Red Wine IS Good For You

It's been known for a long time that red wine is good for your health.
Well, here's some good news if you're a red wine lover, or a lover of red wine - Haha! I couldn't resist, I just love red wine.
Anyway, if you enjoy drinking alcohol, and specifically red wine, then you may find this research interesting.

I read an article recently which stated that red wine is not only good for your health, but to not drink red wine is detrimental to your health. Hooray!
Isn't it nice when you read something positive?
You could even use this positive news as a reason to celebrate, maybe with a glass of - red wine. Cheers!

So, as I was saying, I read an article about the benefits of drinking red wine.
The article was written by Tony Edwards, a science journalist. He compiled lots of leading research on the effects of alcohol, and the results were positively interesting.

Tony Edwards actually wrote about alcohol in general being good for you, but as a fan of red wine, I'll more than likely focus on that in particular. His article says that not only is the consumption of alcohol not as harmful as we may have been led to believe, it may prevent illness.
The article also said what they always say, booze must be drunk in moderation.

Moderation.
That word always makes me think of Oscar Wilde who said, 'Everything in moderation, including moderation.'
He also said, 'Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess'.
I love Oscar Wilde, so I'm not going to disagree with his words of wisdom. :)

Back to what science writer Tony Edwards wrote about alcohol, in particular red wine.
He started his article with a joke. This was followed by, 'Let me tell you this: if GP's fail to recommend alcohol to at least some of their patients, they should be had up for medical negligence. That, at least, is the logical conclusion I've drawn from an in-depth study of around half-a-million scientific papers about alcohol.' 

Half-a-million scientific papers about alcohol? Wow!
He's obviously done his research. And from the information in the article it does indeed appear that booze is not something we should feel guilty about enjoying. Responsibly of course.

The article says that the evidence suggests that if red wine were used as a preventative and therapeutic medicine that the rates of disease would fall, substantially. And that red wine may be one of the most effective 'medications' in history. 
It also said white wine, beer, lager, and spirits would have the same positive effect but to a lesser degree. 
The article even went as far to say that by drinking booze, lives would be saved, which would obviously have huge economical benefits. 

It is clear in writing the article that Tony Edwards is not suggesting we should go out and get absolutely hammered without any thought to the possible results on our bodies or lives.
He is simply passing on what he's found out about alcohol consumption in regards to health.

It is a shame that in these days of 'sue culture' the author had to even mention anything about the potentially negative side-effects of excessive drinking. But it's pretty much standard form these days, when no one wants to take responsibility for their own actions, they just want someone else to blame when anything goes wrong.

I didn't intend to ramble on about that, but I couldn't help it. It bugs me that anything and everything that's written nowadays, or even photos and videos that are shared online, have to include some kind of disclaimer. It is ridiculous.
In my youth we were told, 'If so-and-so told you to stick your head in the oven, would you do it?'
Now it seems we need to be constantly reminded to use our common sense.

So, back to what the science journalist and writer Tony Edwards discovered from studying lots of scientific papers about alcohol consumption.
He wrote that too little booze won't have the positive effects that are possible with the correct amount. And that too much alcohol may make you unwell. 
He said for possible positive health benefits that drinking alcohol, red wine, should be done every day preferably with your evening meal. 

Drinking every day goes against what most of us are told by the so-called professionals healthcare workers.
In the UK it is common practice for GP's to advise patients to have a couple of booze-free days a week, in order to give the liver a break.
Unfortunately, booze-free does not mean we get it free of charge. If only! :o

Apparently the scientific studies show that moderate daily drinking is the best for your health.
So, drink daily, but moderately.

That's where this good news gets a little confusing.
What is drinking moderately?
The answer is, there is no answer.
Obviously a moderate amount of alcohol is a different measure for each individual, depending on various factors. It depends on the general state of your health, your age, what you've eaten etc.
There are so many things to consider that it's pretty much impossible to say what the correct measure of alcohol is for you to receive any possible health giving benefits.

We've probably all heard of, or maybe know(n) people who drink alcohol like it's going out of fashion, and who suffer no ill-effects to their health, and others who never touch a drop of booze and yet they have cirrhosis of the liver.
The effects of alcohol consumption are dependant on so many other factors in your body and lifestyle.

I know there are many negative aspects of drinking alcohol, and some people abstain for religious reasons, while others just don't like the taste or the effect of drinking booze.
Yes, alcohol consumption can be a factor in what the media seem to like referring to as a breakdown in moral and social behaviour, resulting in part to 'Broken Britain', and a rise in violence, and crime. Alcohol is also often blamed for the breakdown of families who suffer its potentially devastating effects, and the NHS is repeatedly reported to be burdened by booze-fuelled accidents and incidents. 

But I don't think this is specifically a modern problem, people have always enjoyed drinking alcohol, and sadly they've also always enjoyed violence and everything associated with it.

