
Red wine may be much more potent than was thought in extending human lifespan - echair
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/health/research/04aging.html?em&ex=1212724800&en=0262541f762d0969&ei=5070
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mynameishere
They can say whatever they want with their fancy degrees in chemistry. I've
always suspected that the real advantage of red wine is twofold:

1) Unlike other hard beverages, people tend to not abuse it, thus liver
problems don't come up.

2) Like all hard beverages, it has the effect of mellowing you out. I probably
spend at least 3-4 hours a day considerably less high-strung as a result of
wine drinking. Stress is a killer. This kind of everyday moderate drinking has
been the status quo throughout the Mediterranean for 1000s of years.

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mrtron
You drink wine every night? My schedule is far too buy to allow that...perhaps
that is part of it? You are in a relaxed enough schedule to have some shutdown
time every day?

~~~
mattmaroon
Pouring a glass takes what, a minute?

~~~
joshstaiger
True, but I find my ability to code significantly diminished after even one
glass. I'm all for finding some time to unwind with a glass when you can,
however...

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edw519
A first for me: the exact same post in 2 different threads.

This makes 2 NYT science articles in the HN Top Ten, one about cell phones and
one about red wine, both guilty of the same common mistake in lay "science"
news. So let's get this right, once and for all:

    
    
       CORRELATION != CAUSATION
    

Great. Now we'll have a steady dose of "cellphones are bad" and "red wine is
good" from the mainstream pseudo news aftermarket for the next 3 days.

Thanks, New York Times...

"All the Science News That's Fit to Misprint"

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khafra
"The Wisconsin scientists used a dose on mice equivalent to just 35 bottles a
day." "[if other compounds are effective] a mere 5 glasses a day might be
equivalent."

With those as the lower bounds for efficacy, does it count as having a long
life if you don't remember any of it?

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stcredzero
Dude, if you remember it, then you weren't _really there_!

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josefresco
I enjoy drinking Coke after a long day's work, not for the caffeine but rather
the thirst quenching attributes. I don't drink more than that due to how much
sugar/acid it has.

Does red wine have sugar/acid?

~~~
mattmaroon
Most of the sugar in wines is fermented away, but some remains. Depends on the
wine.

I'll point out though that there is no sugar in Coke, only high-fructose corn
syrup.

~~~
lackbeard
High-fructose corn syrup contains large amounts of sugar.

~~~
mattmaroon
Well, that's true, but it's not what people are generally referring to when
they say "sugar". But technically I suppose that's correct.

I'm assuming red wine's residual sugar is in the form glucose, but could be
wrong.

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stcredzero
Aubrey de Grey's SENS strikes me as the most sensible approach to longevity. I
suspect that he's a bit optimistic in his time estimates, however. (He is a
computer scientist, after all.)

