In a recent Huffington Post piece titled “The Hidden Health Benefits of Alcohol?” writer, psychologist and addiction expert Stanton Peele addresses a recent government report on drinking and the elderly.

Peele’s post discusses the impact of the 2010 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and how they validate that moderate drinking results in longer life and less incidence of dementia. To the contrary, a recent NY Times article reveals nothing of its benefits, but rather drinking’s negative impacts on the elderly.

Peele writes:

Taken together, the contrasting (or are they complimentary) emphases “drinking is only beneficial to older Americans,” “drinking is most harmful to older Americans,” sound like the punch line for a Groucho Marx joke — “You should never drink before you are old, and then you should quit.

Needless to say, the comments came rolling in with a vengeance. Peele responded with another post, “We Don’t Believe Alcohol’s Good For You!” in which he decided that rather than “piss people off individually, I thought I could piss everybody off more efficiently with this follow-up post.”

Some of the comments raise issues concerning politics, industry, advertising and medicine. It’s fascinating and frustrating. Yet it’s the good and bad, ups and downs, and yin and yang of women and drinking that we believe the Drinking Diaries is all about. Always feels free to share your thoughts…

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Hot milk? Maybe. Glass of red wine? Don’t think so…

In an effort to study what foods and/or drinks may help induce slumber, Michael Grandner, a sleep researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology, tracked the diets and sleep habits of 459 women enrolled in the federal government’s 15-year Women’s Health Initiative.

The findings of Grandner’s recent research, recently published in the journal Sleep Medicine, found that fat was the main nutrient (out of dozens tracked) associated with getting less sleep. “The more fat you ate, the less you slept,” he says.

“The bad news for people trying to talk about food and sleep is that . . . generally it’s hard to find foods that help with sleep,” says Grandner. “The easier question is what are the things to avoid?”

Among the things on the don’t-drink (or eat) list—along with caffeine and spicy foods—was alcohol. Although a nightcap might help you fall asleep, Christine Gerbstadt, a medical doctor, registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, explains that “Alcohol does disrupt the sleep cycle. It delays the onset of and shortens REM sleep, which is the restful sleep you need every night.”

Both red and white wine contain melatonin, Gerbstadt says, but that hormone’s sleep-inducing properties are offset by the alcohol’s interference with REM sleep. Still, She says, you might benefit from eating red grapes with the skin on to get a little boost of melatonin.

Milk, herbal tea and other comforting remedies help “not by making you sleepy, but by making you more relaxed,” wrote Grandner. “When it comes to calming foods, there are a number that may have calming effects, but honestly the evidence suggests that it is mostly placebo.”

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According to a new study directed by psychology graduate student Helle Larsen of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, the relationship between drinking alcohol and drinking in groups may be genetically linked. In other words, those who inherit a specific gene which affects the brain’s “reward system” are more likely to drink greater amounts of alcohol in the company of their party-loving peers.

As reported in an online article in Psychological Science, the study suggests that “Adults carrying at least one copy of a long version of the dopamine D4 receptor gene, dubbed DRD4, imbibed substantially more alcohol around a heavy-drinking peer than did others who lacked that gene variant.”

Larsen’s study is the first to offer evidence that a gene influences human alcohol use in social situations. “Carriers of the long gene may be more attuned to, and influenced by, another person’s heavy drinking than noncarriers are,” Larsen says.

An article in Science News, which sheds light on how the study was conducted, reported that: “Scientists have yet to decipher the precise brain effects of DRD4’s long form. Larsen hypothesizes that in the presence of heavy drinkers, the gene variant may increase dopamine activity in brain areas that amplify alcohol’s appeal as a rewarding social activity.”

Other attempts to substantiate findings of gene-environment interaction have yielded mixed resulsts, so Larsen agrees that other researchers will need to confirm these findings.

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Yesterday, HealthNewsDigest.com announced that the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health will fund a new five-year study focusing on addictive behaviors in women involving tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs and overeating.

The $2.5 million faculty-training grant awarded to Yale University researchers in the Department of Psychiatry will involve training scholars to conduct interdisciplinary research on addictive behaviors in women, as well as explore potentially new gender-specific prevention and treatment strategies.

“The stark reality is that addictive behaviors in women currently rank among our most prevalent health concerns; disorders involving these behaviors are linked to some of the top causes of mortality and preventable disease,” said Carolyn M. Mazure, the study’s principal investigator, a professor of psychiatry and psychology and director of Women’s Health Research at Yale. “Our unique training program fills a great need for new researchers who can bridge many areas to fully understand addictive behaviors in women.”

The ultimate goal, says Mazure, is to enable scientists to continue making contributions to the prevention and treatment of addiction, concluding in direct benefit for women and their families. Amen to that.

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Recent research published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that, like red wine, a little bit of champagne or sparkling wine a day could be good for your heart. This research comes just in the nick of time as sales of champagne have been continually declining, particularly in the United States.

Polyphenols found in red wine help the heart by slowing down the removal of nitric oxide from the blood, which lowers blood pressure and reduces the risk of heart problems and strokes. Similarly, elevated levels of nitric oxide found in champagne cause blood vessels to dilate, and has the same effect as red wine.

