the publication is this:
Background: The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was: (i) to examine the association between wine consumption and cardiovascular mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and coronary heart disease (CHD), and (ii) to analyse whether this association could be influenced by personal and study factors, including the participants’ mean age, the percentage of female subjects, follow-up time and percentage of current smokers.
Methods: In order to conduct this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched several databases for longitudinal studies from their inception to March 2023. This study was previously registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021293568).
Results: This systematic review included 25 studies, of which the meta-analysis included 22 studies. The pooled RR [Relative Risk] for the association of wine consumption and the risk of CHD using the DerSimonian and Laird approach was 0.76 (95% CIs: 0.69, 0.84), for the risk of CVD was 0.83 (95% CIs: 0.70, 0.98), and for the risk of cardiovascular mortality was 0.73 (95% CIs: 0.59, 0.90).
Conclusions: This research revealed that wine consumption has an inverse relationship to cardiovascular mortality, CVD, and CHD. Age, the proportion of women in the samples, and follow-up time did not influence this association. Interpreting these findings with prudence was necessary because increasing wine intake might be harmful to individuals who are vulnerable to alcohol because of age, medication, or their pathologies.
The situation is now quite clear. Wine is no more dangerous for increasing the risk of heart disease than it is for increasing the risk of cancer. It is worth also noting that a more recent, much smaller, set of medical data (Urinary tartaric acid as a biomarker of wine consumption and cardiovascular risk: the PREDIMED trial) suggests that “∼3–12 and 12–35 glasses/month of wine, were associated with lower CVD risk [HR 0.62 (95% CI 0.38; 1.00), P=.050 and HR 0.50 (95% CI 0.27; 0.95), P=.035, respectively].” This reduction in risk has previously been reported in the generalist literature (New evidence on the relationship between moderate wine consumption and cardiovascular health).
The WHO stated attitude in their 2023 publication in The Lancet that: “no safe amount of alcohol consumption for cancers and health can be established” (Health and cancer risks associated with low levels of alcohol consumption) is therefore even more mysterious than I noted last week, flying as it does in the face of two sets of comprehensive medical evidence.
Mitch Frank, editor of Wine Spectator, thinks that this “is part of a movement trying to paint all alcohol as dangerous by making broad, oversimplified claims”(Cherry-picked science? the confusing narrative around wine and health). In that same article, wine writer Dave McIntyre says that the current anti-alcohol movement, which in his recent coverage he dubs The New Prohibition, is trying to shift consumer messaging away from drinking responsibly to not drinking at all. Frank also calls attention to a major new scientific report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) (National Academies publishes findings on alcohol and health) which found that moderate drinking is linked to lower death rates compared to not drinking at all. This finding is expected to help shape U.S. dietary guidelines for 2025–2030.
