Better quality of life in chronic heart failure patients with moderate wine consumption

Among patients with chronic heart failure, moderate daily wine consumption was associated with a lower severity of heart failure, better perceived quality of life and less vascular inflammation.

Moderate, regular consumption of alcoholic beverages is generally associated with a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease. To evaluate the relation between wine consumption and health status in a large Italian population of patients with chronic heart failure (HF), Italian cardiologists conducted a multicenter clinical trial. 6973 patients were enrolled in the GISSI-HF trial. The association between wine consumption, fatal and non-fatal clinical endpoints (such as heart attacks for example), quality of life, symptoms of depression and circulating biomarkers of cardiac function and inflammation were evaluated. After adjusting for possible confounding factors, it was shown for the first time in a large cohort of patients with chronic HF that moderate wine consumption is associated with a better perceived and objective health status, lower prevalence of depression, and less vascular inflammation. The clinical 4-year outcomes, however, were not influenced.

Cosmi F, Di Giulio P, Masson S, et al. Regular Wine Consumption in Chronic Heart Failure: Impact on Outcomes, Quality of Life, and Circulating Biomarkers. Circ Heart Fail. 2015 Apr 29. [Epub ahead of print]

For more information about this article, read the scientific abstract here.