Dr. Henk Hendriks

Why moderate beer consumption is beneficial for cardiovascular health

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Moderate beer (alcohol) consumption has been associated with a lower risk for cardiovascular disease in many epidemiological studies worldwide. This beneficial association is not only observed for the most common cardiovascular disease: heart attacks but also for other cardiovascular diseases like stroke, peripheral artery disease and dementia. Other studies indicate that a lowered risk by moderate alcohol consumption is additive to the beneficial effects of other healthy life style factors like non-smoking, physical activity and a healthy diet.

The causes for such a beneficial relation have been investigated in intervention studies, which have lead into the identification of the main contributing processes. The main processes that are beneficially affected are lipid (cholesterol) metabolism, blood clotting and glucose metabolism. The studies combined provide strong evidence for a cardio protective effect of moderate beer (alcohol) consumption. 

Short biography Henk Hendriks (1957) studied Biology at State University Utrecht and received his Ph.D. entitled “Retinoid (vitamin A) metabolism in rat liver” from the State University Leiden in 1991. In 1986 he started working at TNO (Institute for Experimental Gerontology, Rijswijk) at the department of Dementia and Cell Physiology. At present he is working at TNO in Zeist as senior project leader Human Physiology and temporarily operating as Business Line Manager Food and Health. In addition he is project leader at the Top Institute Food and Nutrition. Henk Hendriks special fields of interest are: biomedical aspects of moderate alcohol consumption in man, nutrition and coronary heart disease risk factors, functional food claim support and novel food safety evaluation.  He coordinates the TNO research program ‘Food and Health’ focusing on developing new biomarkers, food intake regulation, the relation between overweight and disease and gut health. Henk has published about 100 peer-reviewed papers.