Medical professionals are challenging the widely held belief that red wine is beneficial to your health,  suggesting that any amount of alcohol consumption, red wine included, could lead to serious health hazards.

Recent findings emphasize that the evidence behind alcohol’s positive impact is far from robust. In an age where health information proliferates at an unprecedented rate, misleading correlations between red wine and heart well-being are now being dismantled by experts.

Dr. Leslie Cho, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, publicly stated that red wine does not confer heart-health benefits, insisting it’s time to discard this outdated perspective, the Daily Mail reports. Her comments echo the sentiments of many professionals who cite recent human and animal studies showing an increased risk of illnesses, cancer, and heart disease with alcohol intake.

Additionally, Harvard-affiliated internist Dr. Kenneth Mukamal has expressed skepticism over the supposed benefits of resveratrol supplements and highlighted the impracticality of consuming enough red wine to match the doses beneficial to mice in studies, wrote the Mail.

For years, red wine has been lauded for its supposed benefits to heart health, a claim deeply rooted in the French paradox — they’re mega-healthy, but drink lots of wine.

The long-standing theory posited that despite high consumption of saturated fats, French people exhibited lower rates of heart disease, possibly due to their regular intake of red wine. The idea was largely fueled by polyphenols like resveratrol in red wine, thought to protect heart vessels.

The initial interpretation of population data on wine consumption failed to account for various complicating factors, such as healthier lifestyle choices often made by red wine drinkers. This misinterpretation led many to assume erroneously that red wine played a direct role in enhancing health outcomes.

New findings suggest a different picture: moderate drinkers may appear healthier, not because of their red wine intake, but because among non-drinkers, many are abstinent due to prior health issues. 

Global health bodies like the World Health Organization unequivocally state that no alcohol level is safe. Dr. Carina Ferreira-Borges from the WHO stressed that risk increases with any amount of alcohol consumed and encouraged minimal drinking for safety.

Modern studies continue to associate alcohol with various health risks. Research published in 2023 linked increased alcohol consumption to higher blood pressure, a key factor in the development of heart disease. Further, even one glass of alcohol can raise the chance of atrial fibrillation, a type of heart arrhythmia.

• Washington Times Staff can be reached at 202-636-3000.