Wine is one of the oldest cultural drinks of mankind. It was already known to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans as a general remedy. But it was Hippocrates who introduced wine into the art of healing for specific applications around 400 BC. He used wine as a tonic for convalescents, as a sedative and sleep aid, for headaches and mood disorders, as a painkiller, for cardiovascular disorders, and even for eye diseases. He also prescribed wine for bloating, for intestinal diseases caused by bacteria and toxins, and as a diuretic. Wine was used for superficial wound treatment and some wine was added to water for disinfection.
History of wine in medicine
In ancient Rome, heavy red wines were prescribed for febrile gastrointestinal diseases, tannin-rich wines for bleeding, and old wines for loss of appetite. In addition, wine was recommended for poultices, rubs and massages, especially for open wounds of severely injured people. In the Middle Ages, apothecaries in some places – especially in central and northern Germany – developed into ancillary drinking establishments. In Germany, as late as 1892, the local health insurance fund in Heidelberg, in consultation with the health insurance physicians, prescribed wine for various diseases.
Why the French live longer …
In wine-drinking countries, people die less frequently from cardiovascular disease. Long-term studies have consistently demonstrated that moderate alcohol consumption (compared with abstinence from alcohol) results in significantly lower rates of fatal heart and brain infarctions. This is true for both men and women and is particularly pronounced at older ages. Advances in analytical technology are now enabling chemists to detect more and more new active substances in wine that could be candidates for infarct and cancer prevention. They originate from the grape skins and are therefore more concentrated in wine, especially red wine, than in ordinary grape juice. In recent years, however, researchers around the world have also begun to intensively investigate other health-related areas, especially the links between wine consumption and cancer, kidney stones, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and dementia. Although initial studies demonstrated the health benefits of red wine in particular, the latest research appears to show that moderate consumption of white wine also has similar positive health effects.
The ingredients – how can wine benefit health?
One liter of wine contains on average: 800 to 900 grams of water, 20 to 30 grams of glucose and fructose, five to ten grams of glycerin, six to twelve grams of various organic acids, 60 to 100 grams of ethyl alcohol, a few grams of potassium, magnesium, calcium and iron, various fermentation residues of wine production. At first glance, this seems quite “sober“. But behind the individual ingredients are sometimes hidden small power packages. Just one or two glasses of wine can make a considerable contribution to covering the daily requirement of minerals. This is especially true for potassium, magnesium, calcium and iron as well as for some trace elements. The polyphenol contained mainly in red wines inhibits cell aging, inflammatory processes, blood clotting and thus thrombosis formation. For the healthy adult, a dose can be derived from the large number of studies at which health benefits, but not yet disadvantages, can be expected:
- For women: 20 to 30 grams of alcohol per day = 0.2 to 0.3 l of wine = one to two glasses of wine.
- For men: 30 to 40 grams of alcohol per day = 0.4 l of wine = two to a maximum of three glasses of wine
Health aspects of wine consumption
Regular and moderate consumption of wine:
- Prevents heart attacks and maintains vascular elasticity, because wine improves blood flow to the heart muscle, lowers blood cholesterol levels, improves blood flow and reduces the tendency to thrombosis.
- Prolongs life expectancy, because wine contains natural antioxidants, cell aging is slowed and cancer mortality is reduced.
- Purifies the body, because the kidneys work more actively, wine increases the flow of urine and increases the excretion of waste.
- Supports the defense against disease, because wine reduces the viability of pathogens, can kill bacteria and viruses and increases the body’s immune system.
- slows bone decalcification and thus prevents osteoporosis, which is especially dangerous for women.
- Is “bioregeneration”, because after physical exertion, even moderate consumption of wine already replaces valuable minerals, harmonizes the body and refreshes.
- Keeps physically and mentally active, because the age-related degradation of brain functions is slowed with moderate wine consumption and improves cerebral blood flow and oxygen supply to the brain.