The eyes have it: 3 more reasons

For this next section, I was reviewing the effects of wine on the eye. One of the groups working on these issues is from the “Department of Wine, Food and Molecular Biosciences” at Lincoln University in New Zealand. The fact that such a department exists seems reason enough to celebrate! Here are my insights on wine and vision:
25. A group from Tufts University evaluated the relationship of drinking patterns to development of cataracts. They found that the risk of cataracts was increased with alcohol consumption generally, but decreased by 12% for every two glasses of wine consumed per week.
26. Early experimental evidence points to a possible role of wine polyphenols and other antioxidants in the treatment and prevention of glaucoma.

27. A 2006 study found a possible protective effect of wine consumption and age-related macular degeneration, one of the most onerous causes of visual impairment. The study found increased risk with alcohol consumption in the form of beer or spirits, but a protective effect with wine consumption. A separate study identified resveratrol as a likely mediator of this benefit by reducing oxidative stress in the retina.

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Revisiting resveratrol: new findings rekindle anti-aging debate

Just when we thought the bloom was off the rosé for resveratrol, the anti-oxidant polyphenol from red wine with multiple anti-aging properties, along comes new research giving life to the debate. But first a bit of background: As I detailed in my book Age Gets Better with Wine , it is well-documented that wine drinkers live longer and have lower rates of many diseases of aging. Much or the credit for this has been given to resveratrol, though there isn’t nearly enough of it in wine to explain the effects. Nevertheless, I dubbed it the “miracle molecule” and when it was reported to activate a unique life-extension phenomenon via a genetic trigger called SIRT, an industry was born, led by Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, quickly acquired by pharma giant Glaxo. The hope was that resveratrol science could lead to compounds enabling people to live up to 150 years and with a good quality of life. But alas, researchers from other labs could not duplicate the results, and clinical studies disa

Which came first: Beer or wine? (or something else?)

Actually neither beer nor wine was the first fermented beverage, and wine arguably has a closer connection to health, but recent evidence indicates that humans developed the ability to metabolize alcohol long before we were even human. The uniquely human ability to handle alcohol comes from the digestive enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, or ADH4. A new science called paleogenetics identifies the emergence of the modern version of the ADH4 gene in our ape ancestors some 10 million years ago. Interestingly, this corresponds to the time when our arboreal forebears transitioned to a nomadic lifestyle on the ground. We went from swinging from tree limbs to walking upright, and the rest is history. Understanding the circumstances that led to perpetuation of the ADH4 mutation may contain clues to what made us human in the first place. How the ability to metabolize alcohol made us human Paleogenetecist Matthew Carrigan has an idea about how this happened . Arboreal species rely on fruit tha

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