If you're trying to reduce your cholesterol levels, drinking a glass of red wine certainly sounds more appetizing than downing a pill. Research dating back to the 1990s proves the benefit of moderate alcohol intake to protect your heart, reports Yale-New Haven Hospital. More recent research indicates that red wine has particular benefits that include lowering low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, the so-called "bad" cholesterol, and raising high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, the "good" cholesterol.
Function
Red wine contains several substances that appear to pack a punch against high cholesterol. It is high in antioxidants, substances that reduce cell damage by removing free radicals from the blood. Flavonoids, which reduce cholesterol levels and blood clot formation, comprise one group of beneficial antioxidants, while resveratrol, found in the skin of red grapes, makes up another. Most studies on resveratrol have been animal studies. The amount of red wine required to equal the doses given to animals to get the same from resveratrol would be between 100 and 1,000 bottles per day.
Benefits
Potential benefits of red wine, besides raising HDL and lowering LDL levels, include reducing blood clotting. Lowering LDL helps protect the heart, because high levels of LDL in your blood can increase plaque formation inside the artery walls. Plaque narrows the artery diameter, reducing blood flow through the arteries to the heart. High-density lipoprotein, on the other hand, benefits the heart by removing LDL from the bloodstream and taking it to the liver for elimination. Decreasing blood clot formation helps the heart and also helps prevent stroke; clots form at the site of plaque buildup, further narrowing the artery. Clots can break off and travel through the blood, lodging in arteries that lead to the brain, causing stroke.
Types
When researchers from the University of California at Davis tested various types of red wine to see which contained the highest amount of flavonoids, they found that dryer red wines had higher flavonoids content than sweeter wines. White wine, which ferments for a shorter time than red wine, contained fewer flavonoids. Nonalcoholic red wine may also have benefits, although not as much as alcoholic red wine.
Risks
Drinking alcohol is risky for people prone to alcoholic disease or pregnant women. Neither group should drink red wine to benefit their cholesterol. Limit red wine consumption to one to two glasses per day for men and one glass for women, with a 4-oz. glass equaling one serving. Drinking three or more alcoholic drinks per day can increase rather than decrease your heart disease risk, the American Heart Association warns. Alcohol can also increase the risk of bleeding in people who take aspirin or other blood thinners regularly.
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