Moderate Wine Drinking Linked to Lower Depression Rates
What’s the Latest Development?
Research completed at the University of Navarra, Spain, suggests that a moderate level of wine drinking results in a lower risk of depression, as opposed to heavy amounts of drinking which has long been known to provoke mental instability. “The main alcoholic beverage drunk by the study participants was wine. When analysed, it was shown that those who drank moderate amounts of wine each week were less likely to suffer from depression. The lowest rates of depression were seen in the group of individuals who drank two to seven small glasses of wine per week.”
What’s the Big Idea?
In the study, the alcohol consumption, mental health and lifestyles of 5,000 individuals, aged 55 to 80, were followed for up to seven years through yearly visits, repeated medical exams, interviews with dieticians and questionnaires.Professor Miguel A. Martínez-González, senior author of the paper, said: “Lower amounts of alcohol intake might exert protection in a similar way to what has been observed for coronary heart disease. In fact, it is believed that depression and coronary heart disease share some common disease mechanisms.” Some non-alcoholic compounds in the wine, such as resveratrol and other phenolic compounds, may have protective effects on certain areas of the brain.
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