wine and health

Big news! The latest study on the association between alcohol and breast cancer found what all the numerous prior studies using the same methods found: even small amounts of consumption increase the risk, regardless of the type of alcoholic beverage, even red wine. But as I point out in my book Age Gets Better with Wine , they are simply repeating the same mistakes and failing to see the big picture. Here’s why: Self-reporting bias . Studies such as this, which seem to derive power from their large numbers, only magnify the errors if the data isn’t reliable. The nurses in this study were asked to fill out questionnaires on their drinking habits and other lifestyle factors every 6 months. It is widely acknowledged that this retrospective self-reporting is highly unreliable. So having a hundred thousand or even a million participants doesn’t yield stronger data, it just magnifies the error. Statisticians are of course aware of this and attempt to make adjustments according to known beh...

There is hardly a stickier subject than alcohol consumption and breast cancer, except perhaps the wildly exaggerated claims for resveratrol supplements. A new study helps to clarify the picture by looking at resveratrol’s interaction with estrogen receptors on breast cancer cells, though we still have a ways to go before resveratrol can be recommended for duty in the breast cancer battle. Some historical context will help put things into perspective. Most studies have concluded that breast cancer risk is increased by alcohol consumption, though the effect at moderate drinking levels is a very difficult thing to measure. On the other hand, it is well-documented that moderate regular consumption of wine is associated with longer life and lower rates of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and Alzheimer’s. Though red wine contains a number of antioxidant molecules, resveratrol has emerged as one of the more interesting ones despite that fact that wine doesn’t actually h...

Anti-alcohol activists fired another salvo last week in Australia with the release of a paper by the Alcohol Policy Coalition challenging the view that regular consumption of red wine is good for the heart. They even went so far as to proclaim wine’s health benefits a busted myth. The paper authoritatively bases its interpretation on a review of “all the scientific evidence” and asserts that red wine has “no special, protective qualities when it relates to cardiovascular disease.” I too have reviewed a lot of data on this subject for my book “Age Gets Better with Wine” and came to the exact opposite conclusion. So again I am left to wonder how such this well-meaning group of knowledgeable people can still get it so wrong? It may be that the Australians are just a bit behind the times on this one, so let’s back it up a few years. Nearly all of what is now gospel about lifestyle factors and heart health comes from the Framingham study , now in its fourth generation. Back in the 1970...

Do the new findings about the resveratrol derivative SRT-1720 extending the normally shortened lifespan of obese mice tell us anything new? It’s been a long and ultimately disappointing road with the red wine derivative resveratrol, once touted as the basis for miracle anti-aging drugs and now a fading star. As I have described here before, resveratrol was purported to activate an enzyme system known as sirtuins, which in turn activate anti-aging genes that trigger a unique lifespan extension phenomenon normally associated with severe caloric restriction. Take a pill and skip the starvation diet was the promise, and live up to 40% longer. The idea was so compelling that the biotech company Sirtris was founded to exploit more potent (and patentable) resveratrol derivatives such as SRT-1720. This latest report showed that giving mice resveratrol after rendering them morbidly obese through an unhealthy diet helped them live longer than they normally would have, by improving insulin s...

Many people accept as gospel that organic food (and wine is a food) is healthier. No chemicals, harmful pesticides, or hormones must mean more nutritional value, right? Maybe, but there is a surprising lack of evidence in the form of dietary intervention studies –that is, actual measures of health parameters comparing organic and regular diets. That isn’t to say that there aren’t any, and recent studies are helping to shed some light on the subject. Beyond the questions of environmental stewardship and moral/ethical reasons to eat organic, it is important to identify what sorts of nutrients that organic foods might contain in greater abundance and how this translates into better health. Vitamins aren’t the answer; simple enough to take a multivitamin pill and get what you need. A more promising possibility is antioxidants, nutrients such as the polyphenols that make red wine red and in general seem to be more prevalent in brightly colored foods. Antioxidants come in a variety of ty...

As we have discussed here before, the question of alcohol consumption and breast cancer is a volatile one, but a new study helps to shed some light on the subject. It becomes especially difficult for a subset of women with a genetic trait that places them at increased risk. Two genes, called BRCA1 and BRCA2, are mutations of genes that normally code for tumor suppression. When one of these mutations is present, the chances of developing breast cancer are substantially increased, and it is now routine to test for them when there is a family history of breast cancer. And given the consensus that alcohol consumption further increases the odds of developing breast cancer, it might make sense that the BRCA gene and drinking would be an especially dangerous mix. But when it comes to red wine, the story takes a different turn. This new study, from the University of Ottawa in Montreal, looked at a large population of women with breast cancer, and tested them for BRCA. Additionally, d...

If current trends continue, an epidemic of diabetes is looming over the country. Are wine drinkers exempt? There is good evidence that wine drinkers are less likely to develop type 2 (non insulin-dependent) diabetes, and recent research may help explain why: wine derived compounds work in much the same way as popular diabetes medications. To begin with, type 2 diabetes is typically associated with obesity, a main reason for the upward trend in developed countries. Wine drinkers tend to have healthier lifestyles overall so a certain amount of the benefit relates to healthier eating and exercising regularly. However, there seems to be more to it than that, and now we have biochemical evidence to back us up. One way that diabetes drugs work is to make cells more sensitive to insulin, which in turn helps them take in sugar. (Type 2 diabetics have a problem with insulin sensitivity, not a lack of insulin as in type 1.) Fat cells in particular become resistant to insulin. Diabetes drug...