Older men and postmenopausal women who have one or two glasses of beer or wine a day appear to have stronger bones than both nondrinkers and heavy drinkers, a new study suggests.
Moderate drinking has been associated with decreasing the risk for heart disease, but it also has been linked to increasing the risk for some cancers. And though their study found that beer and wine could be beneficial to bone strength, the researchers cautioned that people need to balance the risks and benefits of alcohol with their individual health concerns.
A Little Drink May Be Good for Your Bones
Older men and postmenopausal women who have one or two glasses of beer or wine a day appear to have stronger bones than both nondrinkers and heavy drinkers, a new study suggests.
Moderate drinking has been associated with decreasing the risk for heart disease, but it also has been linked to increasing the risk for some cancers. And though their study found that beer and wine could be beneficial to bone strength, the researchers cautioned that people need to balance the risks and benefits of alcohol with their individual health concerns.
“We were looking at the relationship between different types of alcohol and bone mineral density [BMD] because there is a controversy about how it might affect bone,” said lead researcher Katherine L. Tucker, director of the Dietary Assessment and Epidemiology Research Program at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston.
Alcohol was protective of BMD in older men and postmenopausal women, Tucker said, “but we didn’t see any relationship in premenopausal women.”
Among women, she said, wine was very protective, and in men, beer was the most protective, “partly because men drink more beer and women drink more wine,” she said. Drinking liquor was less protective, she added.
And men who had more than two drinks a day actually had the lowest BMD, Tucker said.
What that suggests is that the relationship is complex but there might be components in beer and wine that could help protect bone. For example, beer contains silicon, which has been associated with stronger bone. In wine, polyphenols, which have been linked to protection from heart disease, might also protect bone, she said.
The report is published in the April issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
For the study, Tucker’s team collected data on 1,289 postmenopausal women, 248 premenopausal women and 1,182 men who took part in the Framingham Osteoporosis Study, an offshoot of the original Framingham Heart Study. The researchers looked at data on their drinking habits and took BMD measurements in their hips and spine.
Men who had one to two drinks of beer or alcohol a day had about 3 percent to 4 percent higher hip BMD than nondrinkers, the study found. In postmenopausal women who had more than two alcoholic drinks a day, including wine, hip and spine BMD measurements were found to be 5 percent to 8 percent greater than in women who didn’t drink.
Although moderate drinking improved BMD, men who had more than two drinks a day had hip and spine BMD measurements 3 percent to 5 percent lower than in men who drank less, the study reported.
“Moderate intake of beer or wine is good for bone, but heavy drinking is bad,” Tucker said. Heavy drinking is a major risk factor for osteoporosis, she added.
In addition, postmenopausal women have to balance the fact that any alcohol is associated with an increased risk for breast cancer, Tucker said.
“You really need to think about your own health risks and your family history and balance those,” she said. “If your primary concerns are heart disease and osteoporosis, then a glass or two of wine is probably helpful. But if your primary concern is breast cancer, you really need to be careful of any alcohol.”
Even moderate drinking can increase the risk of cancer in postmenopausal women, according to a study published in the Feb. 24 online edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study, which included more than 1.2 million middle-age women, found that moderate drinking accounts for 13 percent of breast, liver, rectum and upper respiratory/digestive tract cancers.
Dr. Robert P. Heaney, a bone and nutrition expert at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., said he agreed that moderate drinking is good for bone.
“This study should be taken as confirmatory,” Heaney said. “As the authors note, a bone benefit from moderate alcohol consumption has been described several times previously. The current study sought mainly to tie up some of the loose ends around the previously described findings.”
“It can be said to boil down to the three basic features of good nutrition: moderation, variety and balance,” he said. “Or, put another way: A little bit is better than none, and too much is too much.”
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases has more on bone health.
SOURCES: Katherine L. Tucker, Ph.D., director, Dietary Assessment and Epidemiology Research Program, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston; Robert P. Heaney, M.D., professor, medicine, Creighton University, Omaha, Neb.; April 2009 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
feigie
I’m so glad to hear this. hic..hiccup!
sam
Bochrim knew this years ago, please post news!
