Wine aids in healthy lungs
Study finds drinking white wine may help keep lungs healthy
By
LOIS BAKER
Contributing Editor
Drinking
wine appears to be good for the lungs, a UB study has shown, and in
this case, the primary credit goes to white wine rather than red.
In
research presented recently in Atlanta at a meeting of the American
Thoracic Society, Holger Schunemann, assistant professor of medicine
and social and preventive medicine in the School of Medicine and Biomedical
Sciences, reported that drinking wine recently and over a lifetime was
associated with better lung function.
The
study found no association between lung function and total amount of
alcohol consumed—some previous studies had found a negative effect—nor
between lung health and alcohol from beer, wine coolers or liquor.
"This
finding may indicate that nutrients in wine are responsible for the
positive effect of alcoholic beverages on lung function," said Schunemann.
"Red wine in moderation has been shown to be beneficial for the heart,
but in this case the relationship was stronger for white wine."
UB
researchers conducted the study in a random sample of 1,555 white and
African-American residents of Western New York. They collected comprehensive
information about current and lifetime alcohol consumption and lifestyle
habits, including diet, and took body measurements.
All
participants performed standard lung-function tests, which measured
the volume of air they could expel in one breath—referred to as
forced vital capacity (FVC)—and the volume forcibly expelled in
one second (FEV1).
To
assess alcohol consumption, researchers defined those who had fewer
than 12 drinks during their lifetime as "never drinkers" and those who
were drinkers but had consumed no alcohol in the past month as "non-current
drinkers." The remaining "current drinkers" reported the type of alcoholic
beverage they drank and how often, the size of each drink, patterns
of consumption and how often they drank more than usual.
Analysis
of participants' demographic information and alcohol consumption data
revealed some interesting relationships:
- Beer-only
drinkers were younger, predominately male, drank more daily and over
their lifetimes, and were more likely to smoke than other participants.
- The
groups of wine only, liquor only and recent abstainers included more
women than men.
- Those
who drank wine only or various alcoholic beverages had the highest
education level.
- Wine
drinkers had the highest levels of protective antioxidants in their
blood.
Analysis
of all of the alcohol-consumption variables with lung function showed
that both recent and lifetime intake of wine had the strongest association
with FEV1 and FVC, Schunemann said, an effect likely linked to wine's
antioxidant properties.
"Evidence
suggests that alcohol may increase the oxidative burden," he noted,
"but there is a large body of evidence showing that wine contains antioxidants,
such as flavinoids and phenols.
"We
also have shown that both dietary levels and blood-serum levels of antioxidants
are linked to lung health and function. We think that the antioxidants
in wine account for our current findings."
Additional
contributors to the study were Brydon J.B. Grant and Deepa Kudalkar
from the Department of Medicine; Jo L. Freudenheim, Paola Muti, Susan
McCann, Malathi Ram, and Maurizio Trevisan of the Department of Social
and Preventive Medicine; Tom Nochajski of the Research Institute on
Addictions, and Marcia Russell of the Prevention Research Center in
Berkeley, Calif.
