CHEM 181 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Red Wine Headache, Fortified Wine, High-Density Lipoprotein

• School: McGill University
• Department: Chemistry
• Course: CHEM 181
• Professor: Ariel Fenster

Document Summary

The french have the lowest incidence of heart disease in all the industrialized nations in the world except for japan. Some claim it has to do with wine consumption. No doubt that alcohol can be beneficial. Wine prevents the oxidation of ldl to its oxidized form and the oxidized form is the one that is associated with the plaque that lines the arteries. The french also have other factors that may play into the account of the low heart disease incidence. It also happens that just because they have a low heart disease incidence it does not mean that they live longer. Ethanol gets metabolized by the body into acetaldehyde which eventually becomes acetic acid. If you drink too fast, the enzyme that converts the acetaldehyde to acetic acid cannot do its job and you get a buildup of acetaldehyde. In wine, there are other components that present in wine that can lead to unpleasant after effect.