alcohol

The nightcap secret to a healthier heart

As soon as I start talking about healthy eating habits with my patients, I see that familiar glaze come over their eyes.

And I know exactly what they’re thinking – this is going to taste terrible.

It’s a shame that we’ve been conditioned to believe that the foods and drinks we love can’t be healthy for us, too.

Case in point? That evening glass of wine.

For years mainstream docs have told seniors to stay away from alcohol if they want to stay healthy. But just like with coffee, dark chocolate and eggs – which all turned out to be good for you – these docs have been wrong about booze, too.

In fact, tossing back that occasional glass of alcohol could slash your risk of serious heart disease by a third or more!

Researchers from Norway tracked data from over 60,000 people for 13 years. And they found that those who consumed three to five alcoholic beverages a week reduced their heart failure risk by an impressive 33 percent.

But that’s not even the best news. Those same drinkers had the LOWEST heart attack risk of anyone in the study!

After 13 years had passed, less than 3 percent of these folks had developed heart failure and only about 5 percent of them had a heart attack.

For those of us who have been paying attention, this new study doesn’t come as a complete surprise. We’ve known that some alcoholic beverages, like red wine, are loaded with antioxidants like resveratrol that are great for your heart and may even stop the spread of cancer.

Now, this doesn’t mean you can trade in your dumbbells for a corkscrew. Substituting a glass of wine for moderate exercise or a healthy meal just won’t have the same effect.

Of course, neither will drinking five glasses of wine in one sitting. There are still risks to heavy drinking, like liver disease and high blood pressure -- and you’ve got to watch any of those fancy cocktails made with sugary mixers and syrups.

But if you’ve been swearing off alcohol completely, it might be OK to put it back on the menu. Remember, not everything you enjoy has to be bad for you.

The teetotalers are up to their old tricks, using a bogus new study to try to scare you away from booze.

But if you've seen the headlines that claim even a light or moderate drinking habit can hurt your heart, I've got some good news you're going to want to raise a glass over: The study proves no such thing!

The supposed analysis of data on 4,466 seniors finds that not a single person suffered any kind of health problem attributed to moderate booze.

Absolutely no one!

In women, a drink a night led to a very slight change in a measure of heart function called LV ejection fraction -- a change so small that I don't think there's a doctor alive who'd find it worth noting.

In men, 15 drinks a week caused a small increase in the wall of the left ventricular mass. This was also not all that significant, but more important is the fact that tossing back that many is no longer "moderate drinking."

And from that little nothing of a study, we get headlines like -- and I'm not making this up -- "Grandpa, Put That Glass Down."

Who writes this nonsense???

Well, "grandpa," I've got a better idea: Don't put that glass down. Pick it up, fill it and enjoy your drink -- you're earned it -- because the REAL DEAL is that moderate booze is the best "bad" habit you can possibly have.

The new study even proves it. Despite the extremely minor differences in heart measurements, the NON-drinkers were more likely to be fat and sick. They were more likely to have diabetes, and more likely to have low HDL cholesterol and high triglycerides.

Somehow, those facts didn't make headlines... probably because they don't fit in with the booze-hating, fun-killing, life-sucking narrative the media loves to cram down our throats.

So do what I do and tune those ninnies out.

Years of science proves that a daily drink or two can actually protect your heart and prevent heart attack and heart failure, especially if you're getting up there in years (the one exception of course is in people who cannot drink due to a health condition or certain medications).

The protections extend well beyond the heart: A daily drink or two can also prevent chronic disease including dementia, and even improve your longevity.

If that's a "bad" habit, then I don't want a good one.