Reducing Mortality: Is Wine or Beer Better?

The lower risk
of mortality from coronary artery disease in Mediterranean countries
is often attributed to wine drinking. To examine whether wine or
other alcohol consumption reduces the hypertension-related risk
of death, researchers conducted a prospective cohort study in France
using questionnaire and medical exam data from 36,583 healthy men
aged 30–59 who were followed for 13–21 years. Key findings
from analyses adjusted for potential confounders (e.g., age, cholesterol
level, smoking) include the following:

• For
  3 of 4 quartiles of systolic blood pressure (means 116 mm Hg,
  139 mm Hg, and 158 mm Hg, but not mean 129 mm Hg), moderate
  wine drinkers (those who consumed <60 g of alcohol from
  wine per day and no beer) had a significantly lower risk of
  death from all causes (relative risks, RR, from 0.63 to 0.77)
  than did abstainers.
• Those
  who consumed both beer and wine, and those who consumed >=60
  g of alcohol from wine per day did not experience a significant
  reduction in risk of death from all causes.

Comments:

This
is a very large study with excellent ascertainment of cause
of death among men in eastern France where both beer and wine are commonly
consumed, and lifestyle characteristics of wine drinkers and beer drinkers
are similar. Although wine’s alcohol content may lead to increases
in blood pressure, some of its polyphenols or other non-alcoholic components
may help protect against death. Such protection is lost when drinkers
consume greater amounts of wine or when some of their alcohol intake
is from beer.

R.
Curtis Ellison, MD

Reference:

Renaud
SC, Guéguen R, Conard P, et al. Moderate wine drinkers
have lower hypertension-related mortality: a prospective
cohort study in French men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004;80(3):621–625.
(view
abstract)