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Wine
and Health -
Recent
News
[Here are more
reports on the benefits
of wine consumption as well as some that
paint a more
complex picture - at least for women. Moderation is the key!]
1. Red Wine Component May Slow
Aging Process
2. Red Wine Antioxidant Kills
Pancreatic Cancer cells
3. Alcohol May Prevent
Rheumatoid Arthritis
4. A Drink May Help High Blood Pressure
5. Wine May Calm Inflammation of Blood Vessels
6. Heavy Drinking Increases Risk of Breast Cancer
7. Drinking Linked to
Endometrial Cancer Risk
8. Getting
Drunk Boosts Heart Attack Risk
in Women
9.
Alcohol May Lower the
Risk of
Kidney Cancer
10. Red Wine Helps Reduce Risk of Colorectal
Cancer
11. New Clue to Red wine’s
Heart-Protecting Effect
12. Alcohol Doesn’t Affect Prostate Cancer Risk
14. Red Wine Slows Alzheimer's-like Disease in Mice
15. Alcohol in Moderation May Extend Life
16. Alcohol Cuts Diabetes Risk in Older Women
17. Moderate Drinking May Lower Kidney Cancer Risk
New Hints That Red Wine May Slow Aging - by Nicholas Wade, New York Times, June 4, 2008
Red wine may be much more potent than was thought in extending human lifespan, researchers say in a new report that is likely to give impetus to the rapidly growing search for longevity drugs. The study is based on dosing mice with resveratrol, an ingredient of some red wines. Some scientists are already taking resveratrol in capsule form, but others believe it is far too early to take the drug, especially using wine as its source, until there is better data on its safety and effectiveness.
The report is part of a new wave of interest in drugs that may enhance longevity. On Monday, Sirtris, a startup founded in 2004 to develop drugs with the same effects as resveratrol, completed its sale to GlaxoSmithKline for $720 million.
Sirtris is seeking to develop drugs that activate protein agents known in people as sirtuins. “The upside is so huge that if we are right, the company that dominates the sirtuin space could dominate the pharmaceutical industry and change medicine,” Dr. David Sinclair of the Harvard Medical School, a co-founder of the company, said Tuesday.
Serious scientists have long derided the idea of life-extending elixirs, but the door has now been opened to drugs that exploit an ancient biological survival mechanism, that of switching the body’s resources from fertility to tissue maintenance. The improved tissue maintenance seems to extend life by cutting down on the degenerative diseases of aging.
The reflex can be prompted by a faminelike diet, known as caloric restriction, which extends the life of laboratory rodents by up to 30 percent but is far too hard for most people to keep to and in any case has not been proven to work in humans.
Research started nearly 20 years ago by Dr. Leonard Guarente of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed recently that the famine-induced switch to tissue preservation might be triggered by activating the body’s sirtuins. Dr. Sinclair, a former student of Dr. Guarente, then found in 2003 that sirtuins could be activated by some natural compounds, including resveratrol, previously known as just an ingredient of certain red wines.
Dr. Sinclair’s finding led in several directions. He and others have tested resveratrol’s effects in mice, mostly at doses far higher than the minuscule amounts in red wine. One of the more spectacular results was obtained last year by Dr. John Auwerx of the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in Illkirch, France. He showed that resveratrol could turn plain vanilla, couch-potato mice into champion athletes, making them run twice as far on a treadmill before collapsing.
The company Sirtris, meanwhile, has been testing resveratrol and other drugs that activate sirtuin. These drugs are small molecules, more stable than resveratrol, and can be given in smaller doses. In April, Sirtris reported that its formulation of resveratrol, called SRT501, reduced glucose levels in diabetic patients.
The company plans to start clinical trials of its resveratrol mimic soon. Sirtris’s value to GlaxoSmithKline is presumably that its sirtuin-activating drugs could be used to treat a spectrum of degenerative diseases, like cancer and Alzheimer’s, if the underlying theory is correct.
