The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

<editor's note>
Submitted by Dr. Bob from October 21, 2002 National Post Lorraine Fraser
</editor's note>

BEER A DAY MAY FORESTALL OSTEOPOROSIS: WHEAT AND BARLEY ABSORB THE LIVING
MATERIAL THAT GIVES BONES THEIR STRENGTH

LONDON - Specialists at King's College and St Thomas's hospital in London
were cited as finding that a glass of beer a day is one of the best ways in
which young women and men can ensure they have strong and healthy bones.
The story says the researchers found an individual's intake of silicon, a
mineral absorbed from the soil by plants and most especially by cereals such
as wheat and barley, can be directly linked to bone strength. At the same
time they have discovered beer is one of the richest sources of silicon in
the modern diet.
Jonathan Powell, a senior lecturer in nutrition and honorary senior lecturer
in medicine at King's was quoted as saying on the weekend that, "Silicon is
a potentially very important element in bone function, and there is no doubt
that beer is a very good source of silicon. The average intake of silicon is
30 milligrams a day, and half a pint of beer will give you six mg [20%] of
that. Moreover, not only is beer a relatively high source of silicon in our
diet, the amount we absorb from it is more than from other foods."
Scientists reported 30 years ago that chicks deprived of silicon developed
bone deformities, but the element's importance in human bone development
has, until now, remained largely unexplored.
Recently, however, Powell and his colleagues demonstrated that silicon
stimulates the formation of collagen, the living material that gives bones
their framework, strength and flexibility.
Now, in collaboration with specialists at Harvard University and Tufts
University in Boston, they have established there is a "significant positive
association" between the density of bone and silicon intake in men and in
women who have not reached menopause.
The story says that the study measured the density of bones in the hip and
spine in more than 1,200 men and 1,500 women and analyzed this in relation
to the amount of silicon they consumed. The results were presented at a
scientific meeting in Brussels last week.

<editor's note>
Submitted by Dr. Bob from Oct 15, 2002 Reuters Health
</editor's note>

Beer, wine may influence dementia risk

They say you are what you eat, and new research suggests that how well your mind works
into old age could also be influenced by what you drink. Dr. Thomas Truelsen
of the Institute of Preventive Medicine in Copenhagen and his colleagues
found that people who drank beer--even as infrequently as once per
month--were more than twice as likely as non-beer drinkers to experience a
deterioration in mental functioning, known as dementia, after age 65. In
contrast, people who drank wine weekly were 70% less likely than wine-
abstainers to develop dementia after age 65. Regular consumption of spirits
appeared to have no effect on dementia risk, the authors report. However,
Truelsen explained to Reuters Health that further research is needed before
doctors can safely recommend that people drink wine to stave off dementia.
The precise amount of alcohol that the study participants consumed
throughout their lives is not clear, he noted, and, for some, drinking
alcohol can do more harm than good. "I'm not saying that people should drink
wine," Truelsen cautioned. Dementia is often caused by Alzheimer's disease,
but it can have other causes, including Parkinson's disease and blood vessel
disease that reduces blood flow to the brain. The results of the current
study are based on a review of alcohol drinking behavior collected for
almost 2,000 people, including what they drank and how often. Fifteen years
later, when all participants were at least 65 years old, the authors
contacted them and compared past drinking behaviors for those who did and
those who did not eventually develop dementia. Because beverage choice can
be related to socioeconomic status--which can influence healthy behavior in
general--the researchers took the study participants' income and education
into account. Truelsen and his team found that 83 men and women had
developed dementia, while another 1,626 remained dementia-free. Comparing
mental function to drinking behavior, the researchers found that people who
regularly drank beer, at any frequency, were more than twice as likely to
develop dementia in old age. However, people who drank wine weekly were 70%
less to develop later mental impairments, and monthly wine drinkers saw a
60% drop in dementia risk. Daily wine drinkers were no less likely than
non-wine drinkers to develop dementia in old age. The authors presented
their findings here Monday at the 127th annual meeting of the American
Neurological Association. The study cannot prove that wine intake prevents
dementia--some other lifestyle factor could be responsible for the
association. However, Truelsen explained in an interview that red wine
contains substances known as flavonoids, antioxidants that help protect
blood vessels from harmful substances called free radicals. Free radicals
are naturally occurring particles that have been linked to Alzheimer's
disease and vascular dementia, a type of dementia that results from a
reduction in the supply of blood to the brain. He emphasized that the
present study is not meant to encourage people to drink wine, but rather to
help inform the debate regarding the potential health benefits of
antioxidants and encourage further studies.

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