Promote Alcoholism
Great that’s just what CH needs more justification for excessive underage drinking
Every week drunken mostly underage young men stumble throught the streets of CH
many of these young men will go on to be abusive to their spouses and children, drunk drivers who will injur themselves and others, unfaithful in their marriages, wind up with dui charges, all while being “torah observant”
Posting an article like this is a disgraceful disservice to a community that has an increasing problem with it’s dirty little secret that only gets spoken out loud when someone dies as a result, and even then it’s “their fault”
You should be posting weekly articles about the dangers of drug use and alcohol addiction within the community instead of “have a drink it’s good for you’
For Shame
chaimke
Yes yes ‘Promote Alcoholism’ well said……… liberal
anon
the fact that this is seemingly “new” news is in fact incorrect. I did a recent report in school on alcoholism and the benefits of beer vs. wine and in fact the benefits – when consumed properly – are not only good for you but it is unmatched! this however was from a report which came out in 1999!
just a thought.
In the medical sugya
Look at http://www.circ.ahajournals…
and perhaps you can see that while it may be healthy to drink a bit, however as the article suggests not to drink more than four. For at just about four shots all of the benifits deteriorate!
Isaac
Hey, to “Promote Alcoholism”… take it easy! The article, if one bothers to read till the end and not just the first two lines… stresses the point that any possible health benefits… are only seen with MODERATE drinking… something (hopefully) mature bochurim have known for some time now!
Milhouse
The health benefits of alcohol have been known for at least 20 years, but the anti-alcohol fanatics (such as one who commented here under the name “Promote Alcoholism”) have fought tooth and nail to suppress it, because it contradicts their religious belief.
And that is what it is, a religious dogma that its adherents are prepared to defend no matter what; they don’t care about facts or science, they make up whatever statistics they like and use brutal force to suppress anyone who would bring the truth to public attention. These Protestant nutcases were the force that brought the disaster of Prohibition to America, and left us with the legacy of gangs, corruption, and the Kennedy family. The harridans of MADD have brought us reams of oppressive legislation. And now they have infiltrated some parts of the Jewish community, with their utterly unJewish crusade.
The truth is that alcohol is a wonder drug, a great gift that Hashem has given us. Taken REGULARLY and MODERATELY it is good for almost every part of our bodies. To reject alcohol is to throw Hashem’s gift back in His face. It is a profoundly unJewish attitude, one that comes directly from certain Protestant sects and has no place among us.
And despite all the hoo-ha about flavinoids and this and that, the truth is that the main benefit comes not from the other ingredients in wine, but from the alcohol, and you get that benefit no matter what form you drink it in. One drink is one drink, whether it’s wine, beer, or mashke. 12 ml of alcohol is one drink – you can have it as one shot of mashke, one glass of wine, or one can of beer; the stronger the drink, the smaller the normal size, so they’re all pretty much the same in alcohol consumed.
A beneficial dose of alcohol comes from ONE OR TWO drinks every day. More than two is OK once in a while, but not regularly. It’s OK (from a health point of view) to get shiker once in a rare while, but not more than a few times a year.
Promote Alcoholism
Milhouse
Nice point, and an important side to see,
however I stand by what I said.
We have a serious problem here and in all the Jewish communities, and we need to address it.
It would be, it is, a disservice to Hashem not to protect our youth, our future, against the abuse of alcohol.
I do not advocate prohibition to acheive this, only ongoing involvement from the community, and the end to wholesale endorsement of letting our youth and young men get blind drunk at every opportunity, and saying it’s ok because it’s a mitzvah.
By the way, if you think that one or two drinks a day is healthy, perhaps it’s you that’s a fanatic. Know also that addiction is very real and while some individuals may be able to take that drink a day without addiction, others may not, because for them it will lead to a serious problem.
Just setting up this philosophy as what’s “normal” creates an issue for many of our youth who want to fit in at any price, another hallmark of addiction.
Think back just on this past year at those just within the CH community who were lost before their time because of drugs, or alcohol, not even neccesarily at their own hand, perhaps a drunk driver, or at the hand of someone who themselves was addicted, and commited a heinous act.
Now ask yourself if you still think it is virtuous to promote this agenda.
I’m well aquainted with these studies since, as it was pointed out, more than twenty years ago in France.
The French it seems are healthier from drinking moderate amounts of wine. Of course after a couple thousand years, it’s natural for them. Trying to emulate this overnight however is faddish and foolish.
Since when might I add do we emulate the behavior of others to our own detriment.