Dr Vino's wine blog

Red wine and teeth, are they a good blend?

A new medical report published last week says no, confirming my fear that going to all those tastings can’t be doing my teeth any good. Roll the tape from Wines & Vines, a trade publication:

Dr. Sami Youakim, a consultant with Occupational Disease Services, WorkSafeBC (British Columbia’s worker compensation board), published a study of wine industry health hazards in the October edition of BC Medical Journal. In addition to well-known problems including musculoskeletal disorders, asthma caused by mite exposure, illnesses caused by exposure to pesticides and other chemicals, and confined-space risks, Youakim singled out the potential for dental erosions from frequent wine tasting by winemakers and other staff, noting that the pH of wines ranges from 3.2 to 3.8 and demineralization of enamel commences at a pH of less than 5.7.

Heh. A wine blogger’s occupational hazard! I’m calling OSHA!

But this finding from British Columbia clashes a previous finding from medical researchers in Quebec who found that a red wine rinse can prevent gum disease!

Canadian scientists believe the polyphenols can block production of free radical molecules, high levels of which can damage gum tissue.

Yikes, how confusing! Canada on Canada action! Sacrifice enamel or stimulate gums? The researchers will have a brush-off for supremacy.

tags: wine | teeth | Canada

Watch out wine lovers, we’re going to be getting some competition. Pills.

We’ve known for a long time about the health benefits of red wine. In fact, hardly a week goes by without some new health news.

Now researchers at Harvard and the National Institutes of Aging have found that reserveratrol, found in red wine, can in “very large doses” slow down aging. Moreover, it can offset many of the negative effects of a high fat diet including the onset of diabetes. Lab mice with the equivalent amount of resveratrol as found in 10 – 20 bottles a day for human consumption, fed the same diet as others fared much better in agility tests and health later in life.

“They had all the pleasures of gluttony but paid none of the price,” as this story in today’s NYT summarized.

Wow, fountain of youth. Free gluttony. This stuff should be illegal! (oh wait, it is for people under 21) So give up the calorie restricted ascetism. And don’t go for the pills, we know there’s only one way: cabernet for all!

Read the excellent story in the Times summarizing the study from today’s journal Nature by David Sinclair and Richard Hodes.

tags: wine | fountain of youth | gluttony