Red Wine Improves Heart Health in People With Type 2 Diabetes

When it comes to the health benefits of drinking red wine, study after study reveals conflicting information.

Adding diabetes into the mix complicates these answers further, but new research suggests that red wine drinkers with diabetes may have better heart health than non-drinkers.

Researchers studied 224 people over the course of 2 years. Participants were randomly assigned to either drink a glass or red or white wine with dinner every day or a glass of water.

Participants did not know the study was about the effects of alcohol.

'Statistically significant' improvements

People in the study who drank red wine saw their HDL, or "good," cholesterol raise by about 2 mg/dL compared with water drinkers - a change the researchers say was statistically significant.

In certain people, wine also lowered morning insulin levels, was associated with better blood sugar control and was also linked to lower blood pressure.

“We found that on top of a healthy diet there is some beneficial effect for wine, and especially for red wine,” said Iris Shai, lead researcher. “We didn’t expect to see a difference between red and white wine. That surprised us.”

For diabetics, Shai said that one glass of wine per day is probably safe if your diabetes is well-controlled - and it may even improve your heart health.

The study is published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Source: Web MD