And while we’re on the subject…

Madame Jacques Bollinger, otherwise known as “Aunt Lily,” took over Champagne Bollinger when her husband, Jacques, died in 1941. It was war time and, with no gasoline to fill the trucks and tractors, Lily took to her bicycle to tour and manage the vineyards, personally supervising every aspect of the business.

 Her most lasting legacy, aside from the bubbly we drink today, is her famous quote about champagne, published  in London’s Daily Mail, October 17, 1961:

“I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad.
 Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone.
When I have company I consider it obligatory. 
I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and I drink it when I am.
 Otherwise I never touch it, unless I’m thirsty.”

A la vôtre…

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A new study from the UK found that women who are highly educated generally drink greater amounts of alcohol than their less educated counterparts.

The study, done by researchers at the London School of Economics (LSE), tracked the lifestyles of more than 9,000 thirty-nine-year-old women and men who were all born in the UK during the same week in 1970.

According to an article on Telegraph.co.uk, “The more educated women are, the more likely they are to drink alcohol on most days and to report having problems due to their drinking patterns,” the study reports. “The better-educated appear to be the ones who engage the most in problematic patterns of alcohol consumption.”

Francesca Borgonovi and Maria Huerta, the authors of the study, suggest a few potential explanations about the findings. Highly educated women have perhaps experienced:

• greater postponement of childbearing and its responsibilities among the better educated
• more intensive social life that encourages alcohol intake
• greater engagement into traditionally male spheres of life
• greater social acceptability of alcohol use and abuse
• more exposure to alcohol use during formative years

In addition to looking at academic achievement and school test results, researchers gave a survey asking questions such as: ”Have you ever felt you should cut down on your drinking?” and “Have you ever had a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or get rid of a hangover?”

They found that women with some educational qualifications were 71 per cent more likely to drink on most days compared to women with no qualifications, while women with degree-level qualifications were 86 per cent more likely to do so.

Higher educated women were 1.7 times more likely to have a drinking problem than their less-well-educated counterparts, while those who scored highly in school tests were also at greater risk of having drinking problems.

A similar link between educational achievement and alcohol consumption is seen among men, but the correlation is less strong, according to the report, published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.

Photo: by David Burgess, Telegraph.co.uk

I’m a wine drinker. I thoroughly enjoy the intensity of a complex red, the crispness of a smooth white, the subtle fruits of a chilled rosé.

Which color wine I drink usually depends on my mood, the weather, and often what I’m eating. I have a collection of glasses (a recent obsession that is a whole other story) and the color of the wine typically dictates the choice of glass–not the grape variety like for some wine aficionados–part of a spectrum that ranges from everyday juice glass to inexpensive stemless to fine crystal.

Thinking back to the era of the ever-popular white wine spritzer (to which I never took a liking), I was surprised to learn the news that American women prefer red wine. A recent study conducted by the WineSpectator.com surveyed 431 women in the U.S. (part of a larger global survey of 4,300 women worldwide) and found that the large majority of American women–79 percent–typically choose red wine over white and rosé (Red was the preference of 60 percent of  all of the women surveyed globally).

Of the American women surveyed, 93 percent said they drink wine once a week, and of that group, 80 percent said they drink most often with meals. When asked why they drink, 92 percent of the women said they like the taste, and 71 percent answered “because it goes well with food.” Less than 2 percent of American women said they drink wine because it’s fashionable (phew–we aren’t as image conscious as I’d thought). And a whopping 97 percent of the U.S. respondents believe that wine is part of a healthy, balanced diet!

When it comes to cost, 66 percent of the American women spend an average of between $11 and $20 per bottle when buying from a retail store, while 26 percent will spend between $21 and $50.

So, if you have any favorite reds to share, please do. My cellar (read: rack in the boiler room) could use some replenishing…

According to a study published in a recent issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, women who drink a glass or two of red wine may experience greater sexual desire, lubrication, and overall sexual function.

According to the study’s authors, members of the departments of Urology and Public Health at the University of Florence in Italy, the results help give a clearer picture on the female sexual response cycle.

The study, supposedly the first of its kind, examined red wine intake and the sexual function of 800 women between the ages of 18 and 50, none of whom had ever reported a sexual health problem. The women were divided into three groups–one group drank one or two glasses, another group drank less than one glass and a third group didn’t drink at all. Those drinking more than two glasses of wine were excluded from the study.

The participants answered a questionnaire called the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), a questionnaire used by doctors to assess sexual health in women. The results revealed that the levels of sexual desire were higher in women who were moderate drinkers of red wine than in their counterparts who preferred other alcoholic drinks, or were teetotal.

Typically, medical studies on sexual health focus on men and dysfunction, so this was a welcome change. “Historically, the aspects of wine and sexuality have been well known since the time of Ancient Greece,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Nicola Mondaini, who was quoted in an article in the Wine Spectator and is publishing a book on the subject next month, titled Vino e Eros. “But the field of female sexual dysfunction is still highly unexplored.”

The researchers’ conclusion stated that “While this finding needs to be interpreted with some caution, because of the small sample size, self-reported data, and the lack of support from laboratory exams, it nevertheless suggests a potential relationship between red wine consumption and better sexuality.”

Any chance you’ll be testing this on your own?