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ESC Congress 2003: Red wine against smoking

August 31, 2003

IMPORTANT: This press release accompanies a poster or oral session given at the ESC Congress 2003. Written by the investigator himself/herself, this press release does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Society of Cardiology

The present study showed that the constituents of red wine, other than alcohol, counteracted acute arterial dysfunction that is present after smoking one cigarette. It is known that cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and a common habit of millions of people. Our findings showed that 2 glasses (250 ml) of red wine suspend the harmful effect of one cigarette and leads us to further investigate constituents of red wine that could reverse arterial dysfunction caused by smoking.

The study was performed at the vascular laboratory of Alexandra Hospital in Athens, Greece, in sixteen healthy adults. We assessed their arterial function in three occasions: a) after smoking one cigarette, b) after drinking 2 glasses of red wine and smoking one cigarette and finally c) after drinking 2 glasses of red wine without alcohol and smoking one cigarette. For this purpose we used a famous Greek red wine, rich in polyphenols, which are powerful antioxidants and we managed to remove alcohol without affecting any other constituent, producing non-alcoholic red wine, also used in the study. We previously tested the two types of wine for their constitution and sensory characteristics and we concluded that the two wines had similar flavour, colour and taste and similar amounts of their constituents, except from their alcohol content. This means that volunteers could not distinguish which type of red wine they consumed each time.

The results of the study confirmed previous findings of our laboratory that after smoking one cigarette and for the following 60 minutes there is a significant arterial dysfunction. However, simultaneous consumption of either regular red wine or non-alcoholic red wine with smoking one cigarette didn't cause any such dysfunction. These observations led us to speculate that either type of red wine counteracted smoke's arterial harmful effect. Since the presence or absence of alcohol on the two types of wine didn't influence the results, we can conclude that constituents of red wine other than alcohol are responsible for the reversal of arterial dysfunction caused by smoking.

It is very important that the meaning of our findings is not misinterpreted, as 2 glasses of wine counteracted acute smoking of one cigarette. This doesn't prove that regular consumption of red wine could possibly attenuate the harmful effect of chronic smoking. In addition, it is not wise to believe that a smoker could use 2 glasses of red wine for every cigarette he smoked in order to protect his vessels. What is more important is the fact that in the acute phase, red wine contains substances that are so powerful as to counteract the harmful effect of smoking on arterial function. This is very useful for the understanding of the mechanisms through which smoking induces arterial dysfunction and subsequent cardiovascular disease and hopeful for the discovery of substances capable of reversing smokes harmful effects.

It is essential that future studies define which specific component or components of red wine are responsible for the reversal of smoke's acute harmful effects and possibly enable large trials to investigate protection against habitual smoking.

John Lekakis or Christos Papamichael
Department of Clinical Therapeutics,
Alexandra University Hospital, Athens, Greece.

European Society of Cardiology (ESC)