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<p>SWINDON, England, July 3 (UPI) -- Medical research has shown red wine is good for the heart, and now a British hospital is actually prescribing wine for its heart patients.</p> <p>The London Daily Mail reports nurses at Great Western Hospital in Swindon are giving their heart patients two glasses of wine each day in what's believed to be the first such hospital program in Europe.</p>

Biologists have found a class of chemicals that they hope will make people live longer by activating an ancient survival reflex. One of the chemicals, a natural substance known as resveratrol, is found in red wines, particularly those made in cooler climates like that of New York. The finding could help explain the so-called French paradox, the fact that the French live as long as anyone else despite consuming fatty foods deemed threatening to the heart. Besides the wine connection, the finding has the attraction of stemming from fundamental research in the biology of aging. However, the new chemicals have...

VIENNA (Reuters) - If you must smoke, at least make sure you have a glass of red wine in the other hand. Researchers said Sunday there were enough beneficial chemicals in two glasses of red wine to suspend the harmful effect that smoking one cigarette has on the functioning of arteries. That does not prove regular red wine drinking can counteract the harm of chronic smoking, John Lekakis and Christos Papamichael of University Hospital in Athens told the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology. But the finding does suggest that red wine -- long seen as good for...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Researchers have known for years that cutting calories can prolong life in everything from yeast cells to mammals. But an easier way to live longer may be as simple as turning a corkscrew. Molecules found in red wine, peanuts and other products of the plant world have for the first time been shown to mimic the life-extending effects of calorie restriction, a finding that could help researchers develop drugs that lengthen life and prevent or treat aging-related diseases. Researchers said on Sunday that one of the molecules, a compound known as resveratrol, was shown in a study...

Women who drink moderate quantities of wine become pregnant more easily than their teetotal or beer-supping sisters, a Danish medical review reported. According to Dagens Medecin a study of 30,000 women showed that those who chose a glass of wine over beer or spirits were most likely to conceive. The least likely to become pregnant were those who drank no alcohol at all. The research was carried out by a team headed by Mette Juhl of the state serology institute, Statens Serum Institut. They could not explain the reasons for their findings. "We know that wine-drinkers eat more healthily and...

From the more reserved wine drinker to the A-type beer swiller, the kind of alcohol someone quaffs often indicates a certain personality type, a new study by researchers in Winnipeg concludes. The scientists at the University of Manitoba's Alcohol and Tobacco Research Unit found relatively distinct psychological traits when they surveyed hundreds of beer, wine and liquor afficionados. Beer drinkers tended to be more extroverted and ego-driven, the wine drinkers less so, and spirits drinkers fell somewhere in between the two, the study found. The findings may shed some light on conflicting evidence about the health benefits of certain types...

Pharmaceutical treasure trove may lurk at the bottom of the bottle.In a further boost to its image as a healthy elixir, red wine has been identified as a potential source of new anti-cancer agents. A group of French chemists has found that red wine contains a chemical compound called acutissimin A. The molecule has previously shown promise as an anti-cancer drug. "It would be quite inappropriate to infer that red wine possesses anti-tumour properties," warn Stéphane Quideau, of the European Institute of Chemistry and Biology in Pessac, and his colleagues. But, they point out, it could be worth mining red...

A new Swedish study finds postmenopausal women who consume high amounts of alcohol, especially wine, are at a higher risk for breast cancer. According to the study, women who drank more than roughly 1.5 glasses of wine per day were twice as likely to get the disease compared to women with little or no alcohol intake. Moderate drinkers, meanwhile, were found to be at a 12 percent lower risk of breast cancer. Scientists had previously suspected that women who drink alcoholic beverages are at a greater risk of breast cancer. But not all studies have demonstrated a link, and the...

The future of California's $33 billion wine industry might hang on an unlikely marriage of grape vines performed at the University of California, Davis. Each spring, UC Davis grape breeders Alan Tenscher and Andrew Walker plant more than 2,000 exotic young vines in the hope that one or two will emerge with fully flavored grapes and a high degree of resistance to plant-killing Pierce's disease. His work is part of a five-year, $166 million push to control Pierce's disease and the glassy-winged sharpshooter that carries it an effort that stretches from Davis vineyards to a bug-breeding colony near Bakersfield.

It is news guaranteed to raise a cheer among those who enjoy a glass or two: drinking half a bottle of wine a day can make your brain work better, especially if you are a woman. Research to be published tomorrow by academics at University College London has found that those who even drink only one glass of wine a week have significantly sharper thought processes than teetotallers. The benefits of alcohol, which are thought to be linked to its effect on the flow of blood to the brain, can be detected when a person drinks up to 30 units...

