Health & Wine - Learn about Wine

Introduction

The medieval doctor Paracelsus used to say that “each substance can be medicine or poison according to the dose”.

Nothing could be truer in the case of wine. The consumption of wine has always been in many different circumstances a symbolic and cultural rite. Wine has always been important for its nutritional, economical and healthy connotations and maybe because of this it has always divided human opinion into two groups: the first group considers wine as a divine drink , a powerful medicine, the mean to obtain well being; the second group considers wine as a diabolical drug, a lethal poison which generates suffering and death.

The answer to this dilemma is in the dose. All the beneficial effects of wine are linked to moderate, intelligent consumption, while the terrible damages are due to excessive, continuous use.

VINUM OPUS DEI
EBRIETAS OPUS DIABOLI
Wine is deed of God
Drunkenness is deed of the devil.
(Latin proverb)

Wine and Age

The effects of wine on health are not the same during the different ages of human beings. The younger the body the faster is the absorption of alcohol, with consequent increased sensitivity and toxicity.

Under 12s
Under 12 it would be better to avoid wine or to have a very small dose, mixed with water.
Teenagers
During the teens, wine consumption is quite dangerous because of the risk of excess, typical of this age. The role of the family, as for every aspect of life, is very important in conditioning the development of correct drinking habits. This is the age when wine needs to find the best place in an overall correct diet and lifestyle.
Adults
In adult life, the consumption of wine in moderate doses can only give beneficial effects.
Elderly
For the elderly, the consumption of wine is even more beneficial. When organs start losing their efficiency, wine helps to prevent degenerative diseases and extend life. It also helps to live a more serene and socially integrated life, because it helps to fight depression and anxiety, which are typical of old age.

Therefore, with educated consumption, wine is a precious ally during the different ages of life.

Wine and Health: A good marriage

Until a few years ago, any association between wine and health would have sounded implausible. For centuries wine had been covered by beliefs, myths and common assumptions, but no scientific research had ever analysed it.
This partially derives from the fact that wine always fed two different attitudes: either refused at first glance or taken for granted and, therefore, not considered worthy of analysis and deeper understanding.
In daily practice, its role has always been linked to religion, conferring upon wine a symbolic element, or to the table, where it was considered an energetic food (each gram of alcohol develops about 7 Kcal).
In the fourteenth century, wine was attributed miraculous properties: there are recipes that use wine to preserve corpses from decomposition. Only later did it start to be considered as a medicine, because alcohol helps to preserve medicinal herbs. In the sixteenth century, wines were mixed with china and assentium, to make them an ideal digestive. These were the precursors of the current Barolo Chinato and Vermouth.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, wine started to become a social problem when millions of people left the slow and reassuring rhythm of the country to be projected into the de-personalising and frantic system created by industrialisation. For many people the only way to forget the degradation and the loss of identity was consumption of wine - a cheap and easy-to-find drug. The parallelism between wine drinker and alcoholic was until recent years automatic and contributed to a fear of this drink in many consumers. The logical consequence of this attitude was the demonisation of wine by the mass-media, who found in the enological sector an extremely fragmented and misinformed antagonist.

Wine’s competitor sectors – the beer, spirits and fizzy drink industries - behaved very differently, creating strong lobbies, and they were able to influence public opinion in their favour by means of huge marketing investments.

But wine is now starting to take its revenge.

Why Wine is Good for You

In 1988 doctor Jean Carper wrote in his book "The Food Pharmacy" that wine is among the natural substances able to prevent heart diseases and to enhance the good cholesterol, HDL, against the bad one LDL: to obtain the desired effect it was enough to drink a glass of red wine with each meal. In 1991 Jack Masquelier during an international seminary on “Grape, wine and health” presented research which demonstrated the beneficial properties of protoantocianidine (colouring substances) of grapes and their anti-oxidant effect.
During a television programme in America in November 1991, Morley Safer said that the French do exactly the contrary of what is good for health: they follow a diet very rich in fats and smoke, but, based on epidemiology researches, they have a percentage of heart diseases much lower than the Americans. This was explained the following year when Renaud and Longeril published research, in the medical magazine Lancet, which became known as the “French paradox”, in which they demonstrated that heart diseases were under control in some French areas because of the protective substances contained in red wine.

In Italy and in the other Mediterranean countries heart diseases are less frequent than in USA or in North Europe, because the Mediterranean diet is rich in beans, vegetables, olive oil, grains, fish, fresh fruit and wine.

Since then hundreds of researchers received funds and started to produce interesting results which are demonstrating that wine is rich in substances that are very beneficial for health.

Here are some of the more exciting results:

40 gr of alcohol per day for men and 20 gr for women decreases the risk of heart diseases by 30%. This depends on the fact that alcohol decreases the platelet aggregation in the blood, limiting the formation of coagulants and thrombosis in the blood vessels. Note that this is true only for regular consumers because this effect is only short term.

