One Drink Of Red Wine Or Alcohol Is Relaxing To Circulation, But Two Drinks Are Stressful

Ah yes … as a person that enjoys a Glenlivet and water or a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon or, on occasions when I’m porky pigging it, a glass of sassy Pinot Noir, I’m always curious about the latest study of the affect that alcohol has on my body. Why? Because depending on the weather, booze is either very, very good for you and will help you live to be 400 or it’ll kill you because you drank one to many, the wrong stuff or at the wrong time of day.

• One Drink Of Red Wine Or Alcohol Is Relaxing To Circulation, But Two Drinks Are Stressful - (ScienceDaily.com)

One drink of either red wine or alcohol slightly benefits the heart and blood vessels, but the positive effects on specific biological markers disappear with two drinks, say researchers at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre of the Toronto General Hospital.

Researchers conducted a real-time study of thirteen volunteers to determine whether a red wine with a verified high polyphenol content differs from alcohol in its effects on specific markers associated with a greater risk of high blood pressure, coronary artery disease and heart failure.

However, the findings of this study* showed virtually identical effects of red wine and alcohol on the specific markers tested. After one drink of either red wine or alcohol, blood vessels were more “relaxed” or dilated, which reduced the amount of work the heart had to do. But, after two drinks, the heart rate, amount of blood pumped out of the heart, and action of the sympathetic nervous system all increased. At the same time, the ability of the blood vessels to expand in response to an increase in blood flow diminished. This counteracted the beneficial effect of one drink of red wine or alcohol.

This makes sense. I’m no medical researcher, but from my own booze experiences, I’ve always found more booze is worse in almost every area.

“We had anticipated that many of the effects of one ethanol drink would be enhanced by red wine. What was most surprising was how similar the effects were of red wine and ethanol. Any benefits that we found were not specific to red wine,” said Dr. John Floras, Director of Cardiology Research at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, and at Mount Sinai Hospital, in whose laboratory the study was performed. However, Dr. Floras cautioned this study measured the effects of these drinks on one occasion only. The effects of daily wine or alcohol intake may be quite different.

One glass per day and not a drop more I guess. Until the next study at least. There’s a lot more to this article that I won’t quote here, but it’s well worth a read.

Related Reading:

• Drink a Day Can Lower Death Rate By 20 Percent - (The New York Times)
• Drinking Wine Or Beer Has Same Result: Higher Blood Pressure - (ScienceDaily.com)
• Is Alcohol Good For You? - (AskMen.com)
• Should You Drink Alcohol for Your Heart? - (Foundation of Wellness)
• One Alcoholic Drink Per Day Improves Cognitive Function Among Older Women - (Brigham And Women’s Hospital)