Subtleties of wine treatment
Wine is given to us for joy
Enotherapy from Hippocrates to the present day
Nika Batchen, KM.RU"Drinking wine is just as harmful as taking poison," wrote the Roman philosopher Seneca.
However, the only difference between medicine and poison is in the dose – you can even get poisoned with water if you drink too much of it. This rule fully applies to the "milk of Venus", as wine was called in antiquity.
The ancient Greeks knew about the healing properties of the fermented juice of the vine. They diluted sour young wine with water and drank it to protect themselves from intestinal diseases: even a small dose of alcohol killed the causative agents of salmonellosis and typhoid fever. The father of medicine Hippocrates advised drinking diluted sweet wine for cholera, diluted white wine for diarrhea, undiluted for pleurisy, warmed up for fever, old for hepatitis, and dark astringent wine for convalescents. On the basis of wine, he made poultices and compresses with honey, barley flour and medicinal herbs.
The personal physician of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, the famous Galen, used wine as a solvent for medicines and recommended adding three drops of wine to any food. The founder of the Arab medical school Avicenna wrote a whole treatise "On the benefits and harms of wine."
The compilers of the "Salerno Code", created in the XIV century by doctors of the first medical school in Europe, recommended to their patients: "... If taking wine in the evening is harmful for you, drink it in the morning and it will serve as a cure. Let it be light and ripe, and thin, and old, mixed also with water, sparkling and drunk in moderation."
Theriac, the famous universal antidote, was prepared on the basis of wine in the Middle Ages, sleeping pills and painkillers were mixed. Red wine was given to patients with anemia, exhaustion and anemia, convalescents, wounded and women in labor. Mulled wine and cahors were given for colds even to small children. The Russian doctor, Professor N.F. Golubev, wrote: "There can hardly be any doubt that wine, given to the patient in time and in proper quantity, is a therapeutic factor of high importance."
During the Great Patriotic War, grape wines were prescribed to recovering soldiers of the Red Army in the sanatoriums of the Caucasus and Crimea. Antioxidant wine baths are still popular in the resorts of Spain, and wraps with wine and honey are also offered in the south of France.
What are the healing properties of wine related to?
Wine pantryNatural (not fortified!)
grape wine is a biologically active liquid containing more than 600 substances. The wine is rich in trace elements – one liter contains from 700 to 1600 mcg of potassium, 50-200 mcg of calcium, 50-200 mcg of magnesium, 20-250 mcg of sodium, 100-200 mcg of phosphorus, 2-10 mcg of iron, 0.2-1 mcg of copper, 0.5-3 mcg of manganese and 0.1-5 mcg of zinc – 10-50% of the daily norm of an adult. All trace elements are ionized, which facilitates their assimilation.
Wine, especially young and champagne, has a lot of vitamins – B1, B2, B5, B6, B8, B9, C, PP. Succinic acid is present – a bioactive substance, an immune stimulant and an adaptogen. There are other acids – tartaric, malic, acetic, citric, sugar, formic, oxalic. In total, there are more than 20 amino acids in wine.
The greatest interest in this "cocktail" is represented by polyphenols – phenolic compounds, bioactive substances contained in grapes, their skins and seeds. Wine owes its healing properties and antioxidant effect to them. Polyphenols saturate hemoglobin with oxygen, reduce blood pressure, have anti-inflammatory, antitumor, anti-allergic and radioprotective effects, have a positive effect on the heart and liver function, reduce the concentration of lipids, rejuvenate and improve regenerative abilities. The unique composition of wine, a complex fermentation process and a universal solvent – ethanol increase the digestibility of polyphenols by an order of magnitude by the human body. The same substances contained in vegetables and fruits are absorbed by the digestive tract much worse. And the grape peel contains phytoalexin, the antioxidant resveratrol – its effectiveness in the fight against cancer has been proven in the laboratory.
Universal toolModern medicine is sure that wine is useful.
European oncologists have found that aromatase inhibitors (an enzyme of the adrenal glands) contained in the peel and seeds of red grapes prevent the conversion of androgen hormones into estrogens and help in the treatment and prevention of breast cancer in women.
Dentists from Italy successfully use alcohol–free red wine to protect tooth enamel - the trace elements contained in the drink have an antibacterial effect and prevent the development of caries. Their Canadian colleagues have identified the healing role of wine in the treatment of periodontitis – inflammatory gum diseases.
Russian hematologists recommend drinking red grape wine with a lack of iron in the body and anemia to increase the level of hemoglobin in the blood. Italian researchers from the city of Siena found out that a small amount of red wine is useful for stomach ulcers. American Professor Thomas Prolla said that dry red wine contributes to the treatment of obesity. A group of researchers from the University of Rochester has proven its antitumor activity – a glass of red wine a day reduces the incidence of lung cancer in former smokers by 60%.
American scientists have found that the antioxidant resveratrol increases the content of a special enzyme – hemoxygenase – in nerve cells and protects the brain from the effects of stroke. Mice treated with pure substance or grape leaves suffered an artificially induced stroke more easily than the control group. French scientists conducted an experiment on rats placed in conditions of simulated weightlessness, and found that regular intake of resveratrol protects animals from loss of muscle mass and muscle atrophy. After analyzing these discoveries, the Australian doctor Philip Norrie opened the production of wine "Wine Doctor" – it is enriched with resveratrol obtained from grape pomace, and contains it up to 100 mg per liter (ordinary wine – 4-8 mg). Italian pharmacists have gone even further – they are developing pills based on dried red wine extract – both medicinally and no alcohol!
Subtleties of wine treatmentEnotherapy (from the Greek oinos – wine; therapia – treatment) is a method of treatment with wine, including external procedures and ingestion of small doses of certain drinks strictly calculated by doctors.
The first to systematize knowledge about the new section of medicine was Yalta doctor V.N. Dmitriev. In 1886, he published the book "Grape Treatment in Yalta and on the Southern Coast of Crimea", which became a classic of enotherapy. He recommended being treated with grapevine juice for gout, chronic diseases of the upper respiratory tract and lungs, depression, fatigue and malnutrition. Wine treatment was actively developed in Anapa, Yalta, Krasnodar and other southern resorts, choosing the optimal dosages and the most suitable varieties of wines for the treatment of specific diseases. Collections of medicinal wines were compiled, with the help of extracts from fruits and walnut leaves, fortified wine was prepared. Special attention was paid to de–alcoholization - specialists removed alcohol from the drink, preserving valuable polyphenols and vitamins.
Today, doctors advise using wine for anemia, colitis, asthenic syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, loss of appetite, as an additional remedy in the treatment of hypertension, obesity, radiation sickness. Grape wine in small doses facilitates the passage of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, helps to recover after these procedures. The schedule of taking a medicinal drink, varieties and doses are selected by special spa doctors-wine therapists, taking into account the rough grape variety to use or tender, red, pink or white – no more than 10% of varieties are suitable for the preparation of medicinal wines!
Finally, it is worth noting: wine therapy is not an area of medicine that disposes to self–medication. Trying to heal yourself with wine from bronchitis, pyelonephritis or spleen, it is very easy to become a patient of a drug dispensary. The recommendations of doctors around the world are the same: no more than 400 ml of wine per day for men and 250 ml for women.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru12.05.2012