Red Wine and Mitral Valve Prolapse

Every month or so, I have a look at my blog statistics, which tell me which keywords people use to find me. Occasionally, the keywords themselves suggest new insights into the MVP(S) phenomena which I had never considered, particularly when I see multiple occurrences of similar word combinations at different times. Today, I found these three entries relating wine to MVP, which accounted for about 6% of this month's traffic from Google queries -- statistically significant, considering that any food might be suspected of causing PVCs, particularly those (unlike red wine) which most people associate with heart disease. Have a look:

1. what is the effect of wine on mitro valve prolapse?

2. wine chemicals mitral valve prolapse

3. "red wine" +"premature ventricular contractions" pizza

In the last case, I would bet that it was the cheese on the pizza. But taken as a whole, these queries suggest that there may be an association between wine and MVP. Even if such an association exists, it might not be causal, i.e. perhaps wine and cheese are indeed commonly consumed together, so people erroneously suspect that the wine is to blame for PVCs, when in fact the cheese is causing the problem (as discussed in previous posts). But then again, maybe not. Maybe the alcohol content in wine results in mild dehydration, promoting small blood volume changes or excessive water consumption that may result in PVCs.

Granted, I'm presuming that the first two queries were entered by people who had noticed a spike in their MVP activity (most commonly, PVCs or the associated head spins). But perhaps there was some other reason for these two. Still, it suggests an association between MVP and wine.

Incidentally, red wine appears to contain several compounds conducive to heart health. Ethanol is somewhat debatable in this regard: On the one hand, it dilates blood vessels, reducing the probability of arterial blockage. On the other, it's frankly a poison which the liver must work to neutralize. It may also serve to amplify the rate of absorption of the beneficial compounds, which are probably more soluble in aqueous ethanol than pure water. And while you could get all the same good compounds from grape juice, you'd also get plenty of fructose, which in my opinion is highly undesirable. For my part, I just pour the contents of a grape extract capsule (from Life Extension Foundation, with whom I have no affiliation) into water, and dissolve them. The result is cold grape skin tea -- not delicious, but an acquired taste, and probably a healthier way to obtain grape compounds than either wine or water.

Anyhow, I doubt that wine in moderation causes PVCs, but the queries are noteworthy. Looking at the very different query styles exhibited above, it appears that they were entered by three different people. So researchers, you might want to keep this in mind for your next study on MVP agonists...