Wine substitute may be healthy – but likely not as tasty.

Is wine the long-sought fountain of youth?

A pharmaceutical company seems to think it may at least be the next best thing, according to this New York Times story that says British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline will plunk down $720 million in cash for shares in a company “pursuing the notion that a compound found in red wine might retard aging and let people live longer.”

That may be well and good. But something tells me they’ll have a hard time making pills taste as delicious as, say, a fruity Sangiovese.

Web sips: New and notable wine headlines, 11/05/07

Handpicked wine stories from across the Web… including a pleasurable wine soaking, an anti-headache device, “apple wine” woes and a tell-all book about the “pope of the vineyards.”

Soak in the pleasure of wine, spirits with a few good books
USA TODAY wine writer Jerry Shriver reports on several wine-related books that have landed on his desk, including a photographic road trip across wine-making America.


Test Created for Wine Headache Chemicals
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have reportedly developed a device that could help avoid the dreaded “red wine headache.” What fun is that?


Germans fear their ‘apple wine’ will lose name under EU plan
In our aptly named say-it-ain’t-so category: German politicians are scared seedless that the name of their traditional “apfelwein” will fall victim to new European Union regs.


Wine, produce, tea prevent cancer tumors
Very high doses of antioxidant polyphenols in red wine, fruits, vegetables and green tea prevent cancerous tumor, French researchers say.


Wine Is A Drink Of Divine Love
Those wine-savvy folks in Croatia get get a blessing during a Saint Martin of Tours celebration.


“Emperor of Wine” Parker picked apart in new book
A former assistant alleges errors and cronyism by the “pope of the vineyards.”


Thirsty for more news? Follow up by digging into continuously updated feeds from national and international news outlets: The focus is on red, white and organic wine bargains.

Study linking alcohol to breast cancer cites wine-drinking dangers

The idea that drinking wine is beneficial to health took a serious setback with the recent release of a Kaiser Permanente report that found consumption of any kind of alcohol raises women’s risk of breast cancer. A recap of reports from various news organizations:

Previous studies found an increased risk of breast cancer associated with alcohol use, The Washington Post reported. What hadn’t been clear was how much the risk increased and whether one type of alcohol was riskier than another.

What the Kaiser Permanente study found was that the degree of risk varies in relation to the amount of alcohol consumed – regardless of the type – whether it’s wine, beer or liquor.

Compared with drinkers who had less than one drink a day, women who consumed one or two drinks a day increased their risk of developing breast cancer by 10 percent. The risk rose to 30 percent for women who had more than three drinks a day, about the same level of risk for women who smoke a pack of cigarettes per day, according to the study.

“In terms of abstinence from alcohol, I don’t think we can generalize to each individual woman,” lead author Yan Li told Bloomberg.com. “But persistent heavy drinking has been linked to breast cancer.”

Although one glass of red wine a day has been linked to lower blood pressure, any such benefit could be outweighed by adverse effects if family history includes cancer: Women who are genetically more likely to have breast cancer, or who have family members who have had the malady, should consider foregoing wine, Li told Bloomberg.

“Any alcohol consumption will raise your breast cancer risk,” Tim Key, of the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit at Oxford, told the Associated Press. “Women don’t have to abstain from alcohol entirely, but they need to be aware of the risks they’re taking when they have a few too many drinks.”

Wine Spectator, in reporting on the Kaiser Permanente study, linked to a 2005 report that eating high amounts of folic acid (leafy greens, citrus fruits, beans and peas) may eliminate breast cancer risks from moderate alcohol consumption.

It quoted the Kaiser Permanente study’s lead scientist Arthur Klatsky acknowledging that responsible consumption of red wine can have some benefits: “We think that the heart-protection benefit from red wine is real, but is probably derived mostly from alcohol-induced higher HDL [good] cholesterol, reduced blood clotting and reduced diabetes (but) none of these mechanisms are known to have anything to do with breast cancer.”

Bottom line, according to the Wine Spectator report: Get medical advice on your particular health factors. “The only general statement that could be made as a result of our findings,” Klatsky said, “is that it provides more evidence for why heavy drinkers should quit or cut down.”

