"Red Wine Slows Brain Cell Damage In Mice"
Why do mice always get to receive the newest advances in medical care? Don't these scientists know that myself and probably several of my fellow ScienceBloggers would gladly volunteer for perilous experiments such as this one? It's reports like these that stir readers like me to ask the tough questions, such as: what if the mice are strictly beer drinkers, or how can they give the mice red wine without a nice plate of le contre filet marchand de vin aux echalottes confites?
Dr. Giulio Maria Pasinetti and his team gave mice cabernet sauvignon or ethanol in their drinking water daily for seven months. Another group of mice drank plain water. All of the animals had a genetic defect that caused them to develop amyloidal plaques in their brains, the type of damage that occurs in humans with Alzheimer's disease.
Is this the same genetic defect that prevents husbands from understanding their wives instructions on where or when to pick up the kids? Just wondering...
After seven months, the mice were abstained from alcohol for three days. Then, researchers tested the improvement in animal's memory by putting them through a series of maze tests. They found that wine-drinking mice learned how to escape from the maze significantly faster than those drinking alcohol-spiked water or water only.
Well, what's so amazing about that? You give most anyone a tumbler of Chateau Margaux for seven months, then take it away for three days and he'll figure out pretty darn fast how to get out of that maze and into the nearest saloon. Say, just how much wine does a mouse have to drink in order to keep his brain nice and tidy?
Pasinetti said that based on the findings, and given that moderate wine consumption may protect the heart, older people who don't have the metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, liver problems, issues with alcohol dependence or other reasons to avoid alcohol can choose to drink red wine moderately as part of a healthy lifestyle. "Moderate consumption is the key factor," Pasinetti told Reuters Health in an interview.
Hooray for moderate consumption! Why, all the gang down at Duffy's Tavern are experts on moderate consumption! Hey Duffy - did you hear the news? We're all going to live to be a hundred and still be as sharp as a tack! Let's start the treatment tonight with a bottle of the good stuff!
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On the other hand, there is this:
http://www.tedkarol.com/blog/archives/002207a_good_reason_not_to.html
Sheesh, Ted, way to kill the buzz!
Seriously, though: the affected rodents had the equivalent of 2 to 4 drinks daily. Isn't it a stretch to go from that data to the recommendation "no drinking at all"? It's like the recommendation to pregnant women to avoid all alcohol to prevent fetal alcohol syndrome. We need better risk/benefit analysis here.
The benefits I get from my occasional glass of red include more than just the protective action the good doctor discusses above...
As one who is battling cancer, I'm erring on the safe side.
I, for one, welcome our new drunken rodent overlords.
Ted, I'm a cancer patient, too. But it's practically a reflex with me to protest at the extrapolation from "moderate drinking appears to be problematic" to "no drinking at all is safe."
I wish you the best of luck.
I wonder if red grape juice would be as effective. The real question is, is it the alcohol or the grape juice or the combination that had the effect.
I tried to "trackback," but I can't figure it out. Thanks for this post. My husband and I enjoyed the laugh. And I hope my readers will, too.