Wine and Health - Lectures

AALBORG Stiftstidende, Thursday 11. march 1999

A typical lecture will take the attention of the public for 45 minutes. Most often the lecture results in several questions from the audience (5-15 minutes). All the lectures will be illustrated by informative and funny colour slides. The themes of the lectures cover a wide field:

• Wine from vineyard to table describes the process of making wine from the wine plant in the vineyard to the bottle of wine on the table plus information on how to store wine, how to serve the right bottle, suggestions for wine and food and how to get the most out of wine.
• Wine and polyphenols review the latest information on wine polyphenols – a large group of highly reactive chemical compounds that include natural colour pigments such as anthocyans, vegetable tannins and many flavour compounds. Compared to beer and white wine the polyphenol content of red wine is ten times as high. Wine polyphenols are have strong anti-oxidative properties which protect LDL-cholesterol from oxidation and contribute to the reduction of the incidence of heart disease among red wine drinkers.
• Wine – a cordial describes the complex disease of atherosclerosis: by far the most frequent cause of ischemic heart disease and ischemic stroke – the first and third most common cause of death in North America and Europe. The lecture examine the results of ecologic studies and case-control and cohort studies. The mechanism of red wine’s protective effect include alcohols ability to increase the serum concentration of HDL-cholesterol and the effect of alcohol on platelet function and other components of clotting and fibrinolysis.
• Wine as medicine describes the health benefits of a moderate alcohol consumption including a reduction of the the risk of diseases like ischemic heart disease, ischemic stroke, diabetes, gall bladder disease, kidney stones, dementia and age-related macular degeneration.
• Wine and women focus attention on questions of special interest to women: Is the female body more sensitive to alcohol than the male body? What happens to women's weight when they drink alcohol? Is there an interaction between alcohol and oestrogen? Does the consumption of alcohol raise the risk of breast cancer? The lecture also report on women, sex and alcohol.
• Wine as poison sum up the many riscs and side effects of an immoderate alcohol consumption.

Erik Skovenborg

Home Page <http://www.skovenborg.dk/>