Bone Benefits of Wine for Women

Consuming small amounts of alcohol can increase women's bone health and old age reduce the risk of osteoporosis, so the opinion of scientists from the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University who conducted the study. Bone is living tissue, in which old bone to be replaced in a process called remodeling. Whereas in patients with osteoporosis, the bone is broken more bones than is regenerated. Menopausal women are at particular risk because of any decrease in the hormone estrogen, a hormone essential for bone strength. "This study clearly shows that drinking alcohol has little potential for strong and rapid response of bone metabolism," said lead researcher, Urszula Iwaniec, a professor at Oregon State University. As part of a healthy lifestyle, alcohol can slow bone loss by reducing bone turnover, said Iwaniec. That means it can also reduce the risk of osteoporosis. Iwaniec noted, although alcohol abuse is a serious health problem in the medical and general, the effects of drinking alcohol at a moderate level (average) on health has not been a lot of attention. According to data from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, approximately half of all U.S. women and a quarter of men will suffer a fracture due to osteoporosis. In addition, prescription drugs to prevent or treat osteoporosis is still very expensive and can create side effects that are not menyenangkan.Oleh Therefore, the researchers say, it is important to identify lifestyle factors that can help in protecting the bone. In his study, published online on July 11, 2012., Iwaniec and her team studied 40 postmenopausal women, average age 56 years, who drank enough alcohol in moderation and not using hormone replacement therapy. Moderate drinking is defined as one-half to two drinks a day or 8 to 10 grams of alcohol. Drinking alcohol in a moderate level of participants was conducted for a year before the study began. When the women stopped drinking for two weeks, the researchers found evidence of bone turnover in the blood enhancer, which is a risk factor for fractures due to osteoporosis. However, in less than a day after the women returned to drink alcohol, signs of bone turnover returned to previous levels. Previous studies have found that moderate drinkers have higher bone density than those who do not drink alcohol or heavy drinkers, but what is the reason remains unclear. Researchers suspect that alcohol acts like estrogen in reducing bone turnover. "Most of the women in our study is a wine drinker (wine)," said Iwaniec. Iwaniec revealed similar effects of alcohol consumption would not occur in men. The study also does not prove that moderate alcohol consumption can prevent osteoporosis. These findings indicate only the relationship between the two.