Alcohol and cardiovascular diseases: mechanisms of the protective effects.

Moderate and regularly alcohol consumption reduces death rate from coronary heart disease and thrombotic stroke. This beneficial correlation observed with several alcoholic beverages seems to be mainly due to an ethanol effec t. However the particular role of microconstituants contained in red wine m ust be considered. The mechanism of the putative protective effect of alcoh ol intake is mediated through the elevation of HDL cholesterol and through the aintioxydative effect of polyphenolic compounds. In addition, alcohol a cts favourably on platelets agregation, fibrinolysis and several other coag ulation parameters. Despite these explanations are yet speculative and ther e is no causal relation between alcohol and reduced coronary death, epidemi ological data are consistent with the belief that daily consumption of one or two glasses of an alcoholic beverage has salutary effect on health. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.