Moderate wine consumption for health
Pathologist Dr Erna Mansvelt and Professor David van Velden of Stellenbosch University ask whether more people should drink less, as they talk you through Moderate Wine Consumption for good Health.
The current medical opinion on wine consumption for reasons of health has been re-evaluated most recently by the Americans. Although this country has had a prohibitive outlook to alcohol consumption since the 19th century, recent epidemiological evidence from the States consistently links regular and moderate alcohol consumption (1-3 drinks a day), rather than abstinence, to a reduced mortality rate. The protective effect of moderate alcohol consumption is specifically due to the reduced incidence of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and angina.
In 1992 Serge Renaud, a French nutritionist from Lyons, and Michel de Lorgeril suggested that wine consumption could be the explanation for the lower than expected coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality rate amongst the French, despite risk factors such as dairy fat consumption. This has been widely emphasised ever since November 17, 1991 during a 60 Minute television broadcast on CBS News, when 21,8 million American households learned about the "French Paradox". According to the programme, the French suffered fewer heart attacks despite their high intake of saturated fats like pâté de foie gras, etc.
This was good news to a long-suffering American society and not a single bottle of red wine could be found on shop shelves by the end of that week. More resistance to this assumption was exercised on the thirsty public than ever before by the American Cardiology Society and Health Authorities that regarded the French Paradox with scepticism. The reason was clear: high alcohol consumption increases the mortality risk of hypertension, stroke, liver and pancreatic disease, neurodegenerative disorders, some cancers, birth defects and violent death.
Numerous research projects were initiated since Renaud coined the term "the French Paradox" in 1992, confirming the inverse association between moderate wine consumption and CHD, compared to abstinence. Since then many an American doctor has been confronted with the question:
"Doctor, how much should I drink for my health?"
According to Dr Roger Ecker, Californian cardiothoracic surgeon and wine lover and Dr Arthur Klatsky, cardiologist and expert on the health benefits of wine with Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, the following safe guidelines for moderate alcohol consumption for health reasons were formulated:
Firstly, those who should not be encouraged to drink at all include the following:
To these one could still quote the advice on every American wine bottle label: "Government warning: According to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects.
Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or to operate machinery, and may cause health problems"
Secondly, those who can be advised to drink moderately include the following: Persons over 21 years of age until 45 years for men and 55 years for women who have two or more risk factors for CHD or with established CHD, should consider 1-3 standard drinks a day.
However, persons who are non-drinkers and with no or only one CHD risk factor, should not change their drinking habits for health reasons.
Heavy drinkers with no - or only one - CHD risk factor should abstain from alcohol consumption, while those with two or more risk factors or with established CHD, should reduce to no more than one standard drink a day or should abstain.
The scene changes for men over 45 years and women over 55 years of age:
Non-drinkers with no risk factors for CHD, need not change drinking habits for health reasons. However, if they have one or more risk factors or established CHD, 1-3 drinks a day should be considered.
Those who drink less than one drink a day, however, can be advised to increase their alcohol consumption to onestandard drink a day.
The CHD risk factors referred to include:
What is "moderate" drinking?
This is defined as one standard drink a day for women and two standard drinks a day for men. Heavy drinking is more than three drinks a day for men and more than two drinks a day for women. A standard drink is further defined as a glass of table wine of 112 ml or 42 ml of distilled spirit.
It might seem to you that the more risk factors you have, the more you could drink, but this is not so: you merely become a heavy drinker and a cardiac cripple with a diseased liver and then you should not drink at all!
