I’ll Toast to That

Can drinking red wine help us live longer?

I think the Neil Diamond, Bob Marley, and the UB40 put it best when they sing “Red, red wine. Stay close to me.” But is aiding a person with getting over their ex all red wine is good for? (That and a terrible hangover the next day is probably what you 21 and overs are thinking right now.) But it is possible that the consumption of red wine helps you live longer too?

glass-of-red-wine

According to U.K.’s Mail Online, reservatrol, which is a polyphenol found in grapes and red wine, can increase the lifespan of people by up to 60%. The benefits of reservatrol were tested on animals such as worms. When it was tested on worms, it was found that there lifespan was increased by up to 80%. Women’s Day also believes that reservatrol is a miracle ingredient in red wine. The article states that it has “anti-aging… [and] anti-inflammatory properties.” At this point, I was pretty excited about Red Wine. I continued clicking the citations given in these articles, so I could look deeper into this phenomenon. What I found was very disappointing to say the least.

The link cited by Women’s Day completely contradicted the article. According to the researcher Heather Hausenblas at the University of Florida, “[d]espite numerous clinical studies on resveratrol’s tonic effects on animals, there is little evidence that it benefits human health.” This is because humans and animals, although genetically similar, are very different.

Reservatrol’s claim to fame is that it can reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease, and have anti-inflammatory benefits. A study by Richard D. Semba and colleagues disproves these claims. The Johns Hopkins researchers conducted a test on humans and found that drinking red wine did not help their subjects live longer. The study lasted for 9 years and tested 783 65-year-old women in the Chianti area. Reservatrol levels found in urine had no impact on the subjects’ risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, or inflammation.

In my opinion, the studies supporting both sides of the issue aren’t too great. The studies claiming that red wine is beneficial for our health only have small tests conducted on animals and word-of-mouth as their evidence. Animals cannot prove that red wine is healthy for humans, because humans have longer lifespans and have the risk of getting many other diseases. These studies do not account for any of these confounding variables. The study by Semba and associates only contained women above the age of 65. These people also lived in the same area. It does not answer these basic questions: could red wine help people if they drank it their entire life? Does red wine help men more than it helps women? Is there an environmental factor prohibiting Reservatrol from working?

There needs to be more research on both ends of the issue in order to come to a valid conclusion. What I got out of this is that if I want to drink a glass or two of red wine when I’m 21, I’m going to! It certainly won’t kill me, it looks really classy, and it could possibly help me live longer. Seems like a win.

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