In 1933 the presence of resveratrol in red wine was discovered, which is powerful in fighting atherosclerosis and iperlipemia : this substance was used for centuries in traditional Eastern medicine. Recent research says that it also has an anti-cancer effect.

Tests carried out on groups of elderly twins, of which just one drank 1-2 glasses of wine per day, demonstrated that the latter had a better reasoning ability than the teetotal brother. From these considerations some research has been started to demonstrate the correlation between a moderate consumption of wine and the occurrence of Alzheimer disease.

It has been found that elderly people who consume wine regularly during their life have a greater bone density than teetotallers and, therefore, run a lower risk of developing osteoporosis.

Moderate consumers are less depressed under the effect of stress than both teetotallers and heavy drinkers.

Wine is antibacterial not because of the alcohol but because of other substances. It has been demonstrated that non-smoking adults who regularly consume wine are much more resistant to at least five different types of flu.

Resveratrol: Effective Against Heart Diseases and Senile Dementia

Let us state first that an incorrect diet can be a direct cause of tumours and the medical science says that a good balanced diet can be a key preventative action, both on the development and the progress of the disease. This balanced diet has been called a Mediterranean diet and it has food able to neutralise what are known as "free radicals".
Polyphenols and resveratrol in particular are very effective in prevention of atherosclerosis.
Recently, resveratrol has been the object of much research which highlighted its pharmacological power in the prevention of several diseases and, in particular, showed beneficial effects on prevention of tumours.
Among the recent research on resveratrol, Professor Aldo Bertelli of the Pharmacology, Chemotherapy and Toxicology department of the University of Milan, demonstrates a lesser incidence of senile dementia or Alzheimers in elderly people who consume moderate quantities of alcohol. This is due to reveratrol, not to alcohol, and to other polyphenols present in wine.
Epidemiological research has been confirmed by laboratory tests, where it was possible to observe a direct action of resveratrol on the substance that forms the cerebral plaque, considered one of the main factors of Alzheimers disease. An experimental confirmation regarding the beneficial neurological effects of resveratrol is the activation by this substance of the enzymatic neuronal processes that improve memory and learning capabilities.
And against common opinion, Professor Aldo Bertelli believes that the beneficial effects on health of red wine are shared also by white wine. The absorption of resveratrolo and other polyphenols is sufficient for the creation of pharmacological active blood concentration, able to have similar beneficial effects.
It is as well to remember that resveratrol was initially associated with the prevention of heart disease by explanation of the French Paradox, the high consumption of fats and the low incidence of atherosclerosis in the French population, which habitually drinks wine.
Resveratrol is a substance with anti-inflammatory and anti-coagulant effects, thanks to its actions on platelet.
The most recent piece of news is that of a demonstrated inhibitory effect on the formation of tumours. It is clear that with all the new research currently underway, the benefits of resveratrol are due to increase with great advantages for our health.

Does Wine Protect from Cancer?

