Wine lowers risk of Alzheimers (but not beer)

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41248-2002Nov11.html

Study Finds Wine Drinking Lowers Risk of

Alzheimer's

People who drink a little wine seem to have a

lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease

and other forms of dementia, Danish researchers

reported yesterday.

Regular beer drinkers actually had a higher risk of

developing dementia, the researchers reported in

a study that adds to a growing body of evidence

suggesting that wine contains healthful

compounds.

The results, published in the Nov. 12 issue of the

journal Neurology, showed people who drank up

to 21 glasses of wine a week had a measurably lower

risk of dementia. " Monthly and weekly intake

of wine is associated with a lower risk of

dementia, " the team at the Institute of Preventive Medicine

at Kommunehospitalet in Copenhagen wrote in their

report.

People who had just a glass of wine a day had a

lower risk of dementia than people who drank no

wine at all, they added. Although men tended to

drink more than women, there were no differences

in the health consequences of drinking between men

and women.

The study included 1,700 people who had been taking

part in a larger study of heart disease, and

had been interviewed in the 1970s about their

eating and drinking habits. Starting 15 years later,

they were checked for dementia. Of the

participants, 83 developed dementia and their drinking

histories were compared with those of the 1,600

other volunteers. A drink was defined as one

beverage containing 9 grams to 13 grams of alcohol

and equivalent to one bottle of beer, one glass

of wine or one measure of spirits.

Environmental Factors May Affect Men's Fertility

In findings that renew a debate over whether

chemicals or other environmental factors influence

sexual development, researchers said some rural men

have lower sperm counts than their big-city

counterparts.

Men living in rural Missouri had lower sperm counts

than men living in New York, Minneapolis

and Los Angeles, the researchers said in a report

released yesterday.

It joins a collection of studies that have shown

conflicting results on whether a man's sperm count is

affected by where he lives and the kind of things

he is exposed to.

Writing in the December issue of Environmental

Health Perspectives, Shanna Swann of the

University of Missouri in Columbia and colleagues

across the country said they studied 512

couples receiving prenatal care at clinics. They

interviewed the men and took blood and semen

samples.

Semen quality was equally high in Minneapolis and

New York, and slightly lower in Los Angeles.

Men from around Columbia, Missouri, had sperm

counts and quality that were significantly lower

than men from any of the three cities.

Swan's team is now looking for clues in the men's

blood. The Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention is analyzing the blood for chemicals to

see if there are differences between the city and

country dwellers.

Compiled from reports by Reuters.