Separately from Sirtris’s investigations, a research team led by Tomas A. Prolla and Richard Weindruch, of the University of Wisconsin, reports in the journal PLoS One on Wednesday that resveratrol may be effective in mice and people in much lower doses than previously thought necessary. In earlier studies, like Dr. Auwerx’s of mice on treadmills, the animals were fed such large amounts of resveratrol that to gain equivalent dosages people would have to drink more than 100 bottles of red wine a day.
The Wisconsin scientists used a dose on mice equivalent to just 35 bottles a day. But red wine contains many other resveratrol-like compounds that may also be beneficial. Taking these into account, as well as mice’s higher metabolic rate, a mere four, five-ounce glasses of wine “starts getting close” to the amount of resveratrol they found effective, Dr. Weindruch said.
Resveratrol can also be obtained in the form of capsules marketed by several companies. Those made by one company, Longevinex, include extracts of red wine and of a Chinese plant called giant knotweed. The Wisconsin researchers conclude that resveratrol can mimic many of the effects of a caloric-restricted diet “at doses that can readily be achieved in humans.”
The effectiveness of the low doses was not tested directly, however, but with a DNA chip that measures changes in the activity of genes. The Wisconsin team first defined the pattern of gene activity established in mice on caloric restriction, and then showed that very low doses of resveratrol produced just the same pattern.
Dr. Auwerx, who used doses almost 100 times greater in his treadmill experiments, expressed reservations about the new result. “I would be really cautious, as we never saw significant effects with such low amounts,” he said Tuesday in an e-mail message.
Another researcher in the sirtuin field, Dr. Matthew Kaeberlein of the University of Washington in Seattle, said, “There’s no way of knowing from this data, or from the prior work, if something similar would happen in humans at either low or high doses.”
A critical link in establishing whether or not caloric restriction works the same wonders in people as it does in mice rests on the outcome of two monkey trials. Since rhesus monkeys live for up to 40 years, the trials have taken a long time to show results. Experts said that one of the two trials, being conducted by Dr. Weindruch, was at last showing clear evidence that calorically restricted monkeys were outliving the control animals. But no such effect is apparent in the other trial, being conducted at the National Institutes of Health.
The Wisconsin report underlined another unresolved link in the theory, that of whether resveratrol actually works by activating sirtuins. The issue is clouded because resveratrol is a powerful drug that has many different effects in the cell. The Wisconsin researchers report that they saw no change in the mouse equivalent of sirtuin during caloric restriction, a finding that if true could undercut Sirtris’s strategy of looking for drugs that activate sirtuin.
Dr. Guarente, a scientific adviser to Sirtris, said the Wisconsin team only measured the amount of sirtuin present in mouse tissues, and not the more important factor of whether it had been activated.
Dr. Sinclair said the definitive answer would emerge from experiments, now under way, with mice whose sirtuin genes had been knocked out. “The question of how resveratrol is working is an ongoing debate and it will take more studies to get the answer,” he said.
Dr. Robert E. Hughes of the Buck Institute for Age Research said there could be no guarantee of success given that most new drug projects fail. But, he said, testing the therapeutic uses of drugs that mimic caloric restriction is a good idea, based on substantial evidence.
Evidence Shows Red Wine Antioxidant Kills Cancer
- ScienceDaily, Mar. 25, 2008
The results showed that resveratrol had a variety of potentially valuable
anticancer effects:
-
Making the cancer cells more sensitive to chemotherapy by hampering proteins that resist treatment
-
Triggering cancer cell death (apoptosis)
-
Injuring the cancer cell’s energy source and decreasing its potential to function
The research has many implications for patients, said lead author Paul
Okunieff, M.D., chief of Radiation Oncology at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center
at the U. of Rochester Medical Center. The authors conclude that “the impact
of red wine consumption on chemotherapy remains unclear,” but “resveratrol
has a promising future as part of the treatment for cancer.” The study was
published in Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology (3/08).
Although red wine consumption during chemotherapy or radiation treatment
has not been well studied, it is not “contraindicated,” Okunieff said. Some
physicians are concerned antioxidants might end up protecting tumors, but this
study showed there is little evidence to support that fear. In fact the research
suggests resveratrol not only reaches its intended target (malignant cells) but
at the same time protects normal tissue from the harmful effects of radiation.
“Antioxidant research is very active,” Okunieff said. “The
challenge lies in finding the right concentration and how it works inside the
cell. In this case, we’ve discovered an important part of that equation.
Resveratrol seems to have a therapeutic gain by making tumor cells more
sensitive to radiation and making normal tissue less sensitive.” Resveratrol
is known for its ability to protect plants from bacteria and fungi.
Previous antioxidant studies have not shown how and why they work at the
cellular level. At the suggestion of a young scientist in his lab, Okunieff
began studying resveratrol as a tumor sensitizer. The discovery of its link to
the mitochondria is critical because, like the cell nucleus, the mitochondria
contains its own DNA and has the ability to continuously supply the cell with
energy when functioning properly. Stopping the energy flow theoretically stops
the cancer.
Researchers divided pancreatic cancer cells into two groups: cells
treated without resveratrol, or with resveratrol, at a relatively high dose of
50 mg/ml, in combination with ionizing radiation. [The study reports that
resveratrol concentration in red wine can be as high as 30 mg/ml, but this is
not the same as cells treated in a laboratory.]
Laboratory experiments showed that resveratrol:
-
Reduced the function of proteins in the pancreatic cancer cell membranes that are responsible for pumping chemotherapy out of the cell, making the cells chemo-sensitive.
-
Triggered the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are substances circulating in the human body. When ROS is increased, cells burn out and die.
-
Caused apoptosis, which is likely the result of increased ROS.
-
Depolarized the mitochondrial membranes, which indicates a decrease in the cell’s potential to function. Radiation alone has much less effect.
Investigating why pancreatic cancer cells seem to be particularly
resistant to chemotherapy, the team also found the normal pancreatic function
that pumps or channels powerful digestive enzymes into the duodenum. also ends
up ridding the needed chemotherapy from cells in the pancreas. But just as
reseveratrol interferes with the cancer cells’ energy source, it also may
decrease the power available to pump chemotherapy out of the cell.
“While additional studies are needed,” Okunieff said, “this
research indicates that resveratrol has a promising future as part of the
treatment for cancer.” In the same journal, Okunieff and his group also
reviewed why resveratrol protects normal tissue, and found that antioxidants can
be designed to take advantage of certain biochemical properties or cellular
targets, making theuser. All are from the
Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Rochester Medical Centem more effective.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases funded the research through a URMC program called the Center for Medical Countermeasures Against Radiation. Co-authors on the studies are: Weimin Sun, Wei Wang, Jung Kim, Peter Keng, Shanmin Yang, Hengshan Zheng, Chaomei Liu, Lurong Zhang, Jacqueline P. Williams, Steven Swarts and Amy K. Huser. All are from the Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Rochester Medical Center.
Alcohol may prevent rheumatoid arthritis: study - By Ben Hirschler,
June 15, 2007
BARCELONA
(Reuters) - More good news for drinkers -- imbibing regularly may halve your
risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, according to scientists. New research
presented at the annual European Congress of Rheumatology showed drinking at
least three units of alcohol a week had clear protective effects and 10 units
brought more protection still. One unit is roughly equivalent to a glass of wine
or a small beer.
Previous
studies have indicated alcohol may also have a beneficial role in heart disease,
stroke, some forms of cancer, and perhaps Alzheimer's. Henrik Kallberg of the
Karolinska Institute in Stockholm said his research showed consuming three or
more units was associated with a 50 percent drop in the risk in developing
rheumatoid arthritis (RA). That was enough to offset the risk of developing RA
caused by smoking or genetic factors, according to his analysis of 2,075 Swedes
with and without the crippling joint disorder.
