Moderate drinking raises hormone that protects from artery disease

Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Article Date: 16 May 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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New findings indicate that moderate drinking raises the levels of a hormone that protects you from developing artery disease. Scientists are saying that this new discovery could explain why moderate drinking of, for example, red wine can have cardiovascular benefits.

A new study was carried out at TNO Nutrition and Food Research, Netherlands. The study suggests that moderate drinkers have better hormone levels than heavy drinkers or people who do not drink any alcohol at all.

It seems that moderate drinking is associated with a healthy lifestyle. Moderate drinking has an effect on inflammation, blood clotting and the way we metabolise fats in the blood.

Levels of DHEAS (dehydroepiandrosterone) decline with age. High DHEAS levels are associated with healthy blood vessels. DHEAS is a sex hormone.

The researchers, led by Dr. Hendriks, wanted to measure how moderate drinking might affect the levels of DHEAS and other sex hormones.

In their study, they had 19 volunteers, 10 men of middle age and 8 postmenopausal women. They were all healthy and non-smokers.

They were then monitored for three weeks on a standardized diet. Half of the group drank moderate quantities of alcoholic beer with dinner every night while the other half drank alcohol-free beer. For the second three-week period the groups switched what they were drinking.

Three weeks of alcoholic beer drinking raised their blood levels of DHEAS by 17% in both the men and the women. Alcoholic beer drinking men's testosterone levels dropped 7%, the women regular beer drinkers saw no change in their testosterone levels.

Levels of estradiol (a type of estrogen) stayed the same with both sexes.

However, both the male and female alcoholic beer drinkers saw their levels of good cholesterol (HDL) go up by 12%. The higher your levels of HDL the better your cardiovascular health is likely to be.

The scientists concluded that moderate drinking raises blood levels of DHEAS.

You can read about this study in the journal Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research.

The team are now going to study what effect moderate drinking might have on levels of hormones that regulate the distribution and uptake of sugars in our bodies. As people are living longer and weighing more, more people are coming down with Diabetes Type 2. It would be interesting and useful to know what effect moderate drinking has on the hormones that influence the development of diabetes.

The scientists suspect that moderate drinking might perhaps offer some protection from Diabetes Type 2. France, which is a nation of moderate regular drinkers has much lower rates of Diabetes 2 than the USA or the UK have.

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