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For People and Rabbits
Here´s some good news for all those of us who care about wine. are not alone. Apparently the media as well as the general public are still eager for scientific news of wine and it´s potential health benefits. Several years have passed since the French Paradox research first went public and the world rejoiced that for once something people enjoyed, i.e. a glass of wine with dinner, may actually be good for them. Some segments of the scientific community remain skeptical that wine confers any additional protection above that reported for moderate alcohol consumption in general.
Only recently, eminent Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Eric Rimm wrote an editorial to this effect in the New England Journal of Medicine. This caused barely a ripple in the news of the day. But just last week, Brazilian scientists reported at a medical conference the results of yet-unpublished data on laboratory animals supporting that red wine helps prevent blocking of the coronary arteries. This research news instantly made newspaper headlines around the world and was reported by many radio and television news out lets. This shows us once again that wine is indeed unique and its scientific mystique continues to intrigue the public.
The study reported on at the European Congress of Cardiology meeting in Birmingham, England by Carlos Vicente Serrano and colleagues from the Instituto de Coraco do Hospital das Clinicas da FMUSP in Sao Paulo is the latest wine-specific research that something in wine besides alcohol, arguably phenolic compounds, helps prevent cholesterol from accumulating in arteries. These new findings also suggest that wine compounds may be more effective in combination with alcohol than without.
This shows us once again
that wine is indeed
unique and its scientific
mystique continues to
intrigue the public.
In the study of 30 rabbits given a special high fat diet, 10 rabbits had 60% of a key coronary artery covered with artherosclerotic plaque, while 10 others who were also fed red wine had only 38% of the artery covered. A final group of 10 were fed non-alcoholic red wine and had only 48% of the artery clogged. These results led researchers to note some sort of "magic ingredient" in red wine that protects against heart disease. That ingredient is "probably flavonoids," said the researchers--"substances that are present in fruits and vegetables of the so-called Mediterranean diet, and that are also present in red wine.
Other new favorable research about wine finds key French Paradox researcher Serge Renaud still in pursuit of answers in this fascinating subject. A French research team led by Renaud has found that consumption of wine-particularly red wine-is not associated with the potentially damaging "platelet rebound effect" sometimes responsible for sudden strokes after an event of very heavy drinking. Reporting in Clinica Chimica Acta, the researchers write, "Wine, as compared to spirits, seems to supply natural antioxidants that inhibit" the rebound effect, preventing the clumping of blood platelets in the arteries that can cause heart attacks.
Testing the theory that different substances in wine protect against the rebound effect, the French team found that when tannins extracted from grape seeds were added to alcohol, the new solution was also effective in producing a similar reduction in the platelet response. "It was only the tannins added to alcohol that were able to protect against lipid peroxidation much the same as red wine," writes Renaud et al. In addition, say the researchers, the study of platelet functions can justify "that the consumption of alcoholic beverages has to be moderate, preferably at meals, as is the custom in Mediterranean countries." The researchers further report that "consumers of spirits had the highest BMI, since irregular alcohol use involves spirits, whereas daily drinkers mostly consume beer or wine." They also suggest that drinking behavior may not be frequent enough to sustain an energy wasting pathway for alcohol calories as found in other studies reporting no weight gain for regular moderate drinkers.
Several newly published studies report further favorable benefits for moderate alcohol consumption in general. According to a new Danish study, individuals with high LDL (bad cholesterol) levels---putting them at high risk for coronary heart disease--benefit from moderate alcohol consumption. Non-drinkers whose blood contains large amounts of unhealthy LDL cholesterol, according to researchers Hans Ole Hein and colleagues, are much more likely to have heart disease than alcohol consumers with similar LDL levels. The study, featuring the latest data from an ongoing Copenhagen study of 2826 elderly men initiated in 1970, analyzed the interplay between the use of alcohol, cholesterol concentration and heart disease, confirming "an overall inverse association between alcohol intake and risk of ischaemic heart disease."
The results, published in the British Medical journal, were most pronounced for subjects who had either high levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol or low levels of HDL (good) cholesterol. In these cases, abstainers with high LDL were up to five times at risk for heart disease and abstainers with low HDL were up to three times at risk compared to drinkers. "These results support the suggestion that the use of alcohol may in part explain the French Paradox," the researchers concluded.
In other new findings, moderate drinkers were found to be leanest, even when compared to abstainers. Researcher S. Mannisto and colleagues report in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, "Even. after adjusting for age, spare time activity, smoking and non-alcoholic energy intake, daily alcohol drinkers remained the leanest." They further found that wine drinkers were the leanest of all, owing most likely, they speculated, to the regular moderate consumption patterns associated with wine. The study of 27,215 middle-aged Finnish men also found that regular moderate alcohol consumption does not interfere with intakes of necessary daily nutrients---as is sometimes implied in alcohol messages to the public because nutrient intake satisfied recommended requirements in all alcohol beverage consumers.
A new review analysis from Swedish orthopedic
scientist Dr. 0. Johnell, of Malmo General Hospital,
states that while acute and chronic alcohol abuse
can have an adverse effect on bone health, moderate
consumption of alcohol may help prevent osteoporosis.
More evidence is emerging to support that moderate alcohol consumption does not contribute to osteoporosis and may even increase bone density. A new review analysis from Swedish orthopedic scientist Dr. 0. Johnell, of Malmo General Hospital, states that while acute and chronic alcohol abuse can have an adverse effect on bone health, moderate consumption of alcohol may help prevent osteoporosis. published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, Dr. Johnell´s comprehensive paper states "...moderate consumption of alcohol by postmenopausal women may have beneficial effects on bone mineral density. Dr. Johnell reports that the moderate drinkers he studied had higher levels of estrogen-related hormones. Estrogen deficiency is a key factor in the development of osteoporosis.
Secondly, scientists in Italy report in the journal, Epidemiology their study on the determinants of low bone mineral density in 1,373 women (age 40-64 years) no food was predictive, including coffee and alcohol. Franceschi et al cite their findings as further evidence against a causal role for alcohol in osteoporosis.
Third, Professors Robert Marcus, David Feldman and Jennifer Kelsey from Stanford University School of Medicine stress that available data suggest that moderate alcohol consumption is unlikely to be associated with lower bone density and therefore increased osteoporosis risk. They further call for more research on. the potential role of moderate alcohol consumption in preventing osteoporosis.
While all of the above research is important and deserves public attention, it becomes increasingly clear that not all scientific reports find their way into the media. The California Wine Industry will continue to track, analyze and disseminate research findings to educate the public about the role of moderate wine consumption in a healthy life style.
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