Health Watch: Moderate Drinking Helps Memory, Heavy Drinking
May Cause Dementia
Plus, researchers examine link between wine and irregular
heartbeat, and a French lab finds toxins in vats
Alcohol abuse in middle age could lead to dementia later in
life, asserts a new paper from researchers at the University of Exeter in the
United Kingdom and published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
Previous investigations have suggested that current levels of alcohol
consumption can influence dementia risk, but no study had examined whether
alcohol use disorders (AUDs) affect long-term memory impairment.
Researchers looked at 6,542 people in the Health and
Retirement Study, a nationally representative study of middle-aged adults in
the U.S. during a period of 19 years. At baseline and follow-up examinations,
subjects self-reported their alcohol risk factors, and memory was assessed
using word-recall tests.
"History of AUDs more than doubled the odds of memory
impairment," the authors wrote. These findings did not change when
adjusted for potentially mediating factors such as hypertension, cardiovascular
disease and head injury.
Although the study did not address why alcohol might affect
memory, the authors suggest several factors may be at play. "Excessive
alcohol consumption inhibits the function of glutaminergic cells,"
affecting the function of neurotransmitters, Dr. Iain Lang, a study coauthor,
told Wine Spectator. Lang added that alcohol can increase the release of free
radicals, which damage cell membranes. Heavy consumption of wine, beer and
spirits may have distinct effects on long-term memory, but this study did not
distinguish among alcohol types.
For those who drink moderately, the news is sunnier.
"Most studies have found a beneficial effect of moderate drinking on
memory and cognition in later life," said Lang. "It is possible that
any damaging effects of alcohol are outweighed, at moderate levels of
consumption, by beneficial effects on the blood supply to the brain."
Could wine be bad for your heart?
The potential of red wine to mitigate the risk of heart
disease has been confirmed by many studies in the past, but new research
suggests alcohol may have a negative effect on one function of the human heart:
your heartbeat. Alcohol consumption, even in light to moderate amounts, appears
to be associated with atrial fibrillation (AF), an abnormal heartbeat or
flutter that increases the risk of stroke, heart failure and dementia,
according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of
Cardiology.
Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden took
their data from the Cohort of Swedish Men and the Swedish Mammography Cohort,
two large-scale studies. Among the 79,019 subjects (none of whom had AF at
baseline), there were 7,245 cases of AF reported over 12 years of follow up.
Subjects self-reported their alcohol consumption by volume and type.
The authors found that the more one drank, the greater the
likelihood of developing AF. Compared with subjects who reported having less than
one drink per week, those who drank 15 to 21 drinks per week increased their
risk of AF by 14 percent; those who drank in excess of 21 drinks per week, 39
percent.
Spirits tended to have the greatest impact on the risk of
AF, with wine also increasing risk; beer did not. This may have to do with the
respective alcohol levels of the beverages. The authors point to other findings
that "chronic alcohol ingestion leads to depression of heart
function," as well as atrial electromechanical delays in otherwise healthy
men. Higher alcohol content, therefore, may play a role in AF development.
Potentially toxic compound found in some French wines
From sulfites to egg whites to isinglass, today's wine lover
is acutely aware of what goes into the wine she drinks. Few, however, are
likely aware of plasticizers used to coat tanks at wineries. Now a study from
France reports that the coatings of many wine vessels contain compounds called
phthalates, some of which, at high enough concentrations, can be toxic. The
study also found that these phthalates are migrating into some wines and
spirits in potentially alarming quantities.
"Phthalates are universally present in our environment,"
Pascal Chatonnet, director of Laboratoire Excell and an author of the paper,
told Wine Spectator. The compounds are "extensively used in the plastic
industry to improve the physical and mechanical properties of plastic
products." Most types and concentrations of phthalates are perfectly safe,
but in the past, toxic phthalates were more commonly used. "There is no or
very low risk to be poisoned by phthalates," Chatonnet said, "except
some of them, which have been forbidden for a long time."
Past studies on animals indicate that potential dangers from
phthalates could include malformations of male sex organs and an increased risk
of certain types of cancers.
If the dangerous phthalates have been off the market for
years, why look into the problem now? "China has stopped this year the
importation of some wines and spirits" because of their phthalate content,
Pascal explained. Pascal and his team decided to do a quick survey of the
situation in France and identify the main sources of phthalate residues in contact
with wines and spirits.
For the study, Chatonnet and his colleagues examined 100
wine samples from all over France and 30 samples of grape spirits from
southwest France. Of the 13 phthalate compounds targeted, only three were found
in significant quantities: dibutyl phthalate (DBP), diethylhexyl phthalate
(DEHP) and butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP). They found that 17 percent of the
samples contained no detectable quantity of any phthalates; 19 percent
contained non-quantifiable traces. Just 15 percent of samples contained DEHP
and BBP, but a surprising 59 percent showed significant quantities of DBP.
The scientists also examined the polymer-based items in
winemaking facilities that might be responsible for the transmission of
phthalates to beverages—such as vats, pumps, hoses, gaskets and tanks. While
several of these materials showed significant phthalate concentrations,
Chatonnet and his coauthors concluded that "the epoxy resin coatings used
on vats represented the major source of contamination."
Alcohol can increase the extraction of phthalates, so
spirits were likely to contain larger amounts of the compounds. Chatonnet said
the risk of "a glass of wine is nothing in comparison with some other
products." He noted that several years ago, the soft-drink industry in the
E.U. stopped using bisphenol, a product often used in epoxy resin alongside
phthalates, forcing producers to manufacture their cans differently.
Chatonnet urges wineries not to use vats or other polymer
materials that were coated more than 10 years ago; many of these, made with
phthalates that were later banned, have a high contamination potential. His
team is also working to develop a preparation that could be applied to
materials to eliminate their risk of phthalate migration.
Wine Spectator
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