 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
MONDAY, Nov. 11 (HealthDayNews) -- In another sign that chardonnay and Bordeaux may be as healthful as fruits and vegetables, a new study provides more evidence that wine can protect the brain from the ravages of Alzheimer's disease.
However, experts still aren't advising people to run out to the liquor store unless they already had planned a trip.
"It is still premature to talk about wine as a 'health food' product," says study co-author Dr. Thomas Truelsen, a researcher at the Institute of Preventive Medicine at Kommunehospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Text Continues Below
Even if wine does protect the brain, the Danish study suggests beer does the exact opposite.
The study findings appear in tomorrow's issue of Neurology.
Wine, of course, is gaining a reputation as much more than just a requisite beverage for dinner parties. Researchers in recent years have linked it to lower risks of heart disease, and wine drinkers seem to have healthier habits than teetotalers.
The Danish researchers examined reports from the 1970s on the alcohol-drinking habits of 1,709 people. Then the researchers followed up by looking into how many of the study subjects developed dementia, a major symptom of Alzheimer's disease, in the 1990s.
Dementia refers to the loss of memory, concentration and other brain functions due to disease. Eighty-three of the participants developed the symptom.
People who drank wine weekly or monthly were more than two times less likely to develop dementia than others in the study. Drinking wine every day appeared to have no effect on the risk of dementia, and drinking beer monthly actually increased the risk.
Other studies have shown a link between wine drinking and lower risk of dementia, Truelsen says. The researchers behind the new study think that plant-derived substances in wine known as flavonoids may provide protection to the brain. Flavonoids are more common in red wine than white wine, but they are also found in other foods, raising questions about whether they're really responsible for wine's beneficial effects.
Page: 1 | 2 | Next >>
|
.gif)