Although
more work is needed to unravel the science behind the connection, Kallberg said
it was likely that alcohol suppressed the immune system and damped down the
inflammatory process behind the condition. “These data now show not only that
alcohol can protect against RA and reduce the risk conferred by smoking or
susceptible genes, but also give an idea of the relevant doses necessary,” he
said.
RA, which is distinct from the more
common osteoarthritis, is a degenerative inflammatory disorder in which the
body’s own immune system attacks joint tissues, leading to swelling,
tenderness, and increasing disability. It affects more than 20 million people
worldwide.
A drink may help high blood pressure risk - Jan 2,
2008
Men with high blood pressure are usually advised to avoid alcohol, but U.S. and
Dutch researchers said that a drink or two every day may reduce their chances of
a heart attack. The study of 11,000 men supports other research that shows
small-to-moderate amounts of alcohol can lower the risk of heart disease by
increasing the levels of high density lipoprotein, or "good"
cholesterol and by making blood less likely to clot. Drinkers in general have a
bigger risk of high blood pressure, and heavy drinking raises the risk of early
death overall, including from heart disease. But many studies have shown that
moderate drinkers may be healthier.
The team at the Harvard School of
Public Health, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Wageningen University
in the Netherlands wanted to see if men with high blood pressure, who are
generally advised not to drink, might safely enjoy a little wine, beer, or
spirits. They analyzed data from 11,711 health professionals taking part in a
long-term survey (1986 to 2002).
Beulens, visiting Harvard from Wageningen, said two drinks appear to be the limit -- something found in other studies. “So our findings are not a license for men with hypertension to overindulge,” she added in a statement. “Because excess alcohol intake clearly increases blood pressure, many men with hypertension are counseled not to drink, but our results suggest that may not be necessary if men drink safely and responsibly.” Writing in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the researchers noted that they only studied male health care professionals, so it is not clear whether the findings apply to women or men in different occupations.
Wine may calm inflammation in blood vessels (Yahoo
News, Nov. 27, 2007)
A new study suggests that women who drink moderate
amounts of wine may have less inflammation in their blood vessels. Spanish
researchers found that after four weeks of drinking two glasses of wine per day,
women showed lower levels of certain inflammatory substances in their blood. The
findings, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggest
a mechanism by which wine - particularly red wine - may protect the heart.
Numerous studies have found that wine drinkers tend
to have lower rates of heart disease than teetotalers. Higher levels of
“good” HDL cholesterol may be a reason, but wine lovers may, for example,
have better diets, higher exercise levels, or other heart-healthy habits.
Dr. Emilio Sacanella of the U. of Barcelona and his
colleagues looked at inflammation. Chronic, low-level inflammation in response
to stresses like smoking, high cholesterol, and obesity, may contribute to the
buildup of fatty deposits in arteries. Inflammation may also make these plaques
likely to rupture and create a clot that could then trigger a heart attack.
Thirty-five healthy women who regularly drank wine
each spent four weeks on a heart-healthy, but wine-free diet followed by four
weeks in which they had a glass of red wine with lunch and dinner. They followed
the same pattern with white wine.
Overall, the study found, the women’s HDL levels
climbed after four weeks of drinking, while their blood levels of a number of
inflammatory substances, such as C-reactive protein, declined. Red wine had a
more pronounced effect than white wine. The greater benefit of red wine may be
related to its higher concentration of polyphenols. Polyphenols are plant
compounds that act as antioxidants and may help reduce inflammation.
According to Sacanella, population studies have
suggested that people who drink moderate amounts of wine - about a glass
or two per day - may lower their risk of dying from heart disease by
nearly one-third compared with nondrinkers.
SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
November 2007.
Three drinks a day ups breast cancer risk
- by Michael Kahn, September 27, 2007
Three or more drinks a day, whether beer, wine, or
spirits, boost a woman’s risk of breast cancer as much as smoking a pack of
cigarettes. The alcohol/breast cancer relationship is known, but there has been
little data on whether the choice of drink made a difference, said Arthur
Klatsky of Kaiser Permanente. The amount consumed, not the type of drink, is
key.
