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Health Benefits of Red Wine
Red Wine Benefits
Resveratrol, this antioxidant can protect against cancer, heart disease and diabetes. It can lower cholesterol, reduce inflammation and ease pain. Best of all, perhaps, it can help users live 30% longer than they would without it.
Resveratrol -- a substance found most notably in red wine -- is sometimes called a miracle molecule - the evidence is nearly overwhelming that resveratrol can work wonders for your health.
Resveratrol has multiple health benefits, including roles as antioxidants, cancer and stroke preventing agents, delays dementia and blood thinners and blood pressure - lowering compounds.
Substances in grapes can block a key intracellular signaling pathway involved in the development of colon cancer before a tumor develops. The resveratrol chemical is found naturally in grape skins, wine and also in peanuts.
Eighty grams of grape powder equal a half glass of wine or 1 pound of grapes, The study of 499 colorectal cancer patients found that moderate wine consumption before developing colon cancer was associated with improved survival outcomes among those patients with family history of colorectal cancer.
The researchers found that 75 percent of such patients were alive after 10 years of initial diagnosis, compared to 47 percent of such patients who did not regularly drink wine. Study results appeared in the October 2007 issue of Nutrition and Cancer.
Wine consumption may influence survival among a subset of colorectal cancer patients, specifically those with family history of the disease. Researchers have known for a long time that there is a link between diet and cancer.
Every glass of red wine contains hundreds of different phenolic compounds (or poly-phenols), some of which slow the damaging cell oxidation process.
Wine consumption was given a significant boost in the early 1990s by Dr. Serge Renaud, a French researcher. His studies show that red wine is able to disperse the fat-derived cholesterol that builds up in the arteries, which lowers your risk of a coronary heart disease.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University (October 2006) fed mice a moderate dose of a compound found in red grape skins and seeds before inducing stroke-like damage. They found that the animals suffered less brain damage than similarly damaged mice who were not treated with the compound called resveratrol.
When they pre-treated the animals with resveratrol orally, they observed a significant decrease in the area of stroke damage by about 40 percent. Researchers claim what is unique about this study is we have somewhat identified what can be the specific mechanism, in the wine that is good for health - we are building cell resistance against free radical damage.
The study showed that resveratrol increases levels of an enzyme in the brain - heme oxygenase - that was already known to shield nerve cells from damage. The beneficial effects associated with drinking a moderate amount of red wine could be explained by the fact the wine turns on the heme oxygenase anti-oxidant system.
Red wine has been suggested for the heart. It has a special effect with stroke and pre-treatment, and it suggests that prophylactic use of wine works. The fermentation process in wine-making boosts the concentration of resveratrol.
Researchers report (October 2006) that a glass of red wine per day may prevent colon cancer. Though previous research has linked alcohol consumption to an increased risk for colon cancer, this study found that red wine may be an exception to this rule, reported Joseph Anderson, M.D., of Stony Brook University.
Red wine drinkers were 68% less likely than non-drinkers to be diagnosed with colon cancer.
Researchers from Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found men who drink four to seven glasses of red wine a week are only 52 percent as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer as those who don't drink red wine.
The report, published in the June 2007 issue of Harvard Men's Health Watch, was based on a small study examining the risk of prostate cancer in 1,456 men aged between 40 and 64, including alcohol consumption.
ONE alcoholic drink a day slows the progression of dementia in older people.
A study in Italy (May 2007) involving 1,445 people found that 121 had early signs of dementia. But the researchers found those patients who drank one alcoholic drink a day - in most cases a glass of wine - developed dementia at a rate 85 per cent slower than people who never drank alcohol.
Red wine contains large quantities of resveratrol, an anti-fungal chemical that occurs naturally under the skin of red wine grapes and has demonstrated anti-cancer properties.
The amount of wine that must be consumed in order to reap the benefits of the compound will vary depending on a person's weight and the concentration of resveratrol in the wine, but it will probably work out to about two glasses a day.
An ordinary laboratory mouse will run one kilometer on a treadmill before collapsing from exhaustion. But mice given resveratrol, a minor component of red wine and other foods, run twice as far. They also have energy-charged muscles and a reduced heart rate, just as trained athletes do, according to an article published online (November 2006) in Cell by Johan Auwerx and colleagues at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in Illkirch, France.
Research shows that a Mediterranean diet plays an important role in the prevention of coronary artery disease, metabolic syndrome (prediabetes) and reduces the chances of a premature death.
The main features of what is generally spoken of as the Mediterranean diet are:
• High consumption of fruits, vegetables, bread and other cereals, potatoes, beans, nuts and seeds;
• Olive oil is the key monounsaturated fat source;
• Dairy products, fish and poultry are consumed in low to moderate amounts;
• Little red meat is eaten;
• Eggs are eaten zero to four times a week; and
• Red wine is drunk in moderate (or low) amounts.
The skin and seeds of grapes are a rich source of proanthocyanidins, a class of antioxidant flavonoids that remove harmful free oxygen radicals from cells. Grape products (juice and red wine) are known for their heart healthy effects, especially in lowering levels of blood cholesterol. Because grape seeds contain higher concentrations of these chemicals, they are widely marketed as dietary supplements.
Chemicals found in grape seeds significantly inhibit growth of colorectal tumors in both cell cultures and in mice, according to researchers (October 2006) who have already demonstrated the extract's anti-cancer effects in other tumor types.
It is clear that red wine is good medicine. Physicians should prescribe a daily glass of red wine to their patients who are residents in retirement homes and skilled nursing facilities.
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