Cheers To Good Health

In elementary school, we go through anti substance abuse programs like DARE and GREAT. From an early age American children are exposed to the atrocities of alcohol and drugs. We are conditioned to stay away from intoxicating substances as they lead to grave health issues in the future. However, recent studies are beginning to crack the surface of the benefits of alcohol. Scientists are unraveling new evidence pointing to the study that alcohol may in fact prevent Alzheimer’s and other health related issues.

In a recent study published in the Annals of internal Medicine, it states that “drinking a moderate amount of wine can be good for your health.” Researchers studied people with diabetes for two years to come up with this conclusion. In A Glass Of Wine A Day May Help Control Type 2 Diabetes, Allison Aubrey explains that in the experiment, the test subjects were all eating the same types of food but there was a group of individuals who drank red wine with their meal, another group who drank white wine, and the third group drank mineral water. At the end of the two year period, researchers discovered that the red wine drinkers had better cardiovascular health as well as “improve[ed] levels of good cholesterol.”

These findings tie in with Dr. Michael Collin’s study on the connection between Alzheimer’s and alcohol. In his research, Dr. Collins concluded that in comparison to those who abstain, alcohol consumption in moderation shows a lower risk for cognition related diseases like Alzheimer’s. His studies attribute this to the brain’s affinity to moderate use of ethanol intake which correlates with brain glia and neurons. To test his hypothesis, Dr. Collins experimented on rats. He saw that when the rats were preconditioned with moderate ethanol, there brain cultures did not go through neurodegeneration. When something is preconditioned, a toxin is exposed to a sub lethal environment so the toxin generates a neuroprotective state. Neurodegeneration occurs when there is a loss of function or structure in the neurons. This can occur for a variety of factors such as untimely phosphorylation of Tau proteins. Through his experimentation, Dr. Collins and his fellow researchers found that rats that had been exposed to moderate alcohol were less likely to get Alzheimer’s disease.

With all of these studies indicating the positives of alcohol, it is important to take note of the one common theme: moderation. Too much alcohol still presents people with a plethora of diseases and health related issues. From a long slew of articles providing evidence against alcohol, there is no doubt that alcohol in excess can lead to many complications. Because alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream, blood carries the toxins throughout the entire body thus extremely affecting one’s health. When alcohol is consumed, the liver and pancreas have to work twice as hard to expel it from the system. Overuse of alcohol has short term side effects but over time, those short term effects can become permanent. Researchers are using their findings to educate people on alcohol in moderation.

Works Cited

Collins, M., Neafsey, E., Wang, K., Achille, N., Mitchell, R., & Sivaswamy, S. (2010). Moderate Ethanol Preconditioning of Rat Brain Cultures Engenders Neuroprotection Against Dementia-Inducing Neuroinflammatory Proteins: Possible Signaling Mechanisms. Molecular Neurobiology Mol Neurobiol, 420-425

"A Glass Of Wine A Day May Help Control Type 2 Diabetes." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/10/14/448311831/diabetes-study-adds-evidence-that-a-glass-of-wine-is-good-for-you