Wine & Health Symposium Pau France April 2007

The Wine and Health Symposium held in Pau, France in April 2007 was a science update that brought together a group of scientists and clinicians who are internationally recognised as leading experts in this field.

The aim of the symposium was to review the latest experimental and clinical research on the effects of wine consumption. Discussions focused on the evidence that moderate drinking can reduce heart disease, dementia, and cancers, while also increasing longevity. The contribution from wine drinking to the French Paradox, and as a component of the Mediterranean Diet will be reviewed. Evidence was presented that the most important actions of polyphenols was not due to antioxidant effects, but to other effects. This provided new insights into how wine modifies blood vessel function in health and disease.

Professor Roger Corders own research, covered in his book The Wine Diet,  identify procyanidins as the principal vasoactive polyphenols in red wine and shows that they are present at higher concentrations in wines from areas of southwestern France and Sardinia, where traditional production methods ensure that these compounds are efficiently extracted during vinification. These regions also happen to be associated with increased longevity in the population.

In France, there are marked regional variations in mortality from coronary heart disease. They used the 1999 census data to identify unusual patterns of ageing in France and found that there are significantly more men aged 75 or over in the département of Gers in the Midi-Pyrenees in Southwest France where the population traditionally drink their local Madiran wines daily.

 

About the Symposium Speakers

France

Professor Joel de Leiris

Joël de Leiris is Professor of Physiology at the University Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France and an expert on the French Paradox

Professor Augustin Scalbert

Augustin Scalbert is Professor in INRA's Human Nutrition Unit at the Research Centre at Clermont-Ferrand - Theix, France where he is leading groundbreaking work on the influence of micronutrients, including polyphenols, on health with a special emphasis on the nutritional interactions with diseases associated with aging.

Professor Valérie B. Schini-Kerth

Valérie Schini-Kerth is Professor of Pharmacology in the Faculty of Pharmacy at University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France. Her studies of the vasodilator and vascular protective effects of wine polyphenols represent one of the most important breakthroughs in our understanding of these actions

Chile

Professor Federico Leighton

Federico Leighton is a Professor in the Faculty of Biological Sciences at the Catholic University, Santiago, Chile, where he has been making crucial advances in understanding the contribution wine plays as part of the Mediterranean diet to vascular health and wellbeing.

USA

Professor R. Curtis Ellison, MD

R. Curtis Ellison is Chief of Preventative Medicine and Epidemiology and is Professor of Medicine and Public Health at Boston University School of Medicine, USA. During the past twenty years he has been a leading authority in the study of alcohol consumption and health, and one of the most influential figures in this area

UK

Professor Roger Corder

Roger Corder is Professor of Experimental Therapeutics in the William Harvey Research Institute at Barts and the London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine & Dentistry, London, UK. His research on wine became a road of discovery for the wines of South West France, and led him to write The Wine Diet

Dr. Mark Pothecary

Mark Pothecary recently completed his PhD studies in the William Harvey Research Institute at Barts and the London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine & Dentistry, London, UK. His investigations of the molecular responses of endothelial cells to grape polyphenols have revealed multiple new insights into their impact on vascular function

Professor Alan Crozier

Alan Crozier is Professor of Plant Biochemistry and Human Nutrition at the University of Glasgow, UK. He is an expert on the absorption, metabolism and protective effects of dietary polyphenols from fruits, vegetables and beverages. He is an editor of the recently published book on this topic - Plant Secondary Metabolites: Occurrence, Structure and Role in the Human Diet

Professor Jonathan Gibbins

Jonathan Gibbins is Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading, UK. An expert on platelet function, he is also studying how dietary factors influence platelets and modify the risk of thrombosis

Italy

Professor Giovanni de Gaetano, M.D., Ph.D.

Giovanni de Gaetano is Professor and Head of the Research Laboratories at the Centre for High Technology Research and Education in Biomedical Sciences, Catholic University, Campobasso, Italy. He is a leading authority on the influence of wine consumption on atherosclerosis and thrombosis risk

Denmark

Professor Morten Grønbæk

Morten Grønbæk is Professor and Deputy Director of Research at the National Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen, Denmark. He is also a key figure as the author of more than 100 articles on the influence of alcohol on health, many of which are milestones in this field