Wham: Red Wine Benefits Shown For Prostate Cancer

A new study is out involving compounds in red wine which may help reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer. The findings were published in August through the online edition of the journal Carcinogenesis.

The study, done by scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), involved male mice that were fed a plant compound found in red wine called resveratrol, which has shown in earlier studies a strong tie to anti-oxidant and anti-cancer activities. (If your diet include grapes, raspberries, peanuts and blueberries, you may already be getting some resveratrol, but red wine seems to be the best source.)

These resveratrol-fed mice showed an 87 percent reduction in their risk of developing prostate tumors that contained the worst kind of cancer-staging diagnosis. The mice that proved to have the highest cancer-protection effect earned it after seven months of consuming resveratrol in a powdered formula mixed with their food.

Other mice in the study did develop tumors, even those fed resveratrol, but those mice developed a less-serious form of prostate cancer and were 48 percent more likely to have their tumor growth halted or slowed when compared to mice who did not consume the compound.

This study adds to a growing body of evidence that resveratrol consumption through red wine has powerful chemoprevention properties, in addition to its apparent heart-health benefits.

Lead study author Dr. Coral Lamartiniere of UAB’s Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology said "A cancer prevention researcher lives for these days when they can make that kind of finding. I drink a glass a day every evening because I’m concerned about prostate cancer. It runs in my family."

An earlier UAB study published May 2006 in the same journal found resveratrol-fed female mice had considerable reduction in their risk of breast cancer as well.

Lamartiniere said his research team has been pleasantly surprised at the chemoprevention power of wine and berry polyphenols like resveratrol in animal models. More work, of course, needs to examine whether these benefits are also seen in humans.

Dave