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You may have heard that drinking alcohol can increase your good cholesterol, the HDL, and
help reduce your risk of heart disease. And it’s true. That’s good news. But there’s
cautions. You need to make sure that you consume alcohol in moderation and that’s defined
as a glass a day for ladies, two for men, and it doesn’t really matter whether it’s
spirits, wine or beer.
There might be a little advantage to drinking wine because it’s made from grapes and there
are some plant compounds like resveratrol in red wine that may be beneficial. But in
general the literature suggests that if you drink alcohol, and you drink it in small amounts
then it can be somewhat cardio-protective.
And cardio-protective by probably raising the HDL cholesterol which is the good cholesterol.
So it’s good for you but there are some cautions. The American Heart Association does
not recommend that if you’re a tea-totaler that you start drinking alcohol. Instead there
are other ways to improve your heart health – getting at a healthy weight, eating a
healthy diet, exercising regularly, those are benefits, they’re heart healthy benefits
and cardio-protective that certainly are good for you.
And there’s risks of drinking and cirrhosis of the liver and certain forms of cancer so
tread carefully in this area. Keep your alcohol consumption to a moderate amount and you can
get heart benefits and specifically, it can help your cholesterol.