| 'Does excess alcohol shrink the brain, or do those with slightly smaller brains tend to drink excessive amounts of alcohol? Is 1.6% statistically significant in the sample size used? What were the control criteria? Considering that we're only supposed to use 5% of our available brain capacity, is a 1.6% reduction in size of any consequence whatever?' asks a reader, Dick Berresford.
'Do please resist the temptation to report sensationalist clap trap from the increasingly distanced world of academia. As Winston Churchill may well have said, "when they wake up tomorrow ... they'll still be academics', he suggests.
Rubbishing the Article Joan de Mouchy of chateau-Haut-Brion shouts,' Rubbish! Your headline is misleading. There is no mention of wine in your article. Since the Roman times civilization has been drinking wine. Damage from 'alcohol abuse' has nothing to do with drinking wine. Wine is enjoyed and drunk with food and certainly has never shrunk one iota of anybody's brain. It does not take a 'brain' to realize this.'
CH'NG Poh Tiong , the well-known wine writer from Singapore and Bordeaux expert, sums up his anger with a cryptic remark,' Is this no-brainer? '
W. Lin from Berkeley . California gives the American viewpoint. Advising the magazine o be more ethical he says, ' I must agree. that your headline is misleading and sensationalist at best. Scientific results are valuable, but need to be applied critically and ethically. For you to jump from those study results to that headline recalls to mind the state of things in American politics and society, where science is attacked or misused, where sweeping generalizations have been made to justify an action.
I took a poll of my friends, a journalist and three PhD's in Biology, to get their professional opinions. The journalist cites the headline as misleading and points out that it implies that wine will do something, not that it can do something. One of the biologists says, "A correlation does not mean that there is a cause - effect relationship, it's just a correlation. You might as well take that data and make a headline that says, 'Smaller-brained people like to drink wine.'"
Please be more conscious of your word choices and interpretation of valid scientific research. I can't imagine that the researchers would be happy to know that years of hard work has been turned into irresponsible journalism.
Lastly, please do not insult your audience of wine drinkers and wine industry professionals (and the scientists and the journalists).
Larry Dutra of Westlake Village , California wonders who funded the study. 'These things aren't free, and there is usually an agenda behind such things.
By the way, what in the world is Decanter doing running a headline that sensationalist and anti-wine?' he would like to know.
And finally, 'We do a grave injustice by sensationalizing studies before the findings have been validated. Moreover, someone done an injustice to the consumer by headlining Mr. Panos Kakaviatos' Decanter short "Wine shrinks brain, study finds." I do hope that title does not get printed in the magazine! Make a correction dear friends at Decanter, suggests Despina Demetriades of US.
To conclude, Despina's comment, 'As Aristotle suggested, we should live life avoiding extremes and enjoying what life has to offer in moderation. Whether food, alcohol, sports, or any other of life's activities and pleasures, moderation is the key -- our brains are not the only thing that will benefit!' should suffice.
The study as published by Decanter says ,'Excessive alcohol consumption can cause shrinkage of the brain, according to research by American scientists.
A study carried out at the Academy of Neurology in Boston , Massachusetts found that a large and constant consumption of alcohol can cause your brain to shrink by up to 1.6%.
Researchers scanned 1,839 people, aged 34 to 88 and concluded that 'greater alcohol consumption was negatively correlated with brain volume.'
For the full Article, click http://www.decanter.com |
