Raising a glass to a long and healthy life – what the evidence says

My favourite professor last week? – it has to be Professor Tim Spector. He talks my kind of language. Last week, speaking on whether red wine was good for you or not, he said we should all aim to drink ‘thousands’ of different types. I immediately jumped in my car, whizzed off to Tesco’s (there are other supermarkets) and filled the boot up with a dozen cases, filled with different wines. Back home I sat with a glass of the red stuff in hand and decided it might be a wise idea to read past the story’s headline.

Yikes! Second paragraph in and he clearly notes he is not suggesting we all go on a wine drinking binge. His argument is that drinking wine made from many different types of grape is what is good for you. Trying a wide range of grape varieties can boost our immune system, help us fight diseases and even improve our mental health. However, too much of a good thing is not always a good thing. Consuming more than half a bottle of wine at any one time will cause you more harm than good.

The odd glass of red wine is good for you thanks to the microbiome. Red wine contains high quantities of the chemical polyphenol, which microbes in our gut use as an energy source. There are many thousands of different polyphenols, which is where his story headline came from – and hence the advice to drink wines made from different varieties. His advice, ‘wine lovers should keep loving the wine’ – sounds like good advice to me. Like all things though, only in moderation.

Love and relationships also featured in another research story last week. Researchers from the University of Queensland published a paper on their findings of a study started in 1996. This large cohort study looked at relationships people enjoyed in their 40s and 50s and any possible impact on health and long life. The reported outcomes show that satisfying relationships with partners, friends, family and even work colleagues, can all help boost your physical and mental health in old age.

There has, for a long time now, been a widely held, and evidence-based view, that strong social networks help improve our mental health and wellbeing. What has been less well known is whether there is also a link to a reduced risk of developing illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, COPD, diabetes and other common longer term conditions in older life. The study showed that folk with high levels of satisfaction with their social relationships had a 50% reduction in the risk of developing such conditions compared to those with lower levels of satisfaction with their social relationships.  

Similar to Tim Spector’s advice, the Australian study shows there are health benefits in diversity. In this case, in starting and maintaining high quality and different relationships throughout our middle age. Back in the UK, this study reinforces the emergent health and social care policy approach. UK health policy is about collaborative and partnership approaches. The drive is to shift our focus away from developing ever increasing acute healthcare services, to building resilience and strong communities at a neighbourhood level. I have a belief that strong communities, made up of people enjoying a wide range of different relationships with others, helps make for healthier populations. There is a sustained growth in the size of the older population. It might be interesting to think more about social connections as being a public health approach to preventing long term, chronic and complex health conditions.

There was also a related study undertaken by University College London colleagues that showed the link between regular physical activity undertaken at any age, and better brain function in older age. Indeed, the long term study, which was undertaken with participants born in 1946, showed that maintaining an exercise routine throughout adulthood had a positive impact of reducing the risk of conditions such as dementia. And it is never too late to start. Even taking up exercise in your 60s will be better for you, and help improve your cognitive abilities and functioning, than doing nothing at all.

Not to be outdone, researchers from the University of Cambridge looking at the relationship between regular exercise and health, have also concluded that regular exercise is good for you. However, they also found that most people don’t come anywhere near doing the minimum 150 minutes of physical activity a week as recommended by the NHS. This study, a systematic review, looked at hundreds of previous studies exploring the benefits of physical activity, reported that even doing some exercise each day was beneficial. And your exercise doesn’t have to be done in a gym! Just 11 minutes a day (about 75 minutes per week) of riding a bike, walking fast, dancing or running will help reduce the risk of heart disease and some cancers. Doing physical activity with others was found to increase motivation to get out there and doing something. Changing habits can also help. Leaving the car on the drive and walking to the shops, bringing back just what you can carry in two shopping bags can be a perfectly good alternative to more traditional forms of exercise!

It seems that making friends and enjoying their company over time, regular exercise, and the odd glass of red wine are the recipe for a long and healthy life – sounds like a plan to me.