The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism calls cholesterol "dynamic." It's constantly shifting and moving. Good cholesterol collects fat particles from your blood and carries it back to your liver to be disposed of. Bad cholesterol gathers fat particles from your liver and moves them to your blood, where they can build up in your arteries and form plaque. If you consume liquor, it can affect the good high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, cholesterol process.
HDL Cholesterol
Researchers discovered in the 1990s that in moderation, liquor can raise levels of good high-density lipoproteins in your blood. Ideally, HDL cholesterol contributes up to 30 percent of your total cholesterol count. The 1999 research by Eric B. Rimm and colleagues at Harvard Medical School showed that two drinks a day increased HDL levels by about 4.0 mg/dL. Researchers at The Rockefeller University confirmed in 2000 that liquor can increase HDL cholesterol and improve its ability to gather up fat particles, as did researchers in the Netherlands in 2004.
Triglycerides
Although liquor can raise good cholesterol, drinking also increases triglycerides in your blood. This occurs in an immediate spike, so physicians will warn you not to drink within 24 hours of having your cholesterol checked. Fat is stored in triglycerides and when they link up with your LDL cholesterol, they can combine to clog your arteries.
LDL Cholesterol
The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute indicates that liquor does not seem to lower the levels of bad LDL cholesterol in your blood, which typically makes up between 60 and 70 percent of your total cholesterol count. According to The Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide, cholesterol includes more than one form of the bad kind, although LDL is the predominant kind.
Tips
The American Heart Association advises against drinking liquor to raise your HDL-C levels, pointing out that the increase is not so significant that getting adequate exercise can't replicate it. Exercise also lifts HDL-C levels. Niacin supplements prescribed by your physician can potentially raise your HDL-C count even higher than alcohol does. The antioxidant resveratrol contained in wines can help prevent the formation of blood clots, however, because it reduces the ability of platelets to stick together. So in tandem, alcohol in moderate amounts can have some impact on factors that contribute to strokes and heart attacks.
References
- American Heart Association: Alcohol, Wine and Cardiovascular Disease; 2011
- The Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide: Making Sense of Cholesterol Tests
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; Alcohol's Effects on the Risk for Coronary Heart Disease; Kenneth J. Mukamal and Eric B. Rimm
- Cardiac Support Group: Lipids and Cholesterol Explained; Dr. Guy Lloyd
- Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research; Effect of Moderate Alcohol Consumption on Parameters of Reverse Cholesterol Transport in Postmenopausal Women; Aafje Sierksma, et al.; April 2004
- American Heart Association Clinical Investigations and Report; Alcohol Consumption Raises HDL Cholesterol Levels by Increasing the Transport Rate of Apolipoproteins A-I and A-II; Elizabeth R. De Oliveira e Silva, et al.; 2000
