Cheers to a new study which says that sipping some evening vino could protect your bones. It found that “moderate alcohol consumption influences bone turnover.”
The study out of Oregon State University focused on women in their early 50s and 60s. The average consumption of the 40 participants was about a glass and half a day. The study as reported on NPR.org was published in the journal, Menopause.
Study official Urzula Iwaniec said that bone loss occurs because “during menopause, the rate of resorption increases, and the formation of new bone doesn't keep up with resorption."
The research found that alcohol stalls the turnover rate. Researchers came to this conclusion after evaluating blood work from the wine-drinking participants.
The ladies were told to abstain from drinking for two weeks and a second sample of blood work was then studied.
Iwaniec said, “What we found that the blood markers were higher, significantly higher after the women stopped drinking, indicating that more bone was being resorped. But once the women went back to the nightly glass of wine? The blood markers dropped back to where they’d been before.”
Another disease affecting women in their menopausal years is rheumatoid arthritis. A recent, larger study of those who consumed alcohol found that “52 percent decreased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis compared with those who never drank at all.” That is according to a report on ABCNews.com.
The study was published in the British Medical Journal and was conducted at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. It focused on 34,000 Swedish women approximately 55-90 years old.
The initial evaluations of alcohol use were made in the late '80s to late '90s. Study administrators kept track of their health in the early 2000s up until 2009 to see whether or not a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis was reported.
Study officials admitted that one key factor in this particular study was that “the women who drank more alcohol were also more likely to smoke, which is a risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis.” However, moderate drinking may help to offset some of the risk factors of smoking and a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis.
But the study found better news for non-smokers, with a little alcohol helping to reduce risk factors of rheumatoid arthritis by more than 60 percent.
Study administrator Daniela Di Giuseppe told ABCNews.com, “Our results suggest that moderate alcohol consumption of alcohol, approximately half a glass of alcohol per day, may reduce the risk of developing RA," particularly for women who do not smoke.
Sources:
“Nightly Glass of Wine May Protect Boomer Women’s Bones – Allison Aubrey - NPR.org.” National Public Radio. Web 21 August 2012.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/07/12/156629783/nightly-glass-of-wine-may-protect-boomer-womens-bones?sc=ipad&f=1001
“To Your Health: Moderate Alcohol Confers Some Benefits, Some Harms for Women's Health – Carrie Gan – ABCNews.go.com.” ABC News. Web 21 August 2012.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/drinking-alcohol-moderate-amounts-reduces-womens-osteoporosis-rheumatoid/story?id=16750770
Joanne Sgro-Killworth is a Television Fitness Expert, Certified Personal Trainer and Sport Nutritionist. She is Certified in Pilates, Pre-natal/Post-Partum, Yoga and Senior Fitness. She specializes in Weight Loss, Post-Rehab and Post Cancer Training.
Joanne's fitness plans and recipes are available globally on her website www.fitnessanswer.com/ She resides in the Phoenix, AZ area with her husband and son, where she runs her personal training business, Fitness Answer, LLC.
Reviewed August 22, 2012
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith