Moderate wine drinkers have lower hypertension-related mortality: a prospective cohort study in French men.

Background: For a given blood pressure, the risk of death from coronary artery disease is much higher in northern Europe and the United States than in Mediterranean countries.

Objective: In this prospective cohort study, we tested the hypothesis that regular wine drinking reduces the hypertension-related risk of death.

Design: We used data from 36 583 healthy middle-aged men who had normal results on an electrocardiogram and were not taking drugs for cardiovascular disease risk factors.