EXTENDING AGE: LIVING LONGER, LIVING BETTER
Alcohol doesn’t just help against the biggest life-threatening ailments. There are scads of research to show that moderate drinking can ward off other common health problems-the kind that can make life pretty miserable sometimes. Here’s a catalog of the conditions you can raise a glass to.
Beating the runs: Diarrhea may not be particularly life-threatening to you, but there’s no doubt that it diminishes your quality of life, especially when you’ve plunked down a couple grand for the vacation of a lifetime and all you’ve seen is the inside of the international John. Believe it or not, wine may help here, too.
Wine has long been used as a digestive aid across the world. Now researchers know why. When scientists were experimenting with ways to kill some of our most vicious intestinal foes, including Escherichia coli and salmonella, they tried dousing them in test tubes with wine, tequila, ethanol, and bismuth salicylate – better known as Pepto-Bismol. Though the bismuth salicylate did okay, wine was the overall winner-killing more than six times as many bacteria as the pink stuff. (The tequila and the ethanol had no effect on the bugs.) And it seems that just six ounces may be enough to do the trick.
Getting unstoned: Kidney stones aren’t exactly lethal, but passing one is enough to make any man wish he were dead. You’ll be happy to know that a couple of beers a day can keep the kidney stones away, according to Harvard researchers.
After surveying more than 45,000 men intermittently over a six-year period, the researchers found that men who drank two or more beers a day were four times less likely to develop kidney stones than men who didn’t drink. Wine was not quite as effective, but it still cut the kidney stone risk in half.
Keeping your wits: Your head may also enjoy a small nightcap, but not in the way you think. You probably already know of alcohol’s ability to remove all memory of, say, that drunken line dancing episode. What you don’t know is that in much lesser amounts, alcohol may actually boost your memory.
According to a study by researchers in the Netherlands, folks who have a drink or two a day seem to be half as likely to have poor thinking ability as teetotalers. And French researchers found that among 2,273 people older than 65, those who drank 8 to 16 ounces of wine a day were much less likely to develop dementia, which may be an early stage of Alzheimer’s disease, than people who drank less or no wine. We need more research to further explain how alcohol works. Luckily, there’s no shortage of volunteers for future studies.
In a 12-year study of more than 13,000 people, researchers in Denmark found that people who drank a couple of glasses of wine a day lived longer than folks who never touched the stuff because they had lower risks for heart disease and stroke. And in the land Down Under, Australian researchers studying 1,236 men over age 60 found that those who drank reasonable amounts of alcohol regularly-anywhere from one to three drinks a day-lived significantly longer than men who completely abstained. Another study, this time of 490,000 people ages 35 to 69 by the American Cancer Society, concluded that moderate alcohol intake in this age group slightly reduced deaths from all causes.
Rules to the Drinking Game
Finally, an umpteenth reminder: If your local tavern hails you as the reigning champion of Three-Man and Mexican Dice, you likely won’t enjoy any of the benefits we’ve listed here. To get the most out of alcohol, you have to drink responsibly. According to guidelines established by the federal government, here’s how.
Don’t play averages. You can’t save up your one or two drinks a day and have 14 on Friday night instead. You should drink no more than two drinks a day. Don’t binge.
Wait until the dinner hour. Lunchtime is not Miller time. Even one drink during the workday slows you down mentally and physically. Save it for when you get home.
Go right on red. Though health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption are associated with all types of alcohol, remember that red wine is the way to go for antioxidant phenolic compounds. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, tested 20 California wines and listed the most phenolic-rich types. Try one of these next time you’re out: Merlot and Petite Sirah.
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