Reacción a "Spanish study claims that drinking up to 35 glasses of wine a month is associated with lower cardiovascular risk in some people"

Population-based studies on the impact of nutrients on health are extraordinarily difficult. This study is limited to the impact of wine intake on the health of a group of people aged almost 70 years with a high cardiovascular risk. The study is of very high quality, as evidenced by the fact that it is published in the world's number one cardiology journal.

Tartaric acid has the advantage that it measures grape products. It is therefore ideal for measuring wine (not alcohol) intake. It can be altered by the intake of grapes or sultanas, but this has been taken into account and was anecdotal in the study and is not considered to affect the results.

It cannot be concluded that alcohol is good for health or that alcohol reduces cardiovascular risk. It can be concluded that in people (and preferably men) around 70 years of age who have cardiovascular risk factors (and therefore a high likelihood of cardiovascular health problems), drinking a glass of wine a day reduces overall cardiovascular events including heart failure, myocardial infarction, stroke or cardiovascular death by 50% over a follow-up of about five years.

I believe this study adds scientific knowledge to the relationship between wine intake and cardiovascular health. This is very relevant since many of the opinions that are expressed to society on this subject are, unfortunately, often more influenced by emotional aspects than by scientific evidence, which, I repeat, I understand is extraordinarily difficult to obtain in this important aspect of human behaviour.