Nonalcoholic Red Wine May Decrease Blood Pressure

Does Dad always have a glass of wine with dinner? Good news, it may protect his heart — that is, if it's nonalcoholic red wine he's drinking.

A recent study conducted by Spanish doctors tested 67 men at risk for heart disease, and found that their blood pressure fell a couple of points after drinking two glasses of red wine for four weeks. The men also went through four-week periods drinking (alcoholic) red wine and gin, which caused no effect on their blood pressure.

Polyphenols are the antioxidant found in red wine that should help reduce overall blood pressure; however, previous studies haven't found any correlation between red wine consumption and decreased blood pressure. While the reason that only virgin wine led to a drop in blood pressure is still uncertain, the researchers suggested that it might be because the nonalcoholic wine released nitric oxide into the bloodstream, causing the blood vessels to relax and absorb polyphenols.

Before you going buying a case of nonalcoholic red wine, there are other factors that doctors have yet to explore in this still fuzzy field. The study only tested men who were already at risk for heart disease; healthy men and women may find that nonalcoholic red wine produces no impact on their blood pressure. There are other factors, such as the type of grapes and controls of the experiment, that may have impacted the findings.