Study confirms wine's anti-inflammatory properties

In a recent study published in The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, a team of researchers examined the anti-inflammatory effects of wine by analyzing the relationship between tartaric acid concentrations in urine and changes in serum inflammatory biomarkers in participants in the PREvención con Dieta MEDiterránea (PREDIMED) trial.

Inflammation is important for health, being protective in acute cases but detrimental in chronic conditions, leading to diseases such as arthritis and diabetes.

The Mediterranean diet (MedDiet), rich in plant foods, healthy fats and moderate wine consumption, is effective in reducing inflammation in people at high risk of cardiovascular disease.

The polyphenols and omega-3 fatty acids in this diet help fight inflammation associated with chronic disease. Despite ongoing debate, many studies support the anti-inflammatory benefits of red wine due to polyphenols.

Urine tartaric acid provides a more objective measure of wine consumption than food frequency questionnaires. Additional research is needed to understand the effect of wine on inflammation and to validate this biomarker among different groups.

This cohort analysis was conducted using data at baseline and one year from the start of the PREDIMED study, a large, parallel, multicenter, randomized controlled trial.

It was held in Spain from October 2003 to December 2010. The study assessed the effect of a Mediterranean diet enriched with olive oil or nuts on the incidence of cardiovascular disease among 7,447 participants at high cardiovascular risk.

This analysis specifically included a subsample of 217 participants from the Barcelona and Navarra Hospital Clínica recruiting centers, examining their inflammatory biomarkers and urinary tartaric acid levels.

The study protocol was approved by the institutional review board of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, and all participants provided written informed consent.

Dietary intake was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire, and physical activity was measured using the Spanish version of the Minnesota Physical Activity Questionnaire.

Inflammatory biomarkers were analyzed using eXtensible MicroArray Profiling (xMAP) technology, and succinic acid concentrations in urine samples were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC–ESI–MS/MS).

Statistical analyzes included dividing participants into tertiles based on yearly changes in urinary succinic acid concentrations, and multivariate linear regression models were used to examine associations between changes in succinic acid and inflammatory biomarkers.

This study analyzed the baseline characteristics of participants in the PREDIMED trial, focusing on their demographic and health profiles in relation to changes in urinary succinic acid concentrations over one year.

The average age of participants was 68.8 years, with a slight majority of women (52.1%). Participants were evenly distributed across three tertiles based on gender, age, and physical activity level.

The majority of participants were classified as overweight, and there was a high prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors: 54.8% had diabetes, 63.6% had dyslipidemia, and 78.8% had hypertension. The majority were nonsmokers (85.7%) and had a low level of education (75.1%), with these characteristics evenly distributed across tertiles.

Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was generally stable across all groups, although slightly lower in the first tertile, and wine consumption was markedly lower in the second tertile.

The study also looked at changes in dietary intake over the year, finding that food and nutrient intake remained balanced across tertiles.

The association between wine consumption and urinary succinic acid excretion was analyzed, taking into account various potential factors such as age, gender, smoking, education level, body mass index (BMI), physical activity, intervention group, time of analysis, energy intake and consumption of grapes and raisins.

The results showed a clear correlation: higher wine consumption led to increased succinic acid excretion, with an adjusted increase of 0.39 μg/mg creatinine per standard deviation, which was highly significant at p < 0.001.

The reliability of urinary succinic acid as a biomarker of wine consumption was confirmed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis demonstrating good predictive ability with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.818.

In addition, the effect of succinic acid in urine on inflammatory markers was assessed. Higher increases in succinic acid were associated with significant decreases in soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) concentrations, controlling for potential confounders (−0.20 ng/mL per standard deviation increase, p = 0.031).

However, no significant relationships were observed when changes in succinic acid content were considered continuously.

The study revealed an inverse association between increases in succinic acid and changes in plasma concentrations of sVCAM-1 and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) when analyzed by tertile.

Participants in the second and third tertiles showed significantly lower sICAM-1 concentrations compared to the first tertile, and similar patterns were observed for sVCAM-1, especially in the third tertile.

In conclusion, the study successfully established urinary succinic acid as a valid biomarker of wine consumption, providing clear evidence that moderate consumption of wine, particularly polyphenol-rich red wine, is associated with significant reductions in key inflammatory markers.

These results not only support the potential health benefits of moderate wine consumption in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, but also highlight the importance of including such bioactive compounds in the diet due to their anti-inflammatory properties.

Further research could examine the long-term health effects of sustainable wine consumption and its role in the prevention of chronic diseases, thereby enriching our understanding of the influence of diet on health outcomes.