Other studies have shown that light to moderate
alcohol use can protect against heart attacks, though Klatsky said other
mechanisms were probably at work. The heart protection likely comes from
alcohol-induced “good” cholesterol which reduces blood clotting.
The researchers looked at the drinking habits of
more than 70,000 women from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Consuming one to
two alcoholic drinks per day increased the risk of breast cancer by 10%. The
risk jumped by 30% in women who drank more than three drinks a day. The results
were similar in different age and ethnic groups.
Drinking linked to endometrial cancer risk
- by Amy Norton (Reuters Health)
Older women who drink two or more alcoholic
beverages a day may have an elevated risk of endometrial (the lining of the
uterus) cancer. Obesity, late menopause, and early menarche (onset of
menstruation) raise exposure to estrogen and have been linked to endometrial
cancer.
Alcohol raises the estrogen level of postmenopausal
women, which may explain the new findings. The results underscore the potential
risks of too much alcohol, according to Dr. Veronica Wendy Setiawan at the U. of
Southern California. “Moderation is the key.”
Setiawan and her colleagues report the findings in
the International Journal of Cancer (November 1, 2007). The findings are
based on data from 41,574 postmenopausal women who reported their drinking
habits and other lifestyle and health factors when they entered the study. Women
who averaged two or more alcoholic drinks a day were twice as likely to develop
the cancer as nondrinkers were. No such risk was seen among lighter drinkers.
It’s not possible to speculate about the effects
of alcohol on endometrial cancer in younger women, according to Setiawan, but
there is evidence that younger women who drink relatively heavily (two drinks or
more a day) have higher estrogen levels than nondrinkers.
For women, getting drunk boosts heart attack risk -
by Anne Harding, Reuters
A new study provides more evidence that when it
comes to alcohol and health, moderation is key. While women who drank were at
lower risk of having a nonfatal heart attack than those who abstained from
alcohol, getting drunk once a month or more, sharply increased their risk, Dr.
Joan M. Dorn of the University at Buffalo, New York, and colleagues found. “If
it’s enough to slur your speech or alter your behavior, it’s too much for
your heart. It may be a marker for a different lifestyle - women who get
intoxicated might be different from those who don’t,” she added. “It may
also be a marker for the way certain women metabolize alcohol.”
Moderate drinking appears to lower heart disease
risk, but there is less information on how patterns of drinking influence risk.
Dorn compared 320 women who had suffered nonfatal heart attacks with 1,565
healthy controls. Among heart attack patients, 8.5 percent had drunk enough to
become intoxicated on occasion, compared to 1.3 percent of the controls.
Women who drank as little as one or fewer drinks when they drank had a significantly lower risk of heart attack than abstainers. Those who had three drinks a day had half the risk of abstainers, as did those who drank daily. However, women who reported getting intoxicated at least once a month were at nearly triple the risk of abstainers and at more than six times the risk of women who drank alcohol but never got drunk. “They don't have to get drunk every weekend, it was just as little as once a month,” Dorn noted. SOURCE: Addiction, May 2007.
Alcohol May Lower the
Risk of Kidney Cancer - Reuters,
August 24, 2007
Alcohol consumption may lower the risk of developing kidney cancer, according to
a report in the British Journal of Cancer. Dr. Alicja Wolk, from the
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, and colleagues investigated the association of
different types of alcoholic beverages and of total alcohol consumption with the
risk of kidney cancer in a large population-based study in Sweden. The study
involved 855 subjects with kidney cancer and 1204 controls without cancer. They
reported their alcohol consumption in terms of standard portion sizes and rated
the alcohol content of different beverages:
The team found that
the odds of developing kidney cell cancer were about 40-percent lower among
those who consumed 620 grams of ethanol per month compared to those who did not
drink at all. [But not all the categories showed consistent effects.] Drinking
more than two glasses of red wine per week was associated with a 40-percent
reduction in kidney cell cancer risk compared with drinking no red wine, and
there were similar trends for more than two glasses per week of white wine or
strong beer. In contrast, there was no relation between kidney cancer risk and
consumption of light beer, medium-strong beer, strong wine, or hard liquor.