Non-guilty pleasures dept: Evidence of wine’s health benefits mounts

This is the story about how a young doctor learned an amusing lesson from a patient, who would be me.

It happened several years ago, when I went for an annual checkup. My regular doctor was busy, so a young assistant saw me. Before the breathing and the stethoscoping started, we sat together for the usual health-related Q&A. The conversation got interesting when we came to the part about what substances I ingest. It went something like this:

Doctor: Do you take any illegal drugs?

Me: No.

Doctor: Do you drink alcohol?

Me: Yes.

At that point, he stopped writing on his clipboard and looked at me inquisitively.

Me: I like to drink wine with dinner. I guess I picked that up from my father.

Doctor: How is your father?

Me: He’s dead.

Doctor (looking like he was ready to pounce): And how old was he?

Me: Ninety-three.

Realizing there was little to pounce on, the doctor said something akin to, “Oh,” and then proceeded to the remaining questions.

I can’t say whether or not wine contributed to my father’s longevity. But in the years that have followed that medical checkup, there have been a variety of reports about wine’s health benefits, leading me to suspect the young doctor probably doesn’t look so askance any more when a patient admits to wine drinking.

The evidence of wine’s salutary effect continues to mount.

Hippocrates, father of medicine, as envisioned by a Byzantine artist.
Hippocrates, father of medicine, as envisioned by a Byzantine artist.


From: University of Virginia Health Sciences Library

The latest report is a review published today of the book “The Red Wine Diet” by scientist Roger Corder, “who insists that drinking red wine regularly is good for just about everything that might ail you, including heart disease, diabetes and dementia.”

A cardiovascular expert and professor of therapeutics at London’s William Harvey Research Institute, Corder doesn’t deny the destructiveness of alcohol abuse. But he extols the value of moderate wine use, drawing on his own research and historical documentation, including writings of the likes of the 5th century B.C. Greek physician Hippocrates, who prescribed wine as an antiseptic and remedy for other ailments.

Corder, according to the report, even recommends specific wines, including: “Malbec Riserva from Altos Las Hormigas in Argentina, Chateau Montaiguillon and especially those French wines made with tannat grapes in Madiran. The best U.S. wines rated are Robert Mondavi Napa Valley Reserve from California and Matthew Cellars Red from Washington state.”

Earlier this month, Britain’s Times Online reported that patients suffering from a rare disease would be among the first to try a new drug based on the “magic ingredient” in red wine.

The chemical “could lead to a whole family of new drugs with powerful effects against the diseases of ageing,” the report said, adding that a version of the chemical is being tried in India for use against diabetes, “and newer versions hundreds of times more powerful are in the pipeline.”

In February, Dutch researchers told the American Heart Association’s 47th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention that “drinking a little alcohol every day, especially wine, may be associated with an increase in life expectancy,” according to the meeting reports

“The researchers found that a light intake of alcohol (on average less than one glass per day) was associated with a lower rate of cardiovascular death and death from all causes. When compared to spirits and beer, consumption of small amounts of wine, about a half a glass a day, was associated with the lowest levels of all-cause and cardiovascular deaths.”

Who knows whether other findings someday will rebut these reports? But for the time being at least, you shouldn’t feel intimidated telling your physician about your fondness for wine. He may even approve.

 

Web sips: Wine headlines, 8/21/07

Handpicked stories from across the Web…

To Screw Cap Wine Bottles or Not?
Quick answer: Like everything in life, it’s not so simple, according to this informative Q&A that explains the differences and why you have to match the wine with the stopper.

Reader mail meets impossible food wine pairings: nori!
Hint: It has something to do with dried & seasoned seaweed, and a French boyfriend.

‘Pretty fantastic’ grape harvest underway
Some positive but counterintuitive news from California’s North Coast: A smaller than average harvest is predicted, but that typically means “well-developed grapes and good prices.”

Wine as a health drink
Wine has now been officially declared as being good for your health, says a high-ranking official in the Indian federal state of Maharashtra.