Red Wine Health Benefits - Red Wine Reduce Prostate Cancer

Red Wine Health Benefits - Alcohol has been called the Jekyll and Hyde of health, which summarizes the age-old dispute about the pros and cons of drinking. As scientists have accumulated information about how alcohol affects the human mind and body, a balanced picture is starting to emerge. A study may add some color to the picture, since it raises the hope that red wine may reduce the risk of prostate cancer.Alcohol and healthRed Wine Health Benefits - On the positive side of the ledger, moderate alcohol use is associated with protection against atherosclerosis, the disease that puts cholesterol-rich plaques just where they are least welcome, in the walls of the arteries. Although many studies of men and women from around the world report a substantial benefit from alcohol, three Harvard studies are particularly relevant to American men. Heart ProblemThe Health Professionals Follow-up Study, the Physicians’ Health Study, and the Harvard Alumni Study have all reported that men who drink modestly enjoy substantial protection against angina, first heart attacks, recurrent heart attacks, sudden cardiac death, and ischemic strokes. The magnitude of protection varies with the problem but ranges from 20% to 56%. And the Harvard studies report other possible benefits of low-dose alcohol, including a reduced risk of diabetes, symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and erectile dysfunction. That’s the good news. The bad news is that alcohol gets the blame for almost 100,000 deaths in the United States each year. Liver disease and accidents are among the biggest alcohol-related problems, but others include high blood pressure, damage to the heart muscle, brain damage, pancreatitis, osteoporosis, intestinal bleeding, and cancers of the mouth, voice box, and upper digestive tract. Alcohol has also caused countless psychosocial and economic problems. Is alcohol a boon or a bane? It depends on who drinks, how much he drinks, and when he drinks. People who are at risk for alcohol abuse should shun it, as should patients with liver disease and those who require medications that may interact adversely with alcohol. No one should drink before driving or operating hazardous machinery. Above all, people who choose to drink must keep the “dose” right. For men, that means one to two drinks a day, counting 1½ ounces of liquor, 12 ounces of beer, or 5 ounces of wine as one drink; for women, it’s half as much.Alcohol vs. alcoholRed Wine Health Benefits - When it comes to the harmful effects of alcohol, a drink is a drink is a drink. All alcoholic beverages are equally harmful if they are consumed by the wrong person, in the wrong amount, or at the wrong time. When it comes to potential benefit, though, the situation is a bit more complex. As for sexual activity, one study reported that having multiple female sexual partners may increase risk, but another linked frequent ejaculation to protection. Since prostate cancer is complex and incompletely understood, it’s no surprise that studies of alcohol and prostate cancer have produced mixed results. Although some research implicates heavy drinking as a risk factor, most studies find no link between drinking and the disease. In fact, a meta-analysis of 33 individual research papers concluded that drinking had no effect on a man’s risk of prostate cancer. Doctors don’t know the answer.

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