Wine and Beer May be Good for Your Bones

[n2doc]

By Jim Dawson, Inside Science News Service
posted: 07 March 2009 09:12 am ET

A glass of wine or a bottle or two of beer a day may strengthen the bones of older men and women, but drinking more than that could actually weaken bones, according to new research from the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston.

The research, on men and post-menopausal women over 60 years of age, found that regular moderate alcohol intake was associated with greater bone mineral density (BMD).

While earlier research had suggested the link between moderate drinking and improved bone density, the Tufts' study looked specifically at the "possible effects of three alcohol classes, beer, wine and liquor, on BMD," said Katherine Tucker, the director of the epidemiology research program at Tufts. "We saw stronger associations between higher BMD and beer drinkers, who were mostly men, and wine drinkers, who were mostly women, compared with liquor drinkers," she said.

Tucker and her colleagues speculated that silicon found in beer is contributing to the higher bone density in men. It is less clear why liquor and wine might protect bone density.

The researchers also emphasized that drinking too much is damaging to bones and noted that "no one should depend solely on alcohol to maintain bone density."

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Research in 2006 by Tucker found that carbonated cola drinks cause a decrease in bone density in older women, but not in men.
http://www.livescience.com/health/090307-isns-wine-beer-bones.html

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Related article at the link

People Really Do Look Better When You Drink

For the first time, scientists have proven that "beer goggles" are real — other people really do look more attractive to us if we have been drinking.

Surprisingly, the beer goggles effect was not limited to just the opposite sex among the ostensibly straight volunteers recruited for the study — they also rated people from their own sex as more attractive.

Scientists in England gave 84 heterosexual college students chilled lime-flavored drinks that were either non-alcoholic or given a dose of vodka equivalent in alcohol to a large glass of wine or a pint-and-a-half of beer.

After 15 minutes, the volunteers were shown photos of 40 other college students from both sexes. Both men and women who drank booze found these faces more attractive, "a roughly 10 percent increase in ratings of attractiveness," said researcher Marcus Munafo, an experimental psychologist at the University of Bristol in England.

The researchers also asked volunteers to rate their mood, "and there were no differences on those measures in the alcohol group compared to the no-alcohol group," Munafo added. "This suggests that the effect we observed wasn't due to a general change in mood."

It did not escape Munafo that the results are rather obvious.

"Everyone knows about beer goggles," Munafo said. "But some of our results suggest that there's more going on than we might have thought."

more at link

:rofl:

[panader0]

2. And you don't get hurt as bad when you fall down.

[nolabels]

3. Actually i think there was study that proved that was true somehow

Drunks seem to go limber more readily. It's the same effect contact sports trains into the athletes. Those many times a basketball or football players get knocked to the ground in practice helps them avoid injuries when the games are real and at full speed.

[trotsky]

4. Might be related to how drunk drivers don't seem to be hurt as often as their victims.

They don't tense up as much before a crash. I dunno if that is a real phenomenon but it seems that way.

[rocktivity]

5. one tequila two tequila three tequila

floor.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[wuvuj]

6. Another article...

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/01/alcohol_seniors_consumption.html


"A growing body of research supports the conclusion that moderate drinking can have positive health benefits. For instance, a couple of glasses of red wine a day can be good for the heart.

But if you're a senior in good health, light to moderate consumption of alcohol may also help prevent the development of physical disability.

That's the conclusion of a new UCLA study, available in the online edition of the American Journal of Epidemiology, which found that light to moderate drinking among these seniors reduced their odds of developing physical problems that would prevent them from performing common tasks such as walking, dressing and grooming.

"If you start out in good health, alcohol consumption at light to moderate levels can be beneficial," said lead study author Dr. Arun Karlamangla, an associate professor of medicine in the division of geriatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "But if you don't start out healthy, alcohol will not give you a benefit." "