Don't Get Excited About the Champagne News

sas-schatzi

11/9/2015 Reporting in news media outlets that champagne three times a wwek can forestall dementia. Tracked it. VERY bad reporting. Rather than rehash it. I'm just going to repost what I wrote earlier today. Followed the breadcrumb trail. The study was originally published in 2013. I found the abstract, but not the full study. This is an article about the study written when the study was published. Nicely written

http://www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR503596.aspx

My first question when I heard it on the news was 1. who funded the study? Now it's 2. why is it being publicized now when the study is 2 years old?. Somethings happened to cause it to get wide press coverage now. Could be that another study has been published duplicating the original results.

In the short term what I have learned is, it's due to phenolic acid in the champagne. BUT don't react to this research to heavily until I read the whole study, as the bolded portion makes me question if this was a mouse study. Emphasis in bold is mine. This quote is from the

"Dr. David Vauzour, the researcher on the study, added: "in the near future we will be looking to translate these findings into humans". This has been achieved successfully with other polyphenol-rich foods, such as blueberry and cocoa, and we predict similar outcomes for moderate Champagne intake on cognition in humans."

Couldn't access the full original study(59$) The limited abstract is below. It's Rats not mice. Still following breadcrumbs .

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ars.2012.5142

Found a metanalysis study published in 2014 by the same lead author and two of the co-authors of the study from 2013. Not uncommon for researchers to change from pure research to metananalysis of published works and publish again. Not sure if they're is a name for it, but it can confuse things. In the republishing process the info can start to be accepted as real when the premise hasn't been proven. Clearly, in the 2014 publication in the conclusion it states that further research has to be done in humans.

http://www.wineecoreports.com/upload/internet/CORONA_SPENCER_VAUZOUR_Impact-of-Champagne-Wine-Consumption-on-Vascular-and-Cognitive-Functions.pdf

Snagged it. News release from the Sun( likely in other Uk papers too). It clearly states that it's research in rats. They are going to be starting a (Phase1) clinical trial that will last three years.

Problem b/c other media reporters have reported it as being true, people are going to start drinking champagne and promulgating it's value. It may end up being true, but today it isn't. Look for the completed study and publication results in about +- 9 years.

We may see a retraction, but the damage is already done

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/6734201/Exciting-research-shows-champagne-could-prevent-dementia.html

I imagine those folks in Champagne, France are dancing in the wine vats

Bad science and bad reporting piss me off. It messes with good science and good reporting.

lisa-e

Good science doesn't usually make headlines and when it does the reporting is lousy.

Racy

Is it ok to make a joke? How do I get into the clinical trial for humans?

SummerAngel

Well, all of the research into the link between BPA and breast cancer that I've been able to find has been in rats or mice, too, but I see a ton of posts basically assuming BPA causes BC...

wallycat

Alcohol consumption and decrease in dementia (Alzheimer's) news has been around for decades. Maybe they brought it up for holiday consumption.

sas-schatzi

Racy, whoa nelly, I want in too