Alcohol drinking and cardiac risk

Abstract

The present paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature pertaining to the impact of alcohol intake on cardiovascular disease. Both cross-sectional and prospective studies have disclosed a negative association between moderate intake of alcoholic beverages and cardiovascular disease. The relationship appears to be present for both wine, beer and spirits. Effects of alcohol itself and also the role of different cardioprotective substances in alcoholic beverages are discussed. Alcohol has been suggested to beneficially affect the blood lipid profile, as it increases plasma HDL-cholesterol level. Furthermore, it may inhibit thrombogenesis by reducing thromboxan formation and decreasing the plasma level of fibrinogen. However, high blood concentrations of alcohol may impair fibrinolysis by increasing plasma plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 level. This action could contribute to explaining the 'U'-shaped association between alcohol intake and cardiac events. Alcohol seems to promote abdominal fat distribution, but the importance of this effect in non-obese individuals is uncertain. Wine in particular, but also beer, contains polyphenols which act as antioxidants. Their action could maintain the integrity of the endothelial function by reducing the formation of superoxide. Moreover, these antioxidants may protect against LDL oxidation and modulate the macrophage attack on the endothelium. Although the cardio-protective effect of alcohol can hardly be addressed in healthy individuals by intervention studies with hard end points, there are many observational and experimental findings indicating that moderate alcohol drinking possesses properties preventive of cardiovascular disease.

Plasma circulating fibrinogen stability and moderate beer consumption

“…Also, these results correspond with others [3]. However, the decrease in the level of PCF was not significant and, therefore we cannot support the claims of others who have found a significant decrease in plasma fibrinogen in alcohol consuming laboratory animals and humans [27][28][29][30]. This discrepancy could be explained by the short-term beer consumption of our patients and by the quantity of the consuming beer (330 mL).…”

The influence of beer with different antioxidant potential on plasma lipids, plasma antioxidant capacity, and bile excretion of rats fed cholesterol-containing and cholesterol-free diets

“…The cardioprotective role of alcoholic beverages in general and of beer in particular has been widely described [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. In our previous reports based on the results of experiments on laboratory animals [8,9] and investigations on patients with heart disease [10,11], we came to the conclusion that moderate beer consumption improves plasma lipid levels and increases plasma antioxidant and plasma anticoagulant activities.…”

Bioactivity of beer and its influence on human metabolism

“…Moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages leads to improved lipid metabolism and to increased antioxidant and anticoagulant activity (Gorinstein et al 1997;Buemann et al 2002) on the basis of beer polyphenols, which act as antioxidants.…”