Everyday Health: Can drinking alcohol affect my cholesterol levels?

Pamela Warren, MS, CHN: Alcohol can elevate your triglyceride level. What are triglycerides and how are they part of cholesterol? A cholesterol molecule is filled with triglycerides. Consuming alcohol makes your body produce a higher level of triglycerides. With a higher level of triglycerides, the liver has to process excess cholesterol molecules, and the level of cholesterol in your blood will increase.

Stuart A. Seale, MD: Studies show that moderate drinking will increase HDL cholesterol, which helps protect against cardiovascular disease. It does not lower total cholesterol or LDL cholesterol. Wine seems to have a better effect than beer or spirits. For men, moderate drinking is defined as one or two servings per day of wine, beer, or spirits. For women, it's defined as one serving per day. A serving of beer is 8-10 ounces, 4 ounces for wine, and 1.5 ounces for spirits.

Lisa Matzer, MD: Moderate alcohol consumption - such as one glass of wine for women, and two glasses of wine for men - has been shown to increase levels of good cholesterol. With alcohol, it's definitely not the case that more is better. Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to heart muscle damage as well as liver damage.

Jacob DeLaRosa, MD: Moderate amounts of alcohol may lower LDL (bad) cholesterol, raise HDL (good) cholesterol, and promote a healthy heart. “Moderate consumption” consists of one to two alcoholic drinks per day for men, and one alcoholic drink per day for women. One drink is equivalent to 12 ounces of beer or 5 ounces of wine. Current studies reveal that HDL levels can be increased by up to 12 percent in people who drink between one and two alcoholic beverages per day. LDL levels can be lowered by 4 percent to 8 percent with moderate alcohol consumption.

Jeanette Bronée, CHHC, AADP: Alcohol not only increases inflammation in your body, it also causes higher glucose levels, so again, your bad cholesterol goes up to deal with it. Some say that a glass of wine per day can be helpful for heart disease, but if we consider the overall effect of alcohol, long-term effect and the potential for excess drinking, alcohol does not help your health or your cholesterol.