Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

Wine wise

Recent reports suggest that red wine is a potent force in increasing lifespan, and a new study offers still more good news for wine drinkers.

A glass a day, whether white or red, may reduce the risk of developing the common liver disorder, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Researchers studied 7,211 non-drinkers, and 3,598 people who drank a glass a day of wine, beer or liquor, testing them for elevated blood levels of alanine aminotransferase, or ALT, a finding that indicates liver damage.

They found above-normal levels in 3.2 percent of non-drinkers, 3.5 percent of beer drinkers and 2.3 percent of daily hard-liquor drinkers.

But among those who drank a glass of wine a day, the rate averaged only 0.4 percent.

Even after adjusting for other risk factors, the association of modest wine drinking with lower blood levels of ALT persisted.

The authors, writing in the June issue of Hepatology, suggest that wine’s non-alcoholic components may be responsible for the findings.

“While one glass a day seems helpful, these data do not support the use of larger amounts of alcohol,” said Dr. Jeffrey B. Schwimmer, the senior author and an associate professor of gastroenterology at the University of California, San Diego. — (NYT)

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail