The Caruso Homeopathy Blog

An interesting newsletter was posted by Life Extension on how wine drinking may extend life. 
A Dutch Study published on April 29, 2009 found in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found a correlation between wine consumption and improved life expectancy. Dr M. T. Streppel and al. looked at data from 1,373 participants in the Zutphen Study of middle-aged men residing in Zutphen, Netherlands. Periodic interviews conducted from 1960 through June, 2000 obtained information on food and alcohol intake, weight, smoking status, and disease incidence. Over the follow-up period 1,130 deaths were confirmed, of which more than half were attributable to cardiovascular disease.

The percentage of men who consumed alcohol increased from 45 percent in 1960 to 86 percent in 2000, with wine drinkers increasing from 2 percent to about 44 percent. Long-term intake of up to 20 grams per day of alcohol was associated with a 67 percent reduction in the risk of dying from cerebrovascular disease, a 70 percent reduction in cardiovascular disease mortality risk, and a 25 percent reduction in mortality from all causes over the course of follow-up compared to no alcohol consumption.

Life expectancy at age 50 was found to be increased by approximately 2 years among those who reported light alcohol intake compared with subjects who reported no alcohol consumption. The increase in life expectancy was slightly less among participants who consumed more than 20 grams per day. When those who reported drinking only wine in moderation were analyzed, they were found to have an increase in life expectancy that was 2.5 years greater than those who drank other alcoholic beverages and 5 years greater than nondrinkers.

“To our knowledge, we are the first to study the effects of absolute alcohol intake and type of alcoholic beverage on life expectancy,” the authors write. “More studies are needed to verify our results.”

—D Dye

Note: For those with candida overgrowth, blood sugar problems and alcoholism wine consumption should be restricted. Heather Caruso