For as long as our ancestors have been drawing pictograms or writing prose about food and culture, humans have been imbibing various forms of alcohol. Once simply a process by which nutritious beverages could be preserved and stored for later use, there is no doubt that the production and consumption of wines, beers, and spirits now provides integral texture to the fabric of many cultures. However, whether alcoholic drinks provide health benefits is an area of active and on-going debate and research among health and nutrition experts. For instance, moderate alcohol consumption is linked to increased risks of some forms of cancer. Conversely, drinking in reasonable amounts is associated with protection from cardiovascular disease and premature death.
Because many of the studies that have been conducted on this topic have utilized epidemiologic (observational) study designs, they unfortunately cannot provide definitive information on whether alcohol actually influences health or is just related to other lifestyle factors that are actually more physiologically relevant. Indeed, one of the basic tenets of scientific method is the phrase "correlation does not infer causation." In other words, just because people who drink alcohol tend to have fewer heart attacks does not mean that drinking alcohol actually prevents heart disease. In addition, there is a relative dearth of information on low to moderate alcohol consumption and bone health, especially in women. This may be particularly important because alcoholics tend to have weak bones - possibly due to low levels of vitamin D which would hinder absorption of dietary calcium in the small intestine.
To help fill in a knowledge gap in this area, researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the US Department of Agriculture ARS Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center teamed up to rigorously test whether they could demonstrate any negative effects of low to moderate alcohol consumption on bone health in postmenopausal women. As part of the scientific program of the American Society for Nutrition, home to the world's leading nutrition researchers, results from this study will be presented on April 27, 2010 at the Experimental Biology 2010 meeting in Anaheim by Dr. Somdat Mahabir.