If you’re like most people, you probably think of wine as a drink to be enjoyed on special occasions. But what you may not know is that there are some great health benefits to drinking wine regularly. According to science, wine can help protect against heart disease, cancer, and other health conditions. Check out the 8 science-backed benefits of drinking wine below.

Helps Heart Stay Healthy

The first benefit of drinking wine is that it can help to keep your heart healthy. Did you know that in 2019, around 18.6 people died from cardiovascular disease, and 30.3 million American adults were diagnosed with heart disease 2018? It’s the top cause of mortality around the world. However, if you were to drink 1-2 glasses of quality wine by Oddbins per day, you could reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Prevent Depression

Another very interesting benefit of wine is that it can help to prevent depression and the symptoms of depression. This might sound counterintuitive since we all know that drinking alcohol tends to increase the probability of experiencing depression symptoms. However, a study that lasted 7 years, and followed 5,500 people’s drinking habits found that if you were to consume a glass a day, you would be much less prone to depression than those who did not.

Improves Longevity

One of the biggest benefits that wine offers is the fact that it can help to improve longevity. What is longevity? Longevity is basically how long you live, or in other words, your lifespan. Wine, especially red wine, contains something called resveratrol, a polyphenol. Resveratrol is an antioxidant that prevents the damage of cells and organs. In other words, red wine can help protect your body from diseases of aging.

Prevent Alzheimer’s

One of the more common mental health diseases that people between the ages of 65 and 85+ suffer from is Alzheimer’s. Currently, it is estimated that about 1 in 9 people above the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s, with the percentages for each age group increasing with age. Wine has been found to help with the reduction of risk of developing dementia, which almost always leads to Alzheimer’s disease.

Regulate Blood Sugar

Another less known benefit of wine, more specifically red wine, is that it can help you to regulate blood sugar, which is incredibly helpful in preventing diabetes. Current estimates state that about 415 million people in the world suffer from diabetes, with the number predicted to increase to half a billion by 2040. Wine can do this since it lowers blood sugar for up to 24 hours, and it is recommended to drink a glass a day to reduce cardiometabolic risk.

Healthier Skin

If you have been wanting to improve the health of your skin, you will be pleasantly surprised to learn that drinking wine can help you to do that. How? As established above, wine contains antioxidants, which can prevent acne-causing bacteria from growing when applied to the skin. However, if you were to drink wine, you would stimulate blood circulation. This in turn will prevent skin aging by preventing wrinkle formation; this doesn’t mean you should drink as much as you can since too much will dry the skin.

Boost Immune System

So now that we know that wine can improve heart health, prevent aging, reduce the risk of diabetes, and prevent depression, did you know that it can also boost your immune system? Again, because of the antioxidants in wine, which help to combat viruses, you can develop immunity against about 200 viruses. More importantly, if you have the flu or a cold, drinking wine can cure those symptoms. This is because Polyphenol prevents the multiplying of viruses that have entered the body.

Prevent Obesity

Finally, the last benefit of this list is that wine can help to prevent obesity. How you might wonder? Wine contains three specific antioxidants, namely resveratrol which we know, quercetin, and epicatechin. These three can lower the levels of cholesterol in your body, and aid the loss of belly fats that contribute to inflammation that is associated with obesity. To get the most out of these benefits, you should consider drinking white wine.