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Wine and Health
At
the end of the "70", speaking of the beneficial effect of
wine on health seemed to be nonsense. And yet it already
existed, in international medical and scientific literature,
some very well documented reports suggesting that wine,
in moderation, could be beneficial to health.
Drunk moderately, about a 100ml glass per meal (usually
2 to 4 glasses a day) wine is beneficial to health, reducing
by nearly 40% the risk of
myocardium
infarct and by nearly 25% cerebral vascular thrombosis.
Wine seems to liquefy the blood, reducing the risk of platelets
aggregation and therefore of coagulation.
Wine must be drunk regularly with each meal, to avoid a
higher risk of coagulation if one stops suddenly.
• There are 680
calories in a 750ml bottle of wine
• Therefore a
usual glass contains 50 calories
• As much as an
apple!
Wine components
Nearly
one thousand components have up to now been identified.
Wine contains 85 to 90% water.
It also comprises ethyl acid resulting from yeasts
fermentation. All wine incorporate some acidity from organic
acids among which is tartric acid characteristic of grape.
The mineral composition of wine is special as it
contains potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, iron, sulfates,
phosphoruses, all of which necessary to cover daily needs
of human beings.
Potassium salts and sulfates are known to facilitate diuresis.
Wine also comprises polyols among which glycol which gives
the sweet taste. Wine contains a small amount of azoted
substances as well as 20 amineted acids among which proline
can be found.
It is surprising to notice that the concentration of amineted
acid in wine is very close to that of human blood!
Wine contains vitamins of the group B, and, above
all vitamin P which reinforces the cell-wall of capillary
vessels, lessening the risks of hemorrhage and oedema.
Wine also comprises more specific components which
give it its personality (aroma components) such as phenolic
components. The phenolic component is an element whose molecule
incorporates several phenolic functions among which are
phenolic acids, anthocyanes and tannin.
Click here for a graphical composition of wine
Myocardium
infarct occurs when the cardiac muscle is deprived of oxygenated
blood. Coronary arteries, providing blood are obstructed or
blocked up. Cholesterol appears to be the principal factor
responsible for this.
In 1786, the English Doctor Herbeden already noted that wine
relieved pains of patients suffering from angina pectoris.
In 1970, researches where initiated by Doctor Arthur Klatsky,
cardiologist at the "Kaiser Permanente", hospital center in
Oakland (California). He initiated a study on over 100 000
people.
The first results where published in 1974, and indicate the
fact that the risk of death from coronary diseases (notably
myocardium infarct) is lower for moderate consumers (1 to
3 glasses of wine a day): 6,2 to a 1 000 against 8,2 to a
1 000 for people who do not drink wine and 11 to one thousand
for people drinking more than six glasses of wine a day.
Doctor Rimm of the School of Public Health of Harvard - Cambridge
- Massachusetts calculated that the risk of heart disease
is reduced from 25 to 45% for people drinking 1 or 2 glasses
of wine a day.
According to a study by Doctor Saint-Leger, published in the
famous English medical publication "The Lancet" in 1979, France
and Italy, largest consumers of wine (62 litres of wine a
year per inhabitant) registers the number of death due to
myocardium infarct 2 to 5 times inferior to death registered
in Scotland, Ireland and United States.
An other study published in "The Lancet" a year later, signed
by Doctor Werth, shows that between 1952 and 1978 consumption
of wine in the States rose by 52% and that at the same time
death due to myocardium infarct fell down by 22%.
According to a study by Doctor Dean, for an equal consumption
the risk of death by myocardium infarct is 1,03 for beer-drinkers,
1,00 for spirit-drinkers and only 0,47 for wine-drinkers.
During the TV broadcast "60 minutes" presented in November, 1991 on CBS, Doctor Serge Renaud gave several millions Americans the opportunity of discovering the "French Paradox".
He showed that in most countries, a high consumption of saturated grease is largely correlated to an important number of deaths due to cardiovascular diseases.
It is not the case in France, and in particular in the Toulouse region (South West), famous for its Cassoulet (baked beans with fat duck or goose, pork...) where death due to coronary disease is low.
After the talk about "French Paradox" on American TV Doctor Klasky decided to review his study.
Among the patients of "Kaiser Permanente" medical center, the analyses showed that wine-drinkers presented less risk of death due to cardiovascular disease than non-drinkers.
In fact, according to Professor Masquelier of Bordeaux University (France) wine present in blood accelerates the elimination of cholesterol.
Can wine help cure cancer ?
Laboratory-mice genetically inclined to develop carcinoma received food containing solid red wine extracts.
The result was that it took much longer than normal for those mice to develop cancer and their life expectation increased by 40% in comparison with that of mice normally fed.
This surprising study was carried out by a team of researchers from the University of Davis - California.
Researchers attribute this result to the presence in red wine of polyphenols, in particular to catechine, and to their antioxidizing properties (see
Composition of wine).
The same protection exists in tea and in a great number of fruits and vegetables.
A recent article in the New York Times said that it seems that resveratol, present in the skin of grapes, inhibits the action of agents favourising cancer. It is the case in leukaeamious cells.
But one must be very cautious in this matter.
In a French study,
by Professeur Jean-François Dartigues (INSERM Unit U330), who medically followed
during several years 4 000 inhabitant of the Dordogne, 65 years old or more, it
appeared that people who drank a quarter to half a litre of wine a day had
superior intellectual capacities than people who did not drink or drank to much!
There seem to be 4 out of 5 less cases of senile dementia
and 3 out of 4 of Alzheimer's disease among moderate wine-drinkers
than among non-drinkers.
"It would all the same be premature to recommend a moderate consumption of wine especially to non-drinkers" admits Professeur Orgo.
Principal components of a litre of wine (1 000 ml)
Did you know this ? -
Wine and
Heart
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Wine components- |
