From Gerry Shaper
Mill Hill, London
Andy Coghlan’s report on the capsules of polyphenols extracted from red wine
which promise to protect against heart disease (This Week, 22 February, p 4) is
enough to make the late Archie Cochrane turn vigorously in his grave. In 1979,
Cochrane, A. S. St Leger and F. Moore published their findings on wine
consumption and cardiac mortality in 18 developed countries in The
Lancet:
“If wine has a protective effect against IHD (ischaemic heart disease) death
then this is, in view of our results, more likely to be due to constituents
other than alcohol. Wines are rich in aromatic compounds and other trace
components which give them their distinct character and it may be to these that
we should look for the protective effect.”
They went on to say, with considerable foresight: “If wine is ever found to
contain a constituent protective against IHD then we consider it almost a
sacrilege that this constituent should be isolated. The medicine is already in a
highly palatable form (as every connoisseur will confirm). We can only regret
that we are as yet unab1e to give information to our friends about the relative
advantages of red, white or rosé wine”.
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