Can drinking wine save you from dementia?

As reported by the Daily News & Analysis this week,  scientists have found that a daily cocktail or glass of wine could help delay dementia.

Their research has shown that alcohol is an anti-inflammatory (inflammation promotes Alzheimer’s) and raises good HDL cholesterol, which helps ward off dementia.

Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina found that older people who had eight to 14 alcoholic drinks a week had a 37% lower risk of dementia than non-drinkers.  Editor’s note:  It is eight to 14 drinks a week — not a day.

However, adults who go on occasional binges face a higher risk, reports the Daily Mail.

According to a Finnish study, adults who binged in midlife at least once a month — drinking, for example, more than five bottles of beer or a bottle of wine at one sitting — were three times more likely to develop dementia, including Alzheimer’s, 25 years later.

The renaissance of mead

Bottles of mead are displayed at Starrlight Mead in Pittsboro. Mead may be the world's oldest alcoholic beverage. Many associate it with medieval Europe.

PITTSBORO, NC — Mead, that drink of Viking saga and medieval verse, is making a comeback. But this ain’t your ancestors’ honey wine.

“It’s not just for the Renaissance fair anymore,” says Becky Starr, co-owner of Starrlight Mead, which recently opened in an old woven label mill in Pittsboro.

In fact, this most ancient of alcoholic libations hasn’t been this hot since Beowulf slew Grendel’s dam and Geoffrey Chaucer fell in with the Canterbury pilgrims at the Tabard.

In the past decade, the number of “meaderies” in the United States has tripled to around 150, says Vicky Rowe, owner of Gotmead.com, which describes itself as “the Internet’s premier resource for everything to do with mead.”

“I literally get new notifications of meaderies at least every couple of weeks,” says Rowe, who runs the website from her home in the woods north of Raleigh. “So they’re just popping up all over. And a lot of those are wineries that have decided to add mead to their mainstream product lines, which is just incredible.”

Traditional mead is made with three ingredients – honey, water and yeast. The biggest hurdle has been overcoming that centuries-old misconception that something made from honey has to be sweet.

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/23/935931/the-renaissance-of-mead.html#ixzz1CIPNadH0

How to Give the Perfect Toast

This little piece appeared in last Sunday’s Parade Magazine. I found these to be practical and witty tips for raising your glass with style, and thought I’d share them here in case you missed the post. They’re provided courtesy of Jon Lovett, a White House speechwriter and winner of the “Funniest Celebrity in Washington” contest.

So you have to give a toast. Oh, don’t be nervous. You’ll probably do great. It’s hard to fail completely. And even if you do, it’s not like people put awkward and embarrassing videos on the Internet, right? So what’s there to be nervous about? Besides, you’ve got a secret weapon: instructions from a magazine.

As a speechwriter, I’m often asked to help with toasts. And I’ve given a few myself. (In fact, if you’re east of the Mississippi and listen closely, you can still hear faint applause coming from the ballroom of a moderately priced catering hall on Long Island… because they haven’t stopped clapping yet.) Based on my experience, if you follow these simple rules, you should be fine.

1. Keep it short. There are no bad 10-second toasts. There are no good 10-minute toasts. No one in the whole recorded history of people talking has ever said, “I wish that speech were longer.”

2. …And sweet. This isn’t the Friars Club, and you aren’t Gilbert Gottfried. No insults. No vulgar stories. We know they’re funny. But your aunt doesn’t. Unless your aunt is Gilbert Gottfried.

3. Test it out. On actual human beings. A mirror won’t tell you that you aren’t as hilarious as you think you are. That’s what friends are for.

4. But most important. Be sincere. And specific. Your sister is more than totally awesome. She’s a role model, an inspiration, a friend who’s really been there for you. A toast is a chance to say what we always mean to say to the people we love. That’s why you’re up there.

5. And one more thing: See that champagne glass in your hand? The one you’re pointing at the guest of honor as you deliver the perfect toast? It doesn’t have to be the first glass you’ve held that night. But it better not be your seventh.

Cheers!