Days of Wine and Roses, still! |

Whom do you trust? At least thrice a year, reports come out to confuse us- one says that wine consumption is good for us, another admonishes that wine consumption is bad for us.

I last discussed this controversy on 10 April. That was reacting to a report that- for women, consuming 25 g of alcohol and -for men it was 45 g, would be detrimental to health. (That converts to about 2 glasses of wine for women and 3.7 for men.) Now, this report used all causes of death, not just isolated to alcohol consumption. As such, the conclusions are somewhat suspect, since many of us do not have other health issues.

Now comes yet another study (Primary Author K Mezue, with 15 coauthors; Reduced Stress-Related Neural Network Activity Mediates the Effect of Alcohol on Cardiovascular Risk) that indicates that light to moderate alcohol consumption reduces risks for cardiovascular events. Yet, they admit there is NO safe level for alcohol consumption. (That last statement arises from analyzing the data from 53,064 participants in the Mass General Brigham Biobank. Median age was 60 and 60% were women.) It seems that alcohol consumption reduces stress and associated brain activity.

To determine actual stress, 713 participants underwent CT imaging. And, the researchers found that moderate alcohol consumption was associated with less stress-associated neural activity, when compared to little or heavy alcohol consumption. The researchers further found that this stress reduction was beneficial to reducing cardiovascular clinical events.

However, during follow up visits, the clinicians found that moderate drinking was associated with a 23% increase risk for cancer.

The article was countered by statements by Dr. Giovanni de Gaetano (Institute of Mediterranean Neurology, Italy) and Drs. S Costanzo and A Di Castelnuovo . He stated moderate alcohol consumption is associated with lower risk for cognitive decline and dementia, better cognitive function, and reduced brain atrophy.

So, I am going to continue to enjoy my wine. And, if you are generally healthy, I invite you to join me in imbibing.