The government often portrays alcohol in a negative light, which is ironic if you consider how much money they make from booze, and that the big supermarkets in Britain who control so much government policy are the largest sellers of booze.
But as we know, politicians never do what's best for the people they work for, supposedly the people who voted for them, and who pay their wages. I say supposedly because I'm not sure politicians are actually aware who they work for, I think they think they work solely for their own benefit, but that's a whole different post.

Oops, wandering off topic again - slightly.
Alcohol is not the bad guy, or gal, and that's what I interpret from the article written by Tony Edwards.
Alcohol is good for you.

It's obvious by this stage that I'm never going to finish this blog post unless I stick to what I initially intended to write, so I think I'd better list the positive effects of drinking alcohol, red wine, that Tony Edwards discovered whilst researching scientific papers about alcohol.
He wrote a long list detailing various diseases and other bodily issues and the effects that drinking alcohol had on them. Below is a little of what he wrote.

Health Benefits

1. Heart Disease
For 13 years Harvard University experts monitored 12,000 men who had high blood pressure. The men were all doctors. Some of them were drinking a lot more than the accepted amount of alcohol units. 
The study concluded that the more the men drank, the lower their risk of having a heart attack. 
Drinking a medium glass of wine a day (10-15 grams) reduced the risk by almost 40%. 
However drinking 2/3 of a bottle (over 50 grams) the risk went down even lower to nearly 60%. 

Oxford University found similar results in its study of British doctors. Once again some of them were drinking more than the recommended amount of wine. The study found that alcohol consumption appeared to reduce the risk of ischaemic heart disease, in most cases this was irrespective of the amount drank. 

Evidence from over 50 years worth of research suggests that alcohol reduces the risk of heart disease. Not only that, but people who already have heart disease may receive health benefits from drinking alcohol. 

Half a million Americans involved in a 9 year study showed that alcohol 'significantly' prolonged the lives of those already suffering from heart disease. Even the people who drank more than 2/3 of a bottle of wine a day (56 grams), benefited. 

2. Common Cold
Wine, and other alcohol successfully helps prevent the common cold. 
A 2002 joint research study between Spanish universities and Harvard University produced interesting results. They found that red wine drinkers were almost 60% less likely to catch a cold, and white wine drinkers were even better off with 88% of them reducing their risk of catching a cold. 

A 1993 British placebo study carried out in the Common Cold Unit, infected 400 drinkers, and a small number of people who were teetotal with a cold virus. The teetotal people were the most likely to contract a cold, while the drinkers who drank just over a glass of wine a day (20 grams) had almost 10 times fewer symptoms of cold and fever. 
There is reportedly no drug, or herb available that comes anywhere close to that level of protection. 

3. Breast Cancer
A study in 2008 on 1,500 women in Southern France who had breast cancer in the previous 2 years, analysed their lifestyles in detail, including the type of alcohol they drank, the quantity, and the frequency they drank. The study also used a control group of healthy women for comparison. 
The results were surprising because it appeared that none of the breast cancer cases had any links with alcohol intake, no matter how much alcohol they usually drank. 
The study found that drinking a medium glass of wine a day (15 grams) actually reduced the risk of breast cancer by 42%. The study also found that drinking every day offered the greatest protection, but that there was no benefit if they drank sporadically. 
The researchers concluded that, 'Low and regular consumption of wine reduces the risk of breast cancer.' 
The findings of this 2008 study were strengthened two years later by a University of Ottawa study that was carried out on women who were at risk of one specific type of breast cancer, the BRCA1 genetic mutation. The study found, 'Compared with non-drinkers exclusive consumption of wine was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of breast cancer.'

Further evidence of the benefits of drinking red wine in relation to breast cancer was reported by the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 2012. 
Studies on mice have also shown that the natural ingredients of red wine can reduce breast cancer tumours. 

Tony Edwards wrote that although these 4 studies found that drinking red wine does not cause breast cancer, there are the same number of studies that found the opposite to be true. 
Also Cancer Research UK is convinced that drinking alcohol increases the risk of cancer. 
Currently the evidence is that alcohol is not good news for breast cancer, with an approximate increase in risk of 10% for each measure of spirits or 1/2 a pint of beer you drink.

4. Diabetes
In 2009 researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Canada analysed 1,500 studies on the link between the consumption of alcohol and diabetes. They concluded that drinkers have a 13% lower risk of becoming diabetic than those who were teetotal. 

A study in Holland examined the data of 370,000 people, who had their health monitored for 12 years. It concluded that drinking between 1/2 of a small glass of wine and two large glasses of wine (between 6 grams and 48 grams) the risks of becoming diabetic were reduced by approximately 30%. 

There is some evidence that women who drink moderately benefit by nearly double the reduction in becoming diabetic than men do. 