Wine protects from cancer: the confirmations grow.
The inhibiting action of resveratrol on cancer cells has been clarified, but other substances particularly active are present in wine.
Even if, at the moment, there is no direct evidence of the protective action of wine against cancer, the scientific interest in this field is growing on the basis of epidemiological data and laboratory results. Some of the most recent research is oriented on lung cancer: in the bronchial cells the resveratrol, an antioxidant present in wine, reduced the action of hydrocarbons that cause cancer (1).
In testing, the substance inhibited the development of lung cancer and its metastasis. The antioxidant acted both on the cancer DNA synthesis and on the creation of new vessels, critical point for the cancer reproduction (2). Other research demonstrated how resveratrol de-activated the stomach carcinoma in the isolated cells.
In Chicago some gastroenterologists(3) identified the mechanism of de-activation in the enzymatic key passage of the cell (PKC), whose molecular activity has been further studied in the Cancer Center of Houston (4). In Detroit some oncologists clarified the molecular action used by resveratrol to inhibit the proliferation of lymphocytes of the spleen and to influence the immunitarian response (5). Other oncologists studied the inhibit action of resveratrol on the cancer cell in the prostate (6).
Not all the scientists are convinced that the anticancer effect of wine is exclusively due to resveratrol. The biochemists in Brest introduced in the experiment the dry residue of the whole wine. Both the pure resveratrol and the dry residue inhibited some metabolic activities needed for the development of the liver carcinoma. The dry residue of red wine, as expected, was much more active of the dry residues of cognac, grape juice and white wine. Moreover the activity of dry residue was significantly superior than the one of the isolated resveratrol (7). As a consequence the research to find more anticancer substances in the wine is still ongoing.
Most of the researches on the protective effects of wine come from the Anglo-Saxon world or Japan; these are Countries where the production of wine is very limited its consumption not part of the tradition. These researches are sponsored and funded by government bodies to demonstrate the search of a better strategy in the battle against cancer.
Bibliography
• (1)Mollerup S, Ovrebo S, Haugen A. Lung cancerogenesis: resveratrol modulates the expression of genes involved in the metabolism of PAH in human bronchial epithelial cells. Internat J Cancer 2001; 92: 18-25.
• (2)Kimura Y, Okuda H. Effects of naturally occurring stilbene glucosides from medicinal plants and wine in tumor growth and lung metastasis in Lewi’s lung carcinoma-bearing mice. J Pharm Pharmacol 2000; 52: 1287-95.
• (3)Atten MJ, Attar BM, Milson T, Holian O. Resveratrol-induced inactivation of human gastric adenocarcinoma cells through a protein kinase C-mediated mechanism. Biochem Pharmacol 2001; 62: 1423-32.
• (4)Steward JR, Ward NE, Ioannides CG, O’Brian CA. Resveratrol preferentially inhibits protein kinase c-catalysed phosphorilation of a cofactor-independent, arginine-rich protein substrate by a novel mechanism. Biochemistry 1999; 38: 13244-51.
• (5)Gao X, Xu YX, Janakiraman N, Chapman RA, Gautam SC. Immunomodulatory activity of resveratrol: suppression of lymphocyte proliferation, development of cell-mediated cytotoxicity, and cytokine production. Biochem Pharmacol 2001; 62: 1299-308.
• (6)Kampa M, Hatzoglou A, Notas G. Wine antioxidant polyphenol inhibits the proliferation of human prostate cancer cell lines. Nutrition and Cancer 2000; 37: 223-33.
• (7)Piver B, Berthou F, DreanoY, Lucas D. Inhibition of CYP3A, CYP1A and CYP2E1 activities by resveratrol and other non volatile red wine components. Toxicol Lett 2001; 125: 83-91.
• (8)Jannin B, Delmas D, Cherkaoui Malki M, Latruffe N. Etudes du mécanisme d’action du resvératrol, un polyphénol du vin, sur la prolifération cellulaire. Bulletin OIV 2001; 74: 55-69. Francesco Orlandi Università degli studi di Ancona Gruppo lavoro Accademia vite e vino

Wine and Diabetes

Surprising results of an American research: the risk of this disease is significantly lower in regular, moderate consumers.
Diabetes type 2 is the one that start in the second half of life. The occurrence of this disease is growing with 22 millions of patients. It is the seventh cause of death among people older than 45.
North American scientists developed a national research based on their personal data and published results on the life style and rising of diseases.
In a population of 21.000 doctors teetotal or moderate drinkers in 12 years 766 cases of diabetes type 2 developed. The risk was similar for teetotal and occasional drinkers (up to 3 alcoholic beverages per month). It was significantly lower for people who drink 2 alcoholic drinks per week and it was half for who drink 3 alcoholic drinks per day,
The scientists of Harvard University believe that the protective action of alcohol for diabetes resulted independent from age, smoke, overweight, physical activity and family history. It could be due to the effect of alcohol on insulin secretion and on sensitivity to the hormone.
A second medical research indicated the benefits of moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages. The investigation observed the frequency of death by coronary failure in the diabetes patients. This was significantly lower in the diabetes patients who are moderate drinkers compared to teetotal or heavy drinkers patients. Also in this research it was demonstrated that the protective effect of alcohol was independent from age, smoke, overweight or wealth of the patients.
The message coming from these two researches is strong: they support the recommendation that the moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages is in the official guidelines for the diabetes patient.
Unfortunately these two researches do not show specific data for wine, which certainly have advantages on the other alcoholic beverages.

Also White Wine Protects the Heart

For the first time, international research demonstrates effectiveness comparable to that of red wines.
In epidemiological research on alcohol’s effects (where the effects of a substance is evaluated on entire populations for some time), it is very rare to find the distinction between spirits, beer and wine. In this situation, it is therefore superfluous to talk about the distinction between red and white wine. But, if it is true that there is no research available on human beings, laboratory researches on the components of white wine have been carried out.
In particular, the Department of Human Anatomy of the University of Milan and the Department of neuroscience-pharmacology of the University of Pisa demonstrated how two molecules of the white wine, tirosolo and caffeic acid could even in the lowest doses decrease the release of inflammatory substances by monocitys, a blood cell.
The same two molecules demonstrated their antioxidant activity even at the lowest doses, acting on the endothelial cells, the ones that cover veins and arteries.
This data, though opening a new branch of research and indicating some positive effect of white wine, was not sufficient to demonstrate its specific activity. In fact, both tirosolo and caffeic acid are present in extra virgin olive oil, which is well known for its beneficial properties. It was then necessary to consider white wine as a whole to understand its benefits on health. Research done in conjunction with the Department of Human Anatomy of the University of Milan and the cardiovascular research center of the University of Connecticut demonstrated how the consumption of white wine protects the heart from attacks. In fact, the three used wines (two Tocai and a Verduzzo from Friuli Venezia Giulia) were able to decrease the damage to the ventricular functions and to significantly reduce the area of the organ hit by the attack, experimentally induced. It was highlighted that the protective action of one of the three wines was comparable to the one of red wines and that this was not due to alcohol, because the wines were previously deprived of their alcoholic component.
For the first time, international research demonstrates that the consumption of white wine can be beneficial for the cardiovascular system, because of its antioxidant power.
Professor Renaud, who discovered the French Paradox, stated that, on the basis of his data, it was not possible to discriminate between red and white wine and that, in some of the considered populations, the consumption of white wine was prevalent.
Let us hope that further research on human beings could confirm the beneficial effects of a moderate consumption of white wine.

