Wine incidents

1996/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

According to a report by the World Health Organization, "alcohol causes dependence, cancer and chronic liver diseases, accidents (both road and home), suicides, violence, criminality, etc. facilitates and drives". In addition to what is indicated by the WHO, we know that alcohol increases vasculocerebral accidents (especially those produced in small cerebral arteries), increases blood pressure figures and causes the degeneration of the central nervous system. All of these are indisputable data today, at least in the light of scientific knowledge.

But it is equally true that in moderate measure alcohol increases the levels of HDL cholesterol in blood (good, i.e. protective, cholesterol), and phenolic derivatives of black wine have demonstrated their "in vitro" and even "in vivo" arteriosclerotic effect. In addition, moderate alcohol consumption has been shown to reduce the possibility of coronary thrombosis.

In addition to these data obtained in different studies, the favorable clinical effect of alcohol on coronary disease has been endorsed by the results of numerous clinical studies. As indicated by methodologically conducted studies without errors (whose conclusions have been published in the most prestigious medical journals), coronary problems (angina pectoris and myocardial infarction) in people who drink wine in moderation are reduced by 30-40%. And based on this fact, we wanted to explain why in a country like France, where the consumption of saturated fats is much higher than in other territories, the rate of coronary heart disease is much lower than theoretically it should have.

So, after seeing all of the above, what to say? Is there any contradiction between the opinion of WHO experts and that of cardiologists? Or in other words, is wine good or bad? Without demagogy, and in general, it can be said that alcohol is neither good nor bad in itself for health. The only permissible simplification is that alcohol is good for coronary disease, but bad for other diseases. It must be said, however, that coronary artery disease has a special epidemiological relevance in Western societies such as ours.

From a preventive point of view, recommendations and advice should be made individually in this case. The influence of wine (and alcohol in general), both positive and negative, will be very different if a person has any coronary disease or other disease. Thus, people with demonstrated coronary artery disease who are highly likely to have such a disease may be advised to drink red wine in moderation, provided they have no specific contraindications. But hypertentative people (especially if they do not get proper control in their numbers), diabetics, obese or pregnant women who do not drink any wine should be recommended.