Drinking up to a bottle of wine a day cuts the risk of developing heart disease in men by half, controversial new research has found.
The study has confirmed that low levels of alcohol protect against heart disease but it also found that high levels of consumption still reduced the risk of developing the condition.
Experts warned that the protective effect against heart disease did not get bigger the more people drank but the risk of cancer, accidents, mental health problems and liver cirrhosis do increase with high consumption.
Others said the study was ‘flawed’.
The study, published in the journal Heart, was conducted in Spain, one of the world’s largest producers of wine but with one of the lowest death rates from heart disease.
The authors found that drinking between five and 30 grams of alcohol a day, the equivalent to less than one UK unit to almost four units or up to one large glass of red wine, reduced the risk of developing heart disease by half.
The protective effect did not increase significantly the more people drank and those with the highest consumption,11 units or more – the equivalent to over one bottle of red wine a day – still had a 50 per cent lower chance of heart disease.
The effects were seen for all forms of alcohol and were not limited to red wine, which previous research has suggested was especially protective for the heart because of substances in the skins of red grapes.
The results were women followed a similar trend but were not significant because of relatively few women in the study developing heart disease so the data could not be relied upon to be accurate.