“A reduced risk
associated with consumption of wine and beer might be due to the phenolics they
contain, as these possess antioxidant and antimutagenic properties,” the
authors speculate. “However, the lower risk that we observed for three
different alcoholic beverages and total ethanol intake suggests that alcohol
itself rather than a particular type of drink is responsible for the reduction
in risk.”
SOURCE: British
Journal of Cancer, July 24, 2007.
Red Wine Helps Reduce Risk of Colorectal Cancer
Consumption
of more than three glasses of red wine a week reduced the risk for significant
colorectal neoplasia (SCRN), or colon cancer, according to research reported
yesterday by the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG).
Joseph
C. Anderson, M.D. and his colleagues at SUNY Stony Brook compared the drinking
habits of 360 red and white wine drinkers with similar lifestyles as part of a
study examining the prevalence of colorectal neoplasia. They found that drinking
red wine significantly reduced the risk of colorectal neoplasia by 68%, but
drinking white wine did not. Researchers suspect that higher concentrations of
the compound resveratrol in red wine may provide a protective effect against
colon cancer.
There
is great interest in lifestyle and dietary factors and their impact on health
and the development of disease. This research highlights the potential role of
red wine in chemoprevention of colon cancer, but when it comes to proven
prevention strategies, screening for colorectal cancer remains essential and is
the most proven preventative measure that individuals can use to reduce their
risk of developing this disease. Screening tests can find precancerous polyps,
allowing removal before they turn into cancer. Colorectal cancer is one of the
most detectable, and if found early enough, the most treatable forms of cancer,
according to the American College of Gastroenterology.
New Clue to Red wine’s
Heart-Protecting Effect: Nature,
11/30/06
Dr. Roger Corder, from Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, and his associates cultured human blood vessel cells and exposed them to 165 different wines to identify the polyphenols with the most potent effect on blood vessels. They found that procyanidins suppress production of a protein called endothelin-1 that constricts blood vessels. High-performance liquid chromatography identified oligomeric procyanidins as the specific phenolic constituent responsible for this effect.
People living in Nuoro province, Sardinia, and southwest France have higher than normal average longevity. And wines from those regions, Corder and colleagues found, had a 2- to 4-fold higher inhibitory effect on endothelin-1 and significantly higher oligomeric procyanidin levels than other wines. Traditional winemaking methods and use of the flavonoid-rich grape Tannat commonly grown in southwest France result in high levels of oligomeric procyanidins in the local wine.
Alcohol Doesn’t Affect Prostate Cancer Risk: International
Journal of Cancer, 9/06
Drinking does not appear to be associated with the overall incidence of
prostate cancer; however, men who drink alcohol may have a lower risk of having
an aggressive prostate cancer and dying from this cancer. “Although there is
little evidence to support an association between alcohol consumption and
prostate cancer risk, questions remain concerning the effect on aggressive and
non-aggressive tumors and the pattern and type of alcohol consumed,” Dr.
Graham G. Giles and colleagues from the University of Melbourne, Australia,
write.
The researchers analyzed data on 16,872 men followed from 1994 to 2003. The participants ranged in age from 27 to 70 years at the beginning of the study when questionnaires were used to obtain detailed information on alcohol consumption. A total of 732 cases of prostate cancer occurred, including 132 aggressive cases and 53 prostate cancer-related deaths. Overall, no association was observed between alcohol intake and the development of prostate cancer. Also, the pattern of drinking and type of alcohol were not significantly associated with prostate cancer risk.
