Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Red Wine and Cigarettes

Now I know why I enjoy both of them together!

For the study, Chao's group collected data on 84,170 men who participated in the California Men's Health Study. Among these men, the researchers identified 210 cases of lung cancer.

The researchers found that there was, on average, a 2 percent lower risk of lung cancer associated with each glass of red wine consumed per month.

The greatest reduction was among men who smoked and drank one to two glasses of red wine a day. These men lowered their risk for lung cancer by 60 percent, Chao's group found.

Of course this won't be publicised by nanny government or its lickspittle BBC. And it definitely won't be something temperance politicians in Scotland will be talking about.

10 comments:

Thud said...

I'm spending time at my sisters winery in Napa at present.....everybody looks extremely happy and healthy....not sure how much of this is down to wine but I am attempting to find out.

vaudeviewgalor raandisisraisins said...

to your health!

cough!

am passing this on to all my chain smoker pals. they need to hear this being in the red with the addiction. there is a great hope ahead!

Swainson said...

You're killing me with this smoking. I stopped nearly two months ago.

Gods teeth I want a cigarette.

They'll have to pry the beer out of my cold dead hand.

Jacques Hughes said...

very remiss of the journalist not to list any of the red wines involved.

Any recommendations people? ;)

Kirby Uber said...

...and i just got over the mean hangover from the white wine bender.

red it is then. always went better with cigarettes, red, anyway.

Alex Cull said...

I'm a moderate drinker and haven't smoked for a very long time. But am tempted to take it up again now, simply to annoy the health fanatics. Cheers!

Big Flub said...

Of course it won't be published. Because it's utter rubbish and no different from the weekly stories in the rags that food (n) has been linked in a study to cancer.

Neal Asher said...

Thud, this is certainly an experiment worth doing. Please apprise us of your results.

Vaude, of course this study was of men and there's another study saying drink causes breast cancer. Damn but nature isn't politically correct.

Swainson, don't do it. I may joke about these things whilst also being annoyed with state nannying but, smoking fucks you up.

Jacques, a nice heavy Merlot I suspect, ABV 13.5% +

Kirby, let the hangover clear, you've got plenty of time.

Alex, yeah, precisely my attitude (though I do smoke and drink). Do I want to go to the doctor and get prescription price patches? Not fucking likely - I get patronized enough through the media.

Big Flub, but obviously the stories used by big government to stop people smoking and drinking are all true, right?

Unknown said...

There is some significant evidence that a moderate intake of alcohol can be beneficial.

I wonder if the beneficial effects were due to these people enjoying the wine. Epidemiology is a tricky science you can twist the stats to make some wild outcomes.

Wine is just one factor. Wine tends to be drunk by people in higher income brackets who also tend to eat more healthily. Possibly sprouts and peas are in action here too and wine is a coincidental factor.

Stats (one stat) says that smokers have a 10% chance of getting lung cancer. The above study says that that risk is lowered by 60% by drinking red wine. So that (and I'm quite possibly wrong it's been 10 years since I've done this stuff) would take the over all risk down to a 4% chance of getting lung cancer. Not that big a difference.

Plus alcohol increases your risk of getting other cancers.

Either way you're fucked.

Neal Asher said...

Yes Paul, correlation does not equal causation - it's a lesson that so few people properly understand. And you're right, we're fucked either way. Really, we're fucked without drink or cigarettes because without them we're sure to be taken off by that massive killer of human kind called 'something else'.

I always remember that Billy Connolly rant about healthy eating and drinking etc: Health professionals tell us that by eating right we can extend our lives by ten years. They don't tell us those extra ten years are when we old and knackered and pissing our pyjamas.