TORONTO (CP) - There's good news for beer drinkers: turns out the stuff is good for you - in moderation, according to a new study.The study, done at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., indicates that the polyphenols in beer - substances derived from barley - boost antioxidant activity in the blood. "Antioxidant activity ... helps prevent the oxidation of blood plasma by toxic free radicals that trigger many aging diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and cataracts," according to a news release on the study. And you thought beer just tasted good. Biochemist John Trevithick, one...

Jacob Sullum'sSyndicated Column Commercial Potential (10/8) Drug Connections (10/1) Bullets for Ballots (9/24) Earlier Columns October 8, 2004 Commercial Potential How marijuana and wine can improve our balance Jacob Sullum Two years ago a drug raid in Butte County, California, led to a three-hour standoff. It was not the sort of standoff you usually read about in the papers or see depicted on TV, pitting police against desperate criminals. It was a standoff between local and federal law enforcement officials, with implications that extend far beyond those of the typical drug bust. Deputies from the Butte County Sheriff's Department...

October 28, 2004 -- LONDON — The good news is that drinking red wine could help protect against lung cancer — the bad news is that white wine may increase the risk of getting the disease. That's the finding of Spanish scientists who yesterday published the results of a study into the effects of different types of wine on lung cancer.

REALLY? THE FACTS When ancient Greeks wanted to reassure guests that their wine had not been spiked with poison, they toasted to good health. While that may be less of a worry today, there remain hazards from indulging in too much alcohol - including, of course, hangovers. But one thing people who drink socially probably don't need to worry about is sacrificing brain cells in the process. The research indicates that adults who drink in moderation are not in danger of losing brain cells. The notion that alcohol snuffs out brain cells has been around for years. Many studies have...

Drink like the French and stay alive Mine's a small, regular one ... Robin McKie, science editor Sunday November 28, 2004 The Observer It's not what you drink but the way that you drink it. This is the unexpected news from scientists who have found that steadily knocking back booze all week is a healthier way to consume alcohol than having bouts of high-level consumption followed by periods of abstinence. We should drink like the French, in other words. They sip a few glasses of wine every day of the year, and do jolly well on this liquid fare. Medical...

LONDON - Nestled in cellars tunneled deep into a Crimean mountainside, they survived revolution, war and decades of communism. Hundreds of bottles of wine selected for the pleasure of Czar Nicholas II and preserved on the orders of Josef Stalin were auctioned by Sotheby's in London on Friday — the latest in a slew of Russian collectibles being snapped up at ever-rising prices. Several dozen Russian and European collectors gathered at Sotheby's showrooms to bid on bottles, some more than 150 years old and valued at several thousand dollars, from the imperial Massandra winery near Yalta on Ukraine's Black Sea...

China was drinking wine 9,000 years ago By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 07/12/2004) A mixed fermented wine of rice, honey and fruit was being drunk in northern China 9,000 years ago, more than a thousand years before the previously oldest known fermented drinks, brewed in the Middle East. In the past scientists relied on the stylistic similarities of early pottery and bronze vessels to argue for the existence of a prehistoric fermented beverage in China. Today's findings provide the first direct chemical evidence from ancient China for such beverages, which were of cultural, religious, and medical significance. Dr Patrick...

WASHINGTON - The Chinese were consuming fermented beverages — possibly wine — as long as 9,000 years ago, according to scientists who used modern techniques to peer back through the mists of time.Early evidence of beer and wine had been traced to the ancient Middle East. But the new discovery indicates that the Chinese may have been making their drinks even earlier.“Fermented beverages are central to a lot of our religions, social relations, medicine, in many cultures around the world,” said Patrick E. McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. These drinks “have played key roles...

Chocolate, wine can aid heart By Sharon Labi December 17, 2004 A DAILY meal of seven ingredients including wine and chocolate could cut heart disease by 76 per cent, Australian researchers have found. The diet comprising wine, fish, dark chocolate, fruit, vegetables, almonds and garlic, would also increase life expectancy by more than six years in men and five years in women. Researchers at Monash University, in Victoria, and the Erasmus University Medical Centre, in The Netherlands, studied the effects of the "polymeal" to see if its benefits could match those of a polypill. Research last year into a polypill...

Eating meals that include all ingredients known to improve cardiovascular health could add years to your life, according to new study findings released Friday. According to an international group of experts' calculations, if men age 50 and older added almonds, garlic and other heart-healthy ingredients to their daily diets, they might increase their life expectancy by more than 6 years, and spend more time free of cardiovascular disease. The Polymeal includes ingredients that research has consistently shown can decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease. The menu includes wine, fish, dark chocolate, fruits, vegetables, garlic and almonds. All ingredients must be...