Wine and Bier

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=82 BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#33CCFF" FACE="Comic Sans MS" ><B>Seven  Creeks  Roadside  Spring Water</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Seven Creeks Roadside Spring Water"><B>home</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id427.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Health "><B><IMG SRC="0720e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A><B>  </B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14"><B>    </B><A HREF="id437.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Water Jug Information"><B><IMG SRC="0710e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A><B>  </B><A HREF="id440.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reusing Personal Water Bottles"><B><IMG SRC="0730e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <I>Wine and Bier</I></div> <div> This may be of interest to those people who use our water to make wine and bier.</div> <div> <A HREF="#scientists_find_how_red_wine_helps_heart" TITLE="Wine and Bier"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c833ccff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Scientists Find How Red Wine Helps Heart</A></div> <div> <A HREF="#how_a_drink_a_day_helps_the_heart" TITLE="Wine and Bier"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c833ccff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">How a Drink a Day Helps the Heart</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id21_food_bier_wine_1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact/Links"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c833ccff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Bier and Wine Links</A></div> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="scientists_find_how_red_wine_helps_heart"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33CCFF" FACE="Arial" >Scientists Find How Red Wine Helps Heart</FONT></div> <div> By Alex Dominguez The Associated Press December 21, 2001</div> <div>              Researchers say they have discovered the key component in red wine that explains the socalled French Paradox, the way the French can eat lots of cheese, buttery sauces and other rich foods and still suffer less heart disease than Americans.</div> <div> The explanation is pigments known as polyphenols. The pigments are not present in white wine or rose, and they seem to be less potent in grape juice. Polyphenols inhibit the production of a peptide that contributes to hardening of the arteries, researchers report in today's issue of the journal Nature. In laboratory dish experiments, polyphenols in red wine decreased the amount of the peptide endothelin1 produced by cells taken from the blood vessels of cows. Endothelin1 is a potent blood vessel constrictor, and overproduction of the compound is thought to be a key factor in why arteries clog with fatty deposits, said the researchers from the William Harvey Research Institute at the London School of Medicine & Dentistry. </div> <div> In the study, the cow cells were exposed to extracts from 23 red wines, four white wines, one rose and one type of red grape Juice. Researchers found the decrease in endothelin1 levels was related to the amount of polyphenols in the wines. The white and rose wines which contain little or none of the pigment, had no effect on endothelin1 levels. Red grape juice, which has plenty of the pigment, was markedly less potent in reducing endothelin1 than was red wine. The researchers said that suggests that something in the winemaking process changes the pigment's properties.</div> <div>  Researchers believe the pigment comes from red wine skins. In white wine and rose, the grape skins are taken out before fermentation. The type of grape also appeared to matter. Four of the six most effective red wines used in the study were made entirely or partially from cabernet sauvignon grapes.</div> <div> "The key message is moderate consumption of red wine is likely to prevent heart disease, but we have no evidence that white wine or rose would have a similar benefit," said Roger Corder, who led the study. The lower incidence of heart disease in France, despite a diet rich in butter and other fats, has led researchers to look to the consumption of red wine, another staple of the French diet. Other studies have shown red wine helps fight heart disease, and scientists have theorized that the benefits are caused by antioxidant compounds that prevent or slow the damaging effects of oxygen on the body. Corder's research shows a different mechanism altogether. He said it is a more plausible explanation for the French Paradox. David Klurfeld, a researcher at Wayne State University who linked red wine and a reduction in heart disease in 1981, noted that the cells were tested in a dish and said it is unclear how polyphenols work in the body</div> <div> However, he said, the research opens another pathway that should be pursued. "Is this the only mechanism, or is it a combination? There's not enough evidence that points us in any direction," Klurfeld said. "We're basically playing spin the wine bottle here."</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="626" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 638 WIDTH="622"><div>  <A NAME="how_a_drink_a_day_helps_the_heart"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#33CCFF" FACE="Arial" >How a Drink a Day Helps the Heart</FONT></div> <div> By ABIGAIL ZUGER New York Times December 30, 2002</div> <div>           A drink or two a day provides the equivalent of a potent cholesterol medicine and a weak blood thinner, as well as a variety of other substances that may keep the body's metabolism tuned and its cells in good repair. Alcohol raises the blood levels of H.D.L., the "good" cholesterol, thought to scour blood vessels free of the fatty plaques that can cause heart attacks, strokes and other problems. Moderate drinking can raise the levels more than 10 percent. Heavy drinking raises them even higher. By comparison, running a few miles a week increases H.D.L. a fraction of that, while the B vitamin niacin, probably the most effective medication for raising H.D.L. levels, has to be taken at high doses that entail many side effects for similar results. The statin low-cholesterol drugs, which work by reducing L.D.L., or "bad" cholesterol, seldom raise H.D.L. levels substantially.       </div> <div>           Researchers estimate that half the heart benefits of moderate drinking stem directly from the H.D.L. gain. Alcohol also makes the blood flow a little more freely, by decreasing blood proteins that promote clotting and increasing those that prevent clotting. Like low-dose aspirin, which also helps prevent heart attacks, alcohol keeps the tiny blood cells called platelets from adhering to one another and forming damaging clots.</div> <div>           Alcohol may also help the heart by preventing diabetes, a risk factor for heart disease. Moderate drinkers are on average a little thinner than nondrinkers and less likely to develop the type of diabetes associated with obesity and insulin resistance. A study published in May in The Journal of the American Medical Association confirmed that those associations were not coincidental. When healthy postmenopausal women were assigned to drink two drinks a day for two months, they became more sensitive to insulin, with more efficient metabolisms and reduced risk of diabetes.</div> <div>            Whether alcoholic drinks have other powers is the subject of much research. Besides alcohol, red wine contains hundreds of natural antioxidants, mostly derived from grape skins and seeds. The antioxidant activity in a glass of red wine equals that in 7 glasses of orange juice or 20 of apple juice, one researcher estimates. Some white wines and dark beers have the same antioxidant activity. Antioxidants are widely thought to have a host of good effects, like increasing tissue blood flow and protecting cells from oxidative injury much as rustproofing protects a car chassis.</div> <div>      Last December, researchers in London announced in the journal Nature that alcohol-free extracts of red wines kept blood vessel cells from producing endothelin-1, a chemical that constricts blood vessels. That may mean that red wine enhances the blood flow to organs like the heart and brain above what might be expected from its alcohol content.</div> <div> Other researchers have found that the antioxidants in wine can keep heart muscle cells from dying. "Some actually trigger a survival signal," said Dr. Dipak K. Das, director of the cardiovascular research center at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. "They rescue the cells." The role of antioxidants from alcoholic beverages in preventing disease remains controversial. The most convincing experiments have been performed in cells and laboratory animals, but not people. Skeptics point to questions lurking over one antioxidant, vitamin E. Despite test tube and animal data that support its ability to prevent or ease heart disease, studies in people have yielded conflicting results.</div> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>