5. Rheumatoid Arthritis
Currently there is no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, at least that's what the NHS says. But that's not true if you believe these two studies. 
Two separate Scandinavian studies carried out in 2009, which involved 3,000 women, found that those who were teetotal had 40% more risk of getting rheumatoid arthritis, but those who drank heavily had a 45% less risk. 

So, rheumatoid arthritis can be cured, by booze?

I've realised that I'm close to typing everything that Tony Edwards wrote in this particular booze article, so to make this blog post slightly shorter, I'll just list the remaining health benefits, without mentioning the relevant studies. At the beginning of this blog post I linked to the Tony Edwards website so you can click on that link if you want to read what he actually wrote.

So without going in to all of the details, here are a few other conditions that may be helped by drinking alcohol.
6. Osteoporosis 
7.Stomach Cancer 
8. Prostrate Cancer 
9. Macular Degeneration 
10. Sexual Satisfaction 
11. Bowel Cancer

Any list about the effects of drinking alcohol on the human body would not be complete without mentioning the liver.

12. Liver
The liver is without doubt the one internal organ that doctors always mention when talking about alcohol being bad for you. 
The negative effects of alcohol on the liver are thought to be caused by ALD, which stands for Alcohol Liver Disease. 
The facts are that ALD is not as widespread as doctors say it is. 
Danish researchers who tracked the health of 13,000 people for a 12 year period in the 1980's, while specifically looking for a link between drinking alcohol and Alcohol Liver Disease ALD, predictably found that consuming 2 pints of beer a day (about 35 grams) resulted in a risk of ALD. 
Less predictably this increased risk only applied to a small number of people. It found that 93% of the drinkers had absolutely no sign of cirrhosis, even those who were drinking approximately 2 bottles of wine a day (over 120 grams).

In 1997 Italian doctors discovered similar results in a study they named, 'Dionysos'. 
Dionysos was an intensive study of the people who lived in two towns in Northern Italy. Of the 7,000 inhabitants some of them drank quite heavily, over 100 of them knocking back more than one and a half bottles of wine a day. The majority of the heavy drinkers had no symptoms of ALD. 
The experts concluded that this lack of ALD in the heavy drinkers was because of their genes. 
They found that the heavy drinkers in the Dionysos study who were more likely to have cirrhosis had specifically unusual variants of the two genes which are responsible for detoxifying alcohol in the liver. 

So, basically, it's all in your genes. You may get Alcohol Liver Disease even if you only drink a small amount of alcohol, and you may never get ALD even if you drink like Oliver Reed.

Tony Edwards also found that in regards to ALD, some forms of it may actually be prevented by consuming alcohol, such as Steatohepatatis, Fatty Liver Disease.

In 2012 a large US wide survey found that alcohol is actually beneficial for Fatty Liver Disease. 
The lead author Professor Jeffrey Schwimmer of UC San Diego said, 'Our study showed that people with modest alcohol intake - up to 36 grams of alcohol daily (roughly half a bottle of wine) had half the risk of developing steatohepatitis than people who drank no alcohol.' 

So, I think what we've learnt from the article by Tony Edwards is that alcohol, and in most cases specifically red wine, is not only not bad for our health, it's good for our health.
I'll drink to that. Cheers!

And that's just about all I have to say for now.
I'm not going to write the usual things you may expect someone to write at the end of a blog post like this.
I'm not going to write that you shouldn't drink alcohol excessively, or that these are my views and not suggested advice, and I'm not a health professional etc.

You are a adult, a grown-up, it's up to you to do what you consider is best for your health.
Unless you are not a grown-up, you're a child.
Well, then to you I say, why are you reading about the possible benefits of drinking alcohol, specifically red wine?
Surely you should be doing your homework, or tidying your bedroom, or helping your parent(s) with whatever it is they've asked you to help with....... or any of the other things that co-called adults say to children.

So, that's what I'm not going to end this blog post with, I'm just going to say that what I personally concluded from reading the full article by Tony Edwards is that it's nice to read something positive about alcohol and human health.
It makes a refreshing change to the usual doom mongers opinion on drinking alcohol.
We are all too often fed bad news about so many of the things that are pleasurable in life, so I wanted to end on a positive note.

Having said that (ending this blog post on a positive note) I am contrary by nature, and a fan of conspiracies, so despite enjoying and being cheered by the majority of the article written by Tony Edwards about alcohol being good for health, reading it did feel a little bit like a mini (brainwashing) advert for the benefits of drinking alcohol, particularly red wine.

So, I'm taking it all as I take everything I read, with a large pinch of salt - and most definitely a large glass of red wine.

All of the photographs used in this blog post were taken by either me or Mr.R during our World travels. Our little friend 'Duck' in most of the photos, he was our travelling companion, aka the responsible adult.

What are your thoughts about this evidence of the possible positive health effects of drinking alcohol?
Do you enjoy drinking?
What's your tipple of choice, beer, spirits, wine?