Compared with abstainers, men who consumed 1 to 19 gram per day of alcohol, (no more than about one and a half drinks per day), had a slightly reduced risk of aggressive prostate cancers (34 percent). Prostate cancer mortality was also reduced in this group (44 percent).
Two drinks daily help men avoid heart attack
Even healthy men may benefit from a drink or two daily to help lower the risk of heart attack. “Our results suggest that moderate drinking could be viewed as a complement, rather than an alternative,” to lifestyle interventions such as regular physical activity, weight loss and quitting smoking, said the study from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Previous studies linked moderate drinking to
lower heart attack risk compared with nondrinking. Alcohol appears to raise the
level of “good” cholesterol in the bloodstream. This study, published in the
Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at nearly 9,000 men who were part of a
large multi-year study tracking their health histories. The group of men studied
were nonsmokers, not overweight, got at least 30 minutes of exercise daily, and
had diets heavy in fruits, vegetables, fish, and polyunsaturated fats, but low
in trans-fats and red meat.
Red wine slows
Alzheimer’s-like disease in mice
Giving mice with Alzheimer’s-like disease the equivalent of a couple of
glasses of red wine daily slows memory loss and brain cell death, a new study
shows. The researchers calibrated the animals’ wine intake to match the
USDA’s definition of moderate wine consumption, a single 5-ounce glass daily
for women and two glasses for men, according to Dr. Giulio Maria Pasinetti of
the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. The findings back up
epidemiological research linking moderate alcohol consumption to a lower
dementia risk.
Pasinetti and his
team randomly gave mice Cabernet Sauvignon or ethanol -- the type of alcohol in
alcoholic beverages -- in their drinking water for seven months. Another group
of mice drank plain water. All of the animals had a genetic defect that caused
them to develop amyloid plaques in their brains, similar to what occurs in
humans with Alzheimer’s disease.
The researchers then
tested the animals’ memory by putting them through a series of maze tests
after the animals had been alcohol-free for three days. Pasinetti and his team
found that the wine-drinking mice learned to escape from the maze significantly
faster than those drinking alcohol-spiked water or water only. Based on the
findings, and given that moderate wine consumption may protect the heart,
Pasinetti said that older people in good health who don’t have the metabolic
syndrome, high blood pressure, liver problems, issues with alcohol dependence,
or other reasons to avoid alcohol, can choose to drink red wine moderately as
part of a healthy lifestyle. Drinking wine, he noted, is “a good lifestyle
factor that everybody appears to like.”
SOURCE: The FASEB
Journal, November 2006.
Alcohol in Moderation May Extend
Life
(Reuters, 12/12/2006)
Moderate drinking may lengthen your life, while too much may shorten it, Italian
researchers report. Their conclusion is based on pooled data from 34 large
studies involving more than one million people and 94,000 deaths. According to
the data, drinking a moderate amount of alcohol (up to four drinks per day in
men and two drinks per day in women) reduces the risk of death from any cause by
18 percent, the team reports in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
When consumption goes beyond these levels, men who have more than four drinks per day and women who exceed two drinks per day not only lose the protection that alcohol affords, but they increase their risk of death, said study leader Dr. Augusto Di Castelnuovo from Catholic University of Campobasso. The difference between men and women has to do with how men and women metabolize alcohol, researchers say. It’s been shown that when men and women who drink the same amount of alcohol, women experience higher blood alcohol levels than men. Women who consume more than two glasses of alcohol per day may be at increased risk for diseases of the liver and certain types of cancer.
The manner in which alcohol is consumed also appears to be important, the researchers report. “Little amounts, preferably during meals appears to be the right way (to drink alcohol),” said Dr. Giovanni de Gaetano of Catholic University, another author of the study. “This is another feature of the Mediterranean diet, where alcohol - especially wine - is the ideal partner of a dinner or lunch, but that’s all: the rest of the day must be absolutely alcohol-free.”
