While most people now know that some amount of alcohol consumption is good for the heart, there remains some confusion about what kind of alcohol beverage is best for your heart and about how much should be consumed. A recent review of studies examining the association between alcohol consumption and its effects on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality helps clarify what kind of drinking patterns are heart healthy.

Researchers in the Netherlands reviewed dozens of studies focused on alcohol consumption and cardiovascular health and published their findings in the December 2008 edition of The Netherlands Journal of Medicine. A primary focus of their review was to examine whether wine -- particularly red wine, is the more heart healthy beverage compared to white wine or other alcoholic beverages. The hypothesis that red wine is the healthier alcohol choice -- an idea that in many western societies, has trickled from the scientific literature to lay culture, was first observed in studies that compared countries with respect to mortality from cardiovascular heart disease. These initial studies found that despite diets high in saturated fats, people in France had a significantly lower mortality rate from coronary heart disease than Northern European countries.

The initial findings showing a lower rate of mortality from coronary heart disease among the French became known as the French paradox -- a paradox that has been debated for years now -- in part because of the way that the press initially interpreted the results of these studies. While researchers explained these results by focusing on a number of ingredients of the Mediterranean diet -- of which red wine was one of the many components, the lay press focused on red wine as the most significant buffer against coronary heart disease.

Many have explained the buffering effect of red wine on cardiovascular health as being due to the presence of certain chemicals in red wine - particularly types of polyphenols called flavonoids. Flavonoids are compounds found in fruits and vegetables that are thought to have diverse beneficial biochemical and antioxidant effects. While this explanation has taken root within the non-scientific community, it has not been proven in well designed studies. In fact, as the researchers from the Netherlands point out, "no significant bioactive effect of wine polyphenols has been shown in humans so far".

What has born out consistently in the scientific literature is a broader association between moderate alcohol consumption and better cardiovascular health. Several studies have shown that moderate alcohol consumption (generally defined as no more than one drink per day for women and one to two drinks per day for men) is associated with a 20 to 40% reduced incidence of morbidity and mortality from coronary heart disease. Reasons for this buffering from alcohol may be been explained by the observed positive effects of alcohol on platelet function, inflammation, oxidative stress, gene expression and other biologic processes involved in cardiac function. These findings have been shown in studies looking at various beverages including red and white wine, beer, and hard alcohol.

This story is part of the Living the Science series focused on chemicals and cardiovascular health which is being published in honor of American Heart Month which is sponsored and organized by the American Heart Association. The series is being published for two weeks beginning on February 6th (National Go Red for Women Day).

Other segments in the series: Heart Disease and Bisphenol A: Ditching the Plastics in Honor of National Go Red for Women Day.

The Living the Science Clean & Green Marketplace includes hundreds of products including organic food and infant formula as well as thousands of other non-toxic alternatives to most everyday products.