October 16, 2000
Source: Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4946/Wine-helps-prevent-cancer.html
Wine can protect against one of the most common forms of cancer, research reveals.
Those who drink at least a glass of red or white a week are much less likely to suffer bowel cancer than teetotallers or drinkers who consume beer or spirits.
Such cancer is the second biggest cause of deaths from the disease, with a toll of 18,000 British victims a year. The research, presented at a conference in the U.S., goes against conventional belief that all types of alcohol increase the risk of cancer.
Researchers from the State University of New York analysed results of examinations carried out on 1,500 people. They were looking for polyps, or adenomas, which grow on the wall of the bowel and are thought to trigger the cancer.
Dr Catherine Messina, who led the study, found that only one per cent of wine drinkers had significant polyps, compared with 18 per cent of beer or grain-based spirit drinkers, and 12 per cent of those who abstain.
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