Could Red Wine Decrease Cardiometabolic Risk In Type 2 Diabetes?

Moderate alcohol consumption—particularly red wine—as part of a healthy diet, is safe among patients with well-controlled diabetes and can modestly decrease cardiometabolic risk, according to a recent study.

Data on the effects of moderate alcohol consumption, especially in patients with type 2 diabetes, is lacking. For this reason, recommendations for moderate alcohol consumption are controversial.
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In order to further assess this relationship, researchers conducted a 2-year randomized controlled trial of 224 alcohol abstaining patients with well-controlled type 2 diabetes.

Participants were randomly assigned to either 150 mL of mineral water, white wine, or red wine, once daily, for 2 years. All participants followed a Mediterranean diet.

At the end of the 2 years, 87% of participants provided follow-up data.

Overall, red wine reduced the number of components of metabolic syndrome by 0.34, significantly increased high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels by 0.05 mmol/L (2.0 mg/dL) and apolipoprotein(a)1 levels by 0.03 g/L, and decreased the total cholesterol—HDL-C ratio by 0.27.

Only patients who were slow ethanol metabolizers significantly saw benefits in glycemic control from both wines compared with fast ethanol metabolizers. No differences were identified in blood pressure, adiposity, liver function, symptoms, or quality of life across the 3 groups, except in sleep quality, which improved in both wine groups.

“This long-term randomized controlled trial suggests that initiating moderate wine intake, especially red wine, among well-controlled diabetics as part of a healthy diet is apparently safe and modestly decreases cardiometabolic risk,” they concluded.

“The genetic interactions suggest that ethanol plays an important role in glucose metabolism, and red wine's effects also involve nonalcoholic constituents.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Gepner Y, Golan R, Harman-Boehm I, et al. Effects of initiating moderate alcohol intake on cardiometabolic risk in adults with type 2 diabetes: a 2-year randomized, controlled trial. Ann Intern Med. 2015;163(8):569-579.