“The message carried by scientific studies like ours is simple,” Dr. de Gaetano continued. “Alcohol can be a respectful guest on our table, but it is good just when it goes with a healthy lifestyle, where moderation leads us toward a consumption inspired by quality not by quantity.” SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, December 11, 2006
Alcohol cuts diabetes risk in older women
Drinking moderate amounts of alcohol appears to protect older women from developing type 2 or non-insulin-dependent diabetes, Dutch researchers report. Although an association between alcohol use and reduced diabetes risk has been observed previously, much exploration of this topic has centered on men, and few studies have involved older women, Dr. Michael L. Bots of University Medical Center Utrecht and colleagues note in the journal Diabetes Care.
Because diabetes
increases with age, and most type 2 diabetic patients are women, Dr. Bots’s
team investigated the relationship between alcohol and diabetes onset in older
women. The team examined data from a cohort of more than 16,300 women aged 49 to
70 years who were diabetes-free at enrollment and were followed for an average
of 6.2 years. During this period, 760 women were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Compared with abstainers, women consuming moderate amounts of alcohol (5 to 30
grams per week) were much less likely to develop diabetes. Ten grams of alcohol
constitutes one standard drink.
There was no
association with type of drink. Lifetime alcohol consumption was associated with
type 2 diabetes in a U-shaped fashion; it was increased in abstainers and
excessive drinkers in comparison with those with moderate consumption. The
investigators note that their data “agree with previous observations and
expand this evidence to older women and lifetime alcohol consumption.”
SOURCE: Diabetes
Care, December 2005.
Moderate drinking
may lower kidney cancer risk
Moderate alcohol intake appears to be associated with a decreased risk of kidney
cancer in middle-aged and older women, according to a study conducted in Sweden.
Dr. Alicja Wolk of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, and colleagues examined
data on 59,237 women who were 40 to 76 years of age and cancer-free between 1987
and 1990. The women had completed a food-frequency questionnaire that included
questions about alcohol intake.
A total of 132 cases
of kidney cancer -- specifically a common type called renal cell carcinoma --
were diagnosed by 2004, according to a report published in the International
Journal of Cancer. Overall, the women who drank at least one serving of alcohol
per week had a 38 percent lower risk of renal cell carcinoma than those who
drank less. For women over 55 years old, the risk was reduced even more, by 66
percent.
“The nature of the
association between alcohol consumption and renal cell carcinoma is not well
understood,” Wolk and colleagues note. “In postmenopausal women, moderate
consumption of alcohol was associated with decreased triglyceride
concentrations,” they point out. “Thus, alcohol consumption has similar
effects as cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, use of which has been associated
with a 20 percent decrease of renal cell carcinoma risk.”
SOURCE: International
Journal of Cancer, December 2005.
More on Wine and Heart Disease
LONDON (Reuters) -
Moderate alcohol consumption reduces the risk of heart disease in both men and
women, but the beneficial effects seem to work differently in men and women,
according to Danish researchers. For men drinking daily seems to have the
biggest positive effect on health, while in women the fact that they drink is
important. “The risk of heart disease was lowest among men who drank every
day,” said Janne Tolstrup of the National Institute for Public Health in
Copenhagen. But a daily tipple did not further cut the odds of heart disease in
women, according to the findings reported in the British Medical Journal.
Most
of the research into alcohol and heart disease has been done on men. Little is
known about the impact on women. The researchers studied the effects of alcohol
on more than 50,000 men and women over more than five years. Men in the study
who drank only one day a week had a 7 percent reduced risk of heart disease
compared to non-drinkers, but daily moderate drinkers were 41 percent less
likely to suffer from heart disease.
Women
consumed an average of 5.5 alcoholic drinks a week, about half of what the men
drank. But in women the percentages of reduced risk were similar, regardless of
whether they drank one day or seven days a week. The fact that a woman drinks is
more of a determining factor in heart health than how often she drinks.
Tolstrup
and her colleagues said the beneficial effects of moderate drinking in cutting
heart disease risk are well documented, but they warned that heavy alcohol
consumption is linked to liver diseases, cancer, and road accidents.
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