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Drinking Your Way to Health? Perhaps Not

2009-10-20 04:09:04

By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter by Dennis Thompson

healthday Reporter Sun Oct 18, 11:48 pm ET

SUNDAY, Oct. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Just about every month -- if not every week

-- a new study emerges touting the health benefits to be gained from a daily

glass of wine or a pint of dark beer.

The benefits related to cardiovascular health have become well-known. A study

released in mid-July, for instance, found that moderate alcohol consumption

reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease in women by increasing the amount of

"good" cholesterol in the bloodstream and reducing blood sugar levels.

But other studies have linked a daily drink, most often wine, to reduced risk

of dementia, bone loss and physical disabilities related to old age. Wine also

has been found to increase life expectancy and provide potential protection

against some forms of cancer, including esophageal cancer and lymphoma.

But don't invest in that case of Pinot noir just yet.

Experts with the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association say

that though these studies do show some benefits to moderate drinking, the

health risks from alcohol consumption far outweigh the potential rewards.

Drinking any alcohol at all is known to increase your risk for contracting a

number of types of cancer, said Susan Gapstur, vice president of epidemiology

for the American Cancer Society. These include cancers of the mouth, pharynx,

larynx, esophagus, liver, colon/rectum and breast.

"At the end of the day, if you are at very high risk for cancer, you might want

to limit your alcohol consumption even further," Gapstur said. "It's a

lifestyle modification you can make, and we don't have as many lifestyle

modifications for preventing cancer as we do for coronary heart disease."

There also are other health risks from moderate drinking, including liver

damage and accidents caused by impaired reflexes, said Dr. Jennifer Mieres,

director of nuclear cardiology at the New York University School of Medicine

and an American Heart Association spokeswoman.

The health benefits from drinking generally are related to the antioxidants and

anti-inflammatories found in red wines and dark beers, Mieres said, but those

substances can be found in a number of different fruits and vegetables.

"When it comes to disease prevention, you're better off changing your diet to

include fruits and vegetables and get your antioxidants and anti-inflammatories

from natural sources," she said.

For example, people can get resveratrol -- the antioxidant found in red wine

that's believed to provide most of the drink's health benefits -- from drinking

grape juice just as well as from drinking wine, Mieres said.

"For people that don't drink, not drinking is important," Mieres said. "You can

get the same benefits of drinking from leading a heart-healthy lifestyle. To

me, it's not worth the risk to start drinking. But for people who enjoy a glass

of red wine or enjoy drinking, the key is to stick to the definition of

moderation," she said.

Moderate drinking is defined as one drink a day for women and two drinks a day

for men. What counts as one drink are:

Drinking anything more than that on a daily basis is known to lead to a host of

health problems that can reduce your life expectancy, Mieres and Gapstur said.

"I think the take-home message is, if you don't drink, don't start to help

protect yourself from coronary heart disease because there are so many other

things you can do," Gapstur said. "If you already drink, you might want to

limit your consumption."

Though the studies touting the positive health effects of alcohol are

scientifically accurate, they also appear to play into people's desires for

quick fixes to complex problems, Mieres said.

"To prevent heart disease, 50 percent of the work has to come from you," she

said. "Prevention is a big piece, and you have to be accountable. You have to

make lifestyle changes, and that's very tough to do. People look for easy ways

to get heart-healthy benefits, and drinking is an easy way to do that. It's a

known human tendency: Let's find an easy way out that doesn't involve a lot of

thought or work."