Want a healthy heart? Drink wine and exercise

02/09/2014

You must have heard a few health benefits of drinking wine but did you know it can protect you against heart disease? All you need to do is mix daily exercise to it.
According to a new study presented by Milos Taborsky from the Czech Republic told the gathering at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2014 in Barcelona, Spain moderate drinking has protective effects in those who exercised regularly. Further, they also mentioned that wine and red wine both had similar effect on heart health.
For the study, researchers included 146 people having mild to moderate risk of heart disease. They were randomly assigned to moderately drink red wine (Pinot Noir) or white wine (Chardonnay-Pinot) for a year. Results showed that there was no difference between HDL cholesterol levels at the beginning of the study. After a year, the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL)- ‘bad cholesterol’ – cholesterol had reduced in both the groups while the total cholesterol level had reduced only in the group assigned to drink red wine.
According to professor Taborsky, increase in HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) is the main indicator of a protective effect against heart disease, which lead to the conclusion that red or white wine had any impact on heart health of the participants as a whole.
Further, the only positive and continuous result was observed in the sub-group of patients who performed coupled moderate wine drinking with regular exercise at least twice a week.
Here are some more health benefits of wine
May help you live longer and healthier
Death is a certainty in life. Yet, people want to slow down the ageing process as much as possible. Researchers have found that a compound contained in red wine called resveratrol helps you live longer! The study administered resveratrol to bees. After administration, the bees showed a decrease in food intake and showed a tendency to live longer.
Can prevent hearing loss
Not only does reseveratrol present in wine help increase longevity, it also helps prevent hearing loss. In a study conducted by the Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, healthy rats administered resveratrol were less likely to suffer noise-induced hearing loss for a long period of time.
Can help prevent osteosporosis
One or two glasses of red wine a day could help as much as medicines to protect older women from osteoporosis or thinning of bones.
According to a study published in the journal Menopause, researchers found that women who drank 19 g of alcohol a day – about two small glasses of wine – had a drop in loss of old bone. Alcohol appears to remedy the imbalance between the dissolving of old bone and poor production of new bone that can lead to osteoporosis in older women.

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