Alcohol is often listed as a risk for head and neck cancer, but researchers at the University of Colorado found that red wine may prevent cancer as well. The component providing the benefit is resveratrol, a type of polyphenol that also acts as an antioxidant. It's found in grape skins and red wine.
"Alcohol bombards your genes," says Robert Sclafani, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the Colorado University School of Medicine. "Your body has ways to repair this damage, but with enough alcohol eventually some damage isn’t fixed. That’s why excessive alcohol use is a factor in head and neck cancer.
Even though studies had shown that alcohol damaged genes, they also showed that those who drank red wine had the least amount of damage, said an article published on Yahoo Health.com. So, researchers theorized, something in red wine must be mitigating the effects of alcohol. That substance turned out to be resveratrol.
In Sclafini's study, when mice with cancerous tumors were given resveratrol, the size of their tumors decreased. Basically, damaged cells were killed and were prevented from growing and creating new cancerous cells.
"Alcohol damages cells and resveratrol kills damaged cells," Sclafini said.
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