Alcohol In Moderation Organisation - Key Points from the Latest Forum

Presentation by R.Curtis Ellison, MD Professor of Medicine & Public Health at Boston University School of Medicine.

• Alcohol increases HDL cholesterol, the so-called “good cholesterol”, that lowers the risk of heart disease.

• Alcohol, and red wine particularly, also favourably affects the coagulation of blood within the arteries. The effects of coagulation are short-term, lasting for a day or so. These results suggest that you should consume alcohol on a regular basis, perhaps daily. Unfortunately, many do not have a good drinking pattern, and tend to drink nothing all week, then drink heavily at weekends, which is a very unhealthy way to consume alcohol…It takes only about one drink per day, or even every other day, to get most of the benefit in terms of reducing coronary heart disease (CHD).

• Data are increasing that if moderate drinking is in the form of wine with meals, there may be even more benefits.

Presentation by Marsha Morgan F.R.C.P. Reader in Medicine and Honorary Consultant Physician at the UCL Institute of Hepatology.

• The risk of developing alcoholic liver damage increases if you drink outside of meal times.

Presentation by Alan Crozier PhD, Professor of Plant Biochemistry and Human Nutrition at the University of Glasgow.

• There is a 30% reduction in CHD for those on high antioxidant diet (sources include: apples, onions, green and black tea, chocolate, berries and red wine).

• A number of scientists have shown that red wine contains, in addition to alcohol, phenolic antioxidants. Phenolics might protect against cancer by:
Shielding DNA from oxidative damage;
Inducing enzymes that protect against malignant mutation;
Modulating carcinogenic inflammatory reactions;
Promoting normal cellular differentiation and maturation;
Inhibiting growth of cancer cells;
Enhancing the effects of chemotherapy.

• The research also established that antioxidant activity in unfermented grape juice is lower than in finished wine; antioxidant activity increases during fermentation and maturation.

If you wish to read the complete report, go to:
http://www.aim-digest.com/digest/index.htm

The Emilian Paradox

In the northern central Italian region of Emilia Romagna, despite the hyper-caloric diet of its population, the mortality rate for cerebro-cardiovascular diseases is very low. The results of research released during the convention “Lambrusco e Salute” (Lambrusco and Health) held in Modena recently suggests that this is due to the coumarin found in the local Lambrusco grape variety.
Of course the “French Paradox” has been much discussed already, since the French population’s intake of saturated fats is also relatively high but their rate of coronary heart disease relatively low.
Carlo Fernandez, Director of the Cardiology College at Florence University, showed that in Emilia Romagna, where the regional diet is traditionally rich in saturated fats and decidedly hyper-caloric, the incidence of cerebro-cardiovascular diseases is significantly lower than in other regions of the country. In Emilia, the traditional table wine is that made from the red Lambrusco grape.
As explained by Maria Benedetta Donati, of the Department of Medicine and Pharmacology of the Mario Negri Institute, one of the most internationally renowned Italian research centres, Lambrusco wine is rich in anti-oxidant polyphenols, and in particular coumarin. It seems that the quantity of coumarin present in Lambrusco is “pharmacologically active” - enough to affect the body. Coumarin is well-known for its anti-coagulant effects and is used as mandatory therapy in cases of miocardial infarction and angioplasty operations.
Following on from the previous discovery of the powerful resveratrol, with all its protective action on the cardiovascular system, it is clear that the properties of wine are still largely unknown and its positive effect on the human body is due to more than one substance. The more research carried out on the properties of wine, so the more new beneficial properties are found.
The recent research throws a spotlight on a very popular wine that, unfortunately, often does not have the credit it should. The reputation of Lambrusco wines has been all but destroyed by over-production. It has metamorphosed into a light white wine of negligible taste, available in 1.5 litre bottles from the bottom shelf of supermarkets everywhere. At Amordivino, we are proud to reintroduce original, quality Lambrusco wines to the UK….