According to a Spanish study, moderate wine consumption has protective effects against depression. Conversely, drinking alcohol in large quantities would promote depression.
Everything is good, but in moderation! And the saying obviously seems to apply to wine. In a study published Aug. 30 in the journal BMC Medicine, Spanish researchers suggest that this alcoholic drink much appreciated by the French would have beneficial effects on the mental health of people, but in small doses …
To achieve this result, researchers at the University of Navarre analyzed data from 5,505 men and women aged 55 to 80. Importantly, none of these participants had a history of depression or alcoholism before the study. Followed over seven years, scientists report interesting results. The team notes that people with moderate daily alcohol consumption (seven small glasses of wine per week) recorded the lowest rates of depression.
On the other hand, as often, it is the excess that poses the problem. At the same time, participants who had high daily alcohol consumption experienced the highest rates of depressive episodes.
Miguel A. Martínez-González, author of the study, draws a surprising conclusion, “It is believed that depression and coronary heart disease share similar disease mechanisms. Anyway, we must remain cautious with this type of announcement, especially since alcohol consumption is a public health problem in France. Indeed, despite a 50% drop in consumption in 50 years, alcohol remains the second cause of avoidable death in France, with 49,000 deaths per year, just behind tobacco.
On average, all generations combined, the French now consume 27g of pure alcohol per adult per day, which corresponds to a little more than two glasses of 10 cl for wine, 25 cl for beer or 3 cl for strong alcohols. FYI, in Europe, only the Estonians, the Czechs and the Irish are more supportive than the French.
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