Last Updated Oct 14, 2015 7:10 AM EDT
A glass of red wine each evening with dinner may offer heart health perks to
people with type 2 diabetes.
A
two-year study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine is the
first long-term study aimed at assessing the effects and safety of
drinking moderate amounts of alcohol in people with type 2 diabetes, who
are more at risk for developing cardiovascular disease than the general
population. Those with type 2 diabetes also tend to have lower levels
of HDL, the "good" cholesterol.
The researchers from Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev reported that over two years, red wine helped
improve signs of cardiac health by modestly increasing levels of HDL
cholesterol and lowering overall cholesterol.
The randomized controlled intervention trial involved 224 controlled
diabetes patients
aged 45 to 75, who generally abstained from alcohol. The patients were
randomly assigned to drink 5 ounces of red wine, white wine, or mineral
water (the control group) with their dinner for two years. They were all
given instructions to follow a well-balanced
Mediterranean diet plan that did not have a calorie restriction.
The
researchers performed genetic tests that showed how quickly the
patients metabolized alcohol, as well as various lipid (cholesterol)
tests. They also measured glucose control, blood pressure, liver
function tests, medication use, and other symptoms at several time
points during the two-year follow-up.
Compared with the group that
drank water, patients in the red wine group had improvements in their
lipid tests, the study showed. "
Red wine
was found to be superior in improving overall metabolic profiles,
mainly by modestly improving the lipid profile, by increasing good HDL
cholesterol and apolipoprotein A1, one of the major constituents of HDL
cholesterol, while decreasing the ratio between total cholesterol and
HDL cholesterol," the researchers explained.
Also, in both wine
groups, patients who were "slow alcohol metabolizers" (according to the
genetic tests) showed more improvements in glucose control tests than
"fast alcohol metabolizers." Compared with water, wine did not increase
or decrease blood pressure or liver function tests.
The study
authors noted that in both red and white wine drinkers, sleep quality
was significantly improved, too, compared with the water control group.
Iris
Shai, principal investigator of the trial, and a member of the
Department of Public Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences, said in a
press statement, "The differences found between red and white wine were
opposed to our original hypothesis that the beneficial effects of wine
are mediated predominantly by the alcohol."
So, how much can
people with type 2 diabetes sip at dinner without going over the top?
"One to two glasses of red wine for men and up to one glass of red wine
for women, daily, at dinner," was the amount indicated by the study, Dr.
Minisha Sood, an endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital, told CBS News.
Sood
said researchers have known for some time that moderate amounts of
alcohol are acceptable for diabetics, but the jury was out on which kind
of alcohol might offer the most benefit.
Sood said of red wine's health-enhancing ingredients: "It's the non-ethanol
components of the wine, which are present more so in red wine. It's the phenols, it's the
resveratrol, it's the tannins. They all work together with the ethanol possibly to result in these positive changes."
While
the study shows benefits, Dr. Susan Spratt, an endocrinologist and
assistant professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine,
said, "I worry about the subset of my type 2 diabetes patients who drink
too much, and that this may give them more ammunition to say alcohol is
good for diabetes. Over-drinking can poison the pancreas. In these
patients, when they stop drinking, their diabetes gets tremendously
better."
Spratt also told CBS News that in the South, where she
lives, many people abstain from drinking for religious reasons. She
said, "Here in the South, it would not be something I would generally
recommend. I would not say, 'Now you should start drinking wine.' I
wouldn't tell someone to start drinking, but if I knew a type 2 diabetes
patient was a moderate drinker, I would tell them it looks like red
wine is the best choice out of all alcohols to drink, rather than white
wine, beer, or hard liquor."
Spratt also noted that the study did not look at cardiovascular outcomes such as heart attack and stroke.
For
51-year-old Garret Rubin, who said he has to watch out for everything
-- fats, salt, sugar -- in his diet since being diagnosed with type 2
diabetes, the study is a positive note.
Rubin said
diet,
exercise and medication will remain his first line of defense, but he
told CBS News, "Now, since I have a choice, I think red wine might be
the thing."
Editor's note: In an earlier version of this
article, Dr. Sood said red wine decreased development of heart disease,
but that was not found in the study. The research only looked at risk
factors like cholesterol levels, not whether patients actually developed
heart disease.
