The New Parenting Club

Champagne Keeps Heart Disease at Bay
Wednesday, December 30, 2009 7:55 AM
From Newsmax

When you toast the New Year with a glass of bubbly, you’ll be starting 2010 right, say top British scientists: they have discovered that drinking champagne every day—just like red wine—helps keep strokes and heart attacks away.
Research has shown that two daily glasses of red wine help stave off circulation and heart problems. The health-boosting ingredients are thought to be polyphenol antioxidants, which occur naturally in fairly high levels in red wine but not in white. Polyphenols slow the removal of nitric oxide from the blood, which reduces blood pressure, thereby lowering the risks of strokes and heart attacks.
But what about red wine’s rich cousin champagne, which is made with three varieties of grapes, two black and one white? “The question was: would champagne have the same impact as red wine or would it have the limited impact of white wine?” Dr. Jeremy Spencer of Reading University asked the Daily Mail.
Lovers of champagne can let out a sigh of relief. “We have found that a couple of glasses a day has a beneficial effect on the walls of blood vessels—which suggests champagne has the potential to reduce strokes and heart disease,” Spencer said. “It is very exciting news.”
The research team determined that champagne had a much bigger effect on blood levels of nitric oxide than a plain mixture of alcohol and carbonated water which contained no polyphenols. In the paper detailing the study, the team said, “Our data suggests that a daily moderate consumption of champagne wine may improve vascular performance via the delivery of phenolic constituents.”
But what about people who want to improve their health but cannot afford champagne every day? The researchers said there was “no reason” other types of sparkling wines should not perform just as well.
And what about teetotalers? The research team also found high levels of polyphenols in cocoa beans, suggesting that a mug of hot cocoa will achieve the same healthful results. However, Spencer said, “The benefit is certainly the same but it doesn’t seem as much fun somehow.”

HEALTH ALERT: Men Smokers Risk Rheumatoid Arthritis

Smoking is a risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a new analysis of 16 studies confirms.
The effect is especially strong in men and heavy smokers, the researchers found. And men who tested positive for rheumatoid factor (RF), a self-attacking antibody found in about 80 percent of RA patients, were at even higher risk if they smoked.
Research over the past two decades has linked smoking to RA, especially in men, Dr. S. Kumagai of Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine in Kobe, Japan and his colleagues write. But findings on smoking and RA in women have been “inconsistent.”
The researchers conducted the first systematic analysis of research on RA risk and smoking, looking at 16 studies in all.
Men who were current smokers were at nearly double the risk of RA, Kumagai and colleagues found, and the effect was roughly the same in ever- and past smokers. When the researchers looked at RF-positive RA, they found male smokers were at nearly four-fold risk of the disease, while risk was tripled in ever-smokers and about 2.5 times greater for past smokers.
Smoking also increased RA risk in women, but to a lesser degree. Female current, ever- and ex-smokers had a 1.2 to 1.3 times greater likelihood of developing RA, whether or not they were RF-positive.
The men who had logged at least 20 pack years—meaning they had smoked at least 20 cigarettes a day for 20 years—were 2.3 times more likely to develop RA, while for women risk was increased 1.75-fold.
Smoking has been linked to RF production, the researchers note. The relationship among RF, RA, and smoking may be different for women, they add, due to hormonal factors.
“Any type of smoking constitutes a significant risk factor for the development of RA,” Kumagai and colleagues write. “Because RA is associated with a poor quality of life and life prognosis, we recommend cessation of smoking for current smokers, especially heavy smokers to prevent or reduce the risk of developing RA.