Wine and Life Span

In case you missed it, I'm changing the direction of this blog to cover personal interests, including health. (Check back for an announcement regarding where I'll write about religious matters.)

Forbes.com published the article, "Drink a Little Wine, Live a Little Longer." Unfortunately, while I plan to continue drinking red wine and other alcoholic beverages in moderation, I am unpersuaded by the study in question that drinking red wine causes longer life spans.

The article summarizes the findings:

Men who regularly drank up to a half a glass of wine each day boosted their life expectancy by five years...

All long-term light alcohol drinking boosted life expectancy by about 2.5 years in comparison to abstainers.

Drinking more than 0.7 ounces a day extended life expectancy by nearly two years compared with nondrinkers.

Wine drinkers who averaged just 0.7 ounces a day had a 2.5 year-longer life expectancy at age 50 compared to those who drank beer or spirits. And their life expectancy was nearly five years longer than nondrinkers.

Drinking moderately was linked with lower death risk, and drinking wine was strongly linked with a lower risk of dying from heart disease, stroke or other causes.

I wonder where the 0.7 ounce cut-off came from. Presumably, people who drank more than that included those who drank a lot more than that; at a certain point the potential health benefits of drinking alcohol are offset by drinking too much alcohol.

The Forbes article includes the following voice of skepticism:

"Once again, it shows that people who drink [moderately] do a lot better than people who don't in terms of survival," [Dr. Arthur Klatsky, a long-time investigator on the health benefits of alcohol] said.

However, as with other research, Klatsky wondered if it's the pattern of drinking or something related to the wine drinking -- such as wine drinkers being more likely to exercise or eat a healthy diet -- that is the real link.

In the new Dutch study, he says, alcohol from spirits contributes the most to the total alcohol intake, more than wine or beer.

"It's a little hard to think that a little bit of wine is what is responsible for extending their life," Klatsky said.

Klatsky's concern is more potent to the degree that some people start drinking red wine expressly for its reputed health benefits; presumably, such people are more generally concerned about their health and so would live longer whether or not they drank red wine.

But I have a different concern. People who drink wine with their meals tend to have more sociable and slower meals. People who enjoy themselves more and socialize more tend to live longer. I wonder to what degree red wine is a symptom, rather than a cause, of a robust lifestyle.

To be fully convincing, a case for the health benefits of wine would have to show a physiological relationship between the phytochemicals or alcohol in red wine to a human body's functioning. I will not be surprised if such a link is definitively discovered. The study in question, though, doesn't seem to sort out the potential causes well enough, and the study's abstract does not alleviate that concern.

Happy New Year -- Be Safe!

As we contemplate changes in some of our alcohol laws, we can't afford to forget the very real dangers of drunk driving. This New Years, please be safe! If you're going to be drinking too much for safe driving this evening, stay overnight, choose a designated driver, or call a cab. If you're on the roads, watch out for reckless drivers and report them. Defensive driving works.

I wish you a free and prosperous New Year as we discover new opportunities to fight for liberty in 2008.

Dempsey Challenges Unreasonable Alcohol Laws

Bob Dempsey, the coroner of San Miguel County, wrote a critique of two of MADD's policies, the 0.08 percent blood-alcohol limit for driving and the 21-year age restriction. Dempsey's article was published on December 29 in The Telluride Watch. Regarding the blood-alcohol limit, Dempsey writes:

... Among coroners who I have talked to, most believe problems don't begin until about 0.12, which would be a more realistic legal level. ... At 0.08 there is little probability of causing an accident. Because of MADD's low-limit success, the fight against drunk driving has shifted from serious abusers to responsible drinkers. Law enforcement has become less selective, less prepared to ferret out drunk drivers and is losing focus on the real threat, namely, habitually drunk drivers. ...

Karolyn Nunnallee, president of MADD, predicted in 2000 that a nationwide 0.08 standard "will save 600 lives every year."

It hasn't worked that way. The July 2007 issue of Contemporary Economic Policy examined data by Sam Houston State University and concluded, "There's no evidence that lowering the legal level reduced fatality rates."

Regarding laws that raise the legal drinking age to 21 -- laws that I have long opposed on grounds of fairness -- Dempsey writes:

This 21-year-old law has helped the "forbidden fruit" reputation of alcohol, and is linked to an astonishing increase in binge drinking among adolescents and young adults. Drinking to intoxication is the norm for 18-20 year olds, which significantly impairs one's ability to make safe decisions, including the choice to get behind the wheel of an automobile.

When I went to college with an 18-year age-limit on drinking, there was no thought of binge drinking. We had too much fun socializing at lounges, behaving as responsible young adults. We would have been stigmatized otherwise. It could be the same today if we gave our youth a chance. This approach works in the rest of the world.

Our youth are better prepared today because MADD has done a superb job of educating the public of the dangers of drunk driving. But, they are unrelenting and refuse to admit that prohibition never works, causes more reckless drinking and worse, it forces it underground and breeds disrespect for the law.

Dempsey notes that Canadian provinces successfully lowered their drinking ages from 21 to 18 or 19. He notes that the organization "Choose Responsibly" is working to lower the drinking age in the United States.