Red wine’s heartfelt benefits still inconclusive

A glass of red wine a day may not actually keep the doctor away, according to a study by Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Researchers there have found that a widely held belief linking low amounts of alcohol consumption with heart disease prevention is still inconclusive.

Even worse, enjoying your favourite beverage may be detrimental to fighting other diseases, including several cancers, says the review, which looked at 44 international studies dating back over the last 20 years.

“Basically, the take-away point is: if you want to do something good for your health stop smoking, take a little walk, go to the gym,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Juergen Rehm, on Monday. “Alcohol is not the best way.”

Rehm, the centre’s director of social and epidemiological research, decided to launch the review to see if there was any truth behind the theory whether seemingly low rates of heart disease in France can be explained by the country’s love for wine. His finding: It can’t. In the analysis, researchers examined 38,627 incidents related to heart disease (including deaths) involving 957,684 people in Canada, the U.S., Asia, and South America.

What they found was a “huge variability” in the results.

“Our conclusion is not that there’s no protective effect of alcohol on the heart, but that the amount of this effect is still pretty shaky,” said Rehm.