Does the Type of Alcohol You Drink Affect Your Heart? A New Study Weighs In
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Few topics in cardiology generate as much confusion as alcohol. For decades, patients have heard that a glass of red wine is good for the heart. More recently, they've heard the opposite, that no amount of alcohol is truly safe. So when patients ask me where things actually stand, I understand why they feel whiplash. The science has genuinely been mixed, and the headlines have not helped.
A new study presented in March 2026 at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session adds an interesting and useful piece to this puzzle. It suggests that when it comes to low and moderate drinking, the type of alcohol you choose may matter just as much as the amount. And the findings were notably kinder to wine than to beer, cider, or spirits.
Let me walk through what the researchers found, what it means, and how I think patients should interpret it.
What Types of Alcohol Did the Study Consider?
Researchers analyzed data from more than 340,000 adults in the United Kingdom who took part in the UK Biobank study, a large, long-running research project. Participants reported their drinking habits when they enrolled, and their health was tracked for an average of more than 13 years.
The researchers sorted people into four categories based on how much pure alcohol they consumed. For reference, a 12-ounce beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, and a 1.5-ounce shot of spirits each contain roughly 14 grams of pure alcohol, which is considered one standard drink. The categories ranged from never or occasional drinkers, to low, to moderate, to high consumption.
The first finding was not surprising and confirms what cardiologists have understood for years. People in the high consumption group fared poorly across the board. Compared with never or occasional drinkers, heavy drinkers were 24 percent more likely to die from any cause, 36 percent more likely to die from cancer, and 14 percent more likely to die from heart disease. Heavy drinking is harmful, full stop. No type of alcohol protected against that.
The more intriguing findings emerged at the low and moderate levels of drinking, and this is where beverage type came into play.
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Which Type of Alcohol Looked Different from the Rest?
When researchers examined low to moderate drinkers, a clear divide appeared between wine and everything else.
Moderate wine drinkers had a 21 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared with people who drank never or only occasionally. By contrast, even low intake of spirits, beer, or cider was associated with a 9 percent higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared with never or occasional drinking.
In other words, the same modest amount of alcohol appeared to point in opposite directions depending on what was in the glass. Wine was associated with lower cardiovascular risk. Beer, cider, and spirits were associated with higher risk.
As the study's senior author, Dr. Zhangling Chen, explained, these findings help clarify previously mixed evidence on low to moderate drinking. The health risks of alcohol may depend not only on how much you drink, but also on the specific bever
Why Might Wine Behave Differently?
This is the question every patient asks me, and the honest answer is that researchers have several plausible theories but no definitive proof.
One leading explanation involves the compounds found in wine, particularly red wine. Wine contains polyphenols, a group of plant-based antioxidants that includes resveratrol. These compounds have been shown in laboratory studies to reduce inflammation, improve the function of blood vessel linings, and possibly reduce the tendency of blood to form clots. Beer, cider, and spirits contain far fewer of these compounds, or none at all.
But I want to be careful here, because there is a second explanation that may be even more important, and it has nothing to do with the wine itself. It has to do with the people who drink it and how they drink it.
Wine drinking tends to travel with a particular lifestyle. People who favor wine often drink it slowly, with meals, in social settings, and in smaller quantities. People who drink spirits may be more likely to drink quickly, away from food, and in patterns closer to binge drinking. Wine drinkers, on average, also tend to have higher incomes, healthier diets, more exercise, and lower smoking rates. Researchers try to statistically adjust for these differences, but no adjustment is perfect. Some of the apparent benefit of wine almost certainly reflects the healthier overall lifestyle of the typical wine drinker rather than a magic ingredient in the wine.
This distinction matters enormously, and it leads directly to my main piece of advice.
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What Does This Study Mean,… and Not Mean?
I want to be very direct, because this is exactly the kind of study that can be easily misread.
This study does not mean you should start drinking wine to protect your heart. If you do not currently drink alcohol, there is no good evidence that taking up wine, or any alcohol, will improve your cardiovascular health. The downsides of starting are real, and no responsible cardiologist would recommend it.
This study also does not overturn the broader scientific picture on alcohol. It is important to put these findings in context. Alcohol is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen, the same category as tobacco, and there is no question that it raises the risk of several cancers even at low levels of intake. A widely cited global analysis concluded that the level of alcohol consumption that minimizes overall health harm is zero. The World Health Organization has stated plainly that no level of alcohol consumption is completely safe for health.
The new study itself showed this tension clearly. Even as moderate wine drinking was associated with lower cardiovascular death, the overall message of the research, consistent with years of prior evidence, was that less alcohol is better for health.
It is also worth emphasizing what Dr. Chen pointed out directly. These results come from the general population. For people who already have heart disease, high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, or other cardiovascular conditions, the risks of alcohol can be considerably higher. Alcohol can raise blood pressure, trigger irregular heart rhythms, and interact with cardiac medications. For many of my patients with established heart conditions, the right amount of alcohol is little or none.
And finally, this was an observational study. It can identify associations, but it cannot prove that wine directly causes better heart outcomes. That limitation is real and should temper how much weight we place on any single finding.
What Is Good Practical Advice to Follow?
So where does this leave you? Here is how I frame it for the patients in my practice.
If you do not drink, do not start. No study, including this one, provides a compelling reason to begin drinking alcohol for your heart.
If you do drink, less is better, and the pattern matters. If you choose to drink, keeping intake low, drinking slowly, drinking with meals, and avoiding binge drinking all appear to be sensible. Current US guidelines define moderate drinking as up to one drink per day for women and up to two for men, and staying at or below those limits is wise.
If you have heart disease or another cardiovascular condition, talk to your doctor. The general population findings may not apply to you, and you may benefit from drinking very little or not at all.
Do not look to alcohol as a heart health strategy. The genuine pillars of cardiovascular health remain unchanged. A good diet, regular physical activity, healthy blood pressure and cholesterol, not smoking, and quality sleep will do far more for your heart than any beverage choice.
The new research is a useful reminder that not all alcohol affects the body the same way. But the most reliable path to a healthy heart still has nothing to do with what is in your glass.
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Sources
American College of Cardiology. "The Health Impacts of Alcohol Depend on What You Drink and How Much." Press Release. March 19, 2026. https://www.acc.org/About-ACC/Press-Releases/2026/03/18/20/23/The-Health-Impacts-of-Alcohol-Depend-on-What-You-Drink-And-How-Much
Chen Z, et al. "Associations of Alcohol Consumption by Beverage Type With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality." Presented at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session (ACC.26), New Orleans, March 2026.
Wood AM, Kaptoge S, Butterworth AS, et al. "Risk Thresholds for Alcohol Consumption: Combined Analysis of Individual-Participant Data for 599,912 Current Drinkers in 83 Prospective Studies." The Lancet. 2018;391(10129):1513-1523. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)30134-X/fulltext
GBD 2020 Alcohol Collaborators. "Population-Level Risks of Alcohol Consumption by Amount, Geography, Age, Sex, and Year: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2020." The Lancet. 2022;400(10347):185-235. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)00847-9/fulltext
World Health Organization. "No Level of Alcohol Consumption Is Safe for Our Health." January 4, 2023. https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health
American Heart Association. "Is Drinking Alcohol Part of a Healthy Lifestyle?" https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/nutrition-basics/alcohol-and-heart-health
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. "Alcohol and the Human Body." https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Dietary Guidelines for Alcohol." https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/about-alcohol-use/moderate-alcohol-use.html
