To beer or not to beer: A meta-analysis of the effects of beer consumption on cardiovascular health

Abstract

A moderate alcohol consumption is demonstrated to exert a protective action in terms of cardiovascular risk. Although this property seems not to be beverage-specific, the various composition of alcoholic compounds could mediate peculiar effects in vivo. The aim of this study was to evaluate potential beer-mediated effects on the cardiovascular health in humans, using a meta-analytic approach (trial registration number: CRD42018118387). The literature search, comprising all English articles published until November, 30th 2019 in EMBASE, PubMed and Cochrane database included all controlled clinical trials evaluating the cardiovascular effects of beer assumption compared to alcohol-free beer, water, abstinence or placebo. Both sexes and all beer preparations were considered eligible. Outcome parameters were those entering in the cardiovascular risk charts and those related to endothelial dysfunction. Twenty-six trials were included in the analysis. Total cholesterol was significantly higher in beer drinkers compared to controls (14 studies, 3.52 mg/dL, 1.71-5.32 mg/ dL). Similar increased levels were observed in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (18 studies, 3.63 mg/dL, 2.00-5.26 mg/dL) and in apolipoprotein A1 (5 studies, 0.16 mg/dL, 0.11-0.21 mg/dL), while no differences were detected in low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (12 studies,-2.85 mg/dL,-5.96-0.26 mg/dL) and triglycerides (14 studies, 0.40 mg/ dL,-5.00-5.80 mg/dL) levels. Flow mediated dilation (FMD) resulted significantly higher in beer-consumers compared to controls (4 studies, 0.65%, 0.07-1.23%), while blood pressure and other biochemical markers of inflammation did not differ. In conclusion, the specific beer effect on human cardiovascular health was meta-analysed for the first time, highlighting an improvement of the vascular elasticity, detected by the increase of FMD (after acute intake), and of the lipid profile with a significant increase of HDL and apolipoprotein A1 serum levels. Although the long-term effects of beer consumption are not still understood, a beneficial effect of beer on endothelial function should be supposed.

Drinking habits and executive functioning: a propensity score-weighted analysis of 78,832 adults

“…The inverted J-shaped pattern resembles that of the relative risk of incident coronary heart disease at different drinking levels compared to abstinence [5], tentatively suggesting that cardiovascular factors might mediate the association between moderate alcohol consumption and better executive functioning. Cardiovascular effects of moderate alcohol consumption include protective effects such as lower blood pressure [7] and elevated high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [46] and detrimental effects such as glucose- and metabolic dysregulation [47]. Among these, lower blood pressure has most consistently been associated with better cognitive performance [48], [49], and may thus be a likely mediator.…”

“…functioning. Cardiovascular effects of moderate alcohol consumption include protective effects such as lower blood pressure [7] and elevated high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [46] and detrimental effects such as glucose-and metabolic dysregulation [47]. Among these, lower blood pressure has most consistently been associated with better cognitive performance [48], [49], and may thus be a likely mediator.…”

An exploratory analysis of the competing effects of alcohol use and advanced hepatic fibrosis on serum HDL

“…Previous data have suggested a positive correlation between alcohol use and serum HDL levels [2][3][4]. To investigate this in our cohort, we examined the association of HDL levels with quantity of alcohol consumed.…”

“…Most notably, Alcohol-associated Liver Disease (ALD) is one of the most common manifestations of alcohol misuse and accounts for close to 1/3rd of all alcohol-related deaths [1]. Interestingly, multiple observational studies have demonstrated a positive association between moderate alcohol use and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels [2][3][4][5][6].…”

Antioxidant and Chemopreventive Effect of Aliophen® Formulation Based on Malts and Hops

“…This meta-analysis highlighted an important limitation of many studies that compared the effects of beer to alcohol-free beers, attributing largely to the alcohol presence the beneficial outcomes of beer consumption in spite of its polyphenolic content, neglecting that the dealcoholization process causes a significant loss of non-alcoholic compounds, including polyphenols [ 17 ]. In fact, the polyphenol content of beer versus alcohol-free beer differs in terms of total quantity and quality of the different compounds [ 16 ]. Generally, due to the dealcoholization process, the latter contains a lower concentration of bioactive compounds compared to regular and dark beers (e.g., 120 mg/L total polyphenols vs 280–520 mg/L) [ 18 ].…”