Read on.
To your health
Researchers are uncovering new links between moderate drinking and
longevity
By Carol Ann Rintzler
When scientists talk about the relationship between alcohol and
heart disease, the words "J-curve" often pop up. What's a J-curve?
A statistical graph in the shape of a J.
Regarding alcohol and heart disease, the lower peak on the left of
the J shows the risk among teetotalers, the high spike on the right
shows the risk among those who drink too much, and the curve in the
center shows the risk in the moderate middle. In other words, the
J-curve says that people who drink moderately have a lower risk of
heart disease than people who drink too much or not at all.
That's nice. This is better. According to a recent report from the
Alberta (Canada) Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, the J-curve may
also describe the relationship between alcohol and stroke, alcohol
and diabetes, alcohol and bone loss, and alcohol and longevity. The
simple fact is that moderate drinkers appear to live longer,
healthier lives than alcohol abusers and those who don't drink at
all. Skoal!
ALCOHOL AND HEART ATTACK
Yawn. After you've said red wine, what else is there to say?
How about this: Beer. Researchers at Hebrew University Hadassah
Medical School in Jerusalem divided 48 men with coronary artery
disease into two groups. The first got 12 ounces of pale lager a
day for a month; the second got mineral water. Both groups ate a
fruit-and-veggie-rich diet. In the end, 21 of the 24 beer drinkers
had lowered their bad cholesterol, raised their good cholesterol
and reduced the activity of fibrinogen, a natural clot-maker in
blood. None of these changes occurred among those drinking mineral
water, but nobody in either group had a heart attack during the
study.
ALCOHOL AND STROKE
Studies on alcohol and stroke conflict. Some say alcohol may ward
off strokes. Others say no.
The latest news is that an alcohol-plus-caffeine cocktail may
prevent additional brain damage after a stroke has occurred. Last
year, neurologist James C. Grotta and a team of researchers at the
University of Texas-Houston Medical School whipped up an
experimental drug they named caffeinol. One dose delivers as much
caffeine as two cups of strong coffee plus the alcohol in one
drink. The Texans induced stroke in lab rats and gave caffeinol to
half the injured rats within two hours of the stroke. The treated
animals had up to 80% less brain damage than the untreated ones.
Human tests have found that caffeinol is safe; future studies will
tell whether it's effective.
ALCOHOL AND DIABETES
Moderate drinking may reduce a healthy older woman's risk of
developing diabetes. At USDA's Agricultural Research Lab (ARS) at
Beltsville, Md., investigators randomly assigned 63 healthy
postmenopausal women volunteers to one of three two-month-long
regimens: no alcohol, 1/2 ounce a day or 1 ounce a day. The 51
women who completed the study took blood tests to measure their
"fasting insulin levels" (the level of insulin in their blood after
12 hours without food or drink).
Guess what? Among women who drank 1 ounce a day, blood insulin
dropped by 19% compared to no change for those drinking less.
Levels of trigly-cerides, another risk factor for both heart
disease and diabetes, also fell among the women who drank.
ALCOHOL ALTERNATIVES
If you absolutely, positively hate the taste of alcohol, switch to
grape juice, which delivers wine's beneficial plant chemical,
resveratrol, without the alcohol. Suppose you also absolutely,
positively hate grape juice? Pick a pack of peanuts. A 1998
analysis from the USDA research service in Raleigh, N.C., shows
peanuts have 1.7 micrograms to 3.7 micrograms resveratrol per gram
vs. 0.6 micrograms to 8.0 micrograms in red wine. This fact may
explain data from the longrunning Harvard University/Brigham and
Women's Hospital Nurses Health Study, which shows that women who
eat 1 ounce of nuts a day have a lower risk of heart disease. So
let's see, wine, grape juice, peanuts ... decisions,
decisions.
ALCOHOL AND AGE
Alcohol's beneficial effects seem to get more beneficial as you get
older. Among men younger than 35 and women younger than 55,
teetotalers have a lower risk of death than moderate drinkers do.
But pass the 65-year mark, and the British Medical Journal says as
few as three drinks a week for women and eight drinks a week for
men becomes protective. BMJ reports that moderate drinking may save
as many as 5,000 older lives a year, perhaps because older drinkers
avoid the risky behavior that trips younger drinkers into
potentially fatal accidents.
ALCOHOL NUTRITION FACTS LABEL
Right now, alcoholic beverages are the only entries in the food and
drink market sold without a Nutrition Facts label. The National
Consumers League and the Washington-based Center for Science in the
Public Interest are petitioning the Food and Drug Administration to
create an ingredients label for alcoholic beverages. The label
would show the ingredients, the number of standard servings in the
container and the alcohol content and calorie count per serving, so
you can compare products - as well as control what you drink.
ALCOHOL AND INTELLECT
MRI studies have shown that even moderate drinking knocks off some
brain cells. But does this mean a loss of intellect? Maybe
not.
Typically, a person's scores on tests for memory, reasoning and
decision-making decline about 1 point per decade before age 60 and
2-3 points every decade after age 60. Nonetheless, a recent
12-year, 1,488-person survey in Maryland suggests that regular,
moderate drinkers score better over time than teetotalers on the
Mini-Mental State Examination, a standard cognition test.
Alcohol and Bones
Several reliable studies have positively linked chronic alcoholism
to an increased risk of fractures due to loss of bone-mineral
density. And drinking in moderation may have the opposite effect,
especially in postmenopausal women, a group at high risk for
weakened bones.
Researchers at the Bone Metabolism Unit and the Cardiac Center of
Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha measured bone
density among 297 female nondrinkers and 148 imbibers age 65-77. In
the end, women who consumed about an ounce of alcohol a day, the
FDA definition of moderate drinking, had higher total bone density,
higher spinal bone density, and higher forearm bone density than
women who drank more or less or none at all.
Your body destroys old bone and builds new bone every day. As you
age, you continue to break down old bone but lose your ability to
build new bone, hence the characteristic loss of bone called
osteoporosis. The Creighton researchers suggest that alcohol may
lower the concentration of anti-bone hormones, thus preserving
existing bone.
Originally published on March 29, 2004
http://www.dewijnhoek.nl/engdewijnhoek/news/research.htm
Now you can drink without feeling guilty anymore!
