Wine Consumption: The Pros and the Cons

Drinking Wine

Should you or shouldn’t you?

The Plusses to Drinking Wine:

• 1-2 glasses of wine per day appear to reduce stress and the effects of chronic inflammation.


• Red wine contains polyphenols and this can be helpful to combat arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)


• When you drink wine with a meal it makes the meal seem like a special occasion and thus you may eat more slowly (which enhances digestion)


• It is a better choice than sugary mixed drinks because these mixed drinks contain more sugar and thus spikes insulin.


• Wine drinkers tend to sip rather than guzzle their beverage which means fewer intakes of alcohol, sugar and calories.


• A moderate amount which is equivalent to 5 oz. per day has been shown to lower your risk of heart disease.


• Moderate amounts of red wine (1-3 glasses per day, 3-4 times per week) may reduce your risk of dementia, depression, and some cancers.


• Good News for you white wine drinkers!  White wine has been shown to have many of the same positive health benefits as red wine.

Downside to Drinking Wine

• If you drink alcohol in excessive amounts it can increase your risk for breast cancer, cause brain damage and damage to the liver and other organs


• Red wine does contain the antioxidant resveratrol that is found in the skin of grapes.  Resveratrol is good for fighting inflammation, heart disease, blood clotting, and cancer.  However the amount of resveratrol in wine is very low and to get the benefits of this powerful antioxidant, you would need to consume several bottles-not a good idea!  Add purple and black grapes to your diet and supplement with resveratrol for heart disease instead.


• Those who consume more than 5 oz. of red wine per day have a greater risk of heart disease.  Other studies show that 1-2 glasses of red wine per day can also lower your risk of stroke but more than this amount can increase your risk.


• When you start to go beyond moderate amounts of wine, the negative effects outweigh the benefits-for those who drink 2-3 glasses of red wine every day they have increased risk of liver disease, depression, weight gain and diabetes.


• Wines are still mostly empty calories that you may consume instead of healthy food choices so be cognizant if wine is replacing food in your diet.


• A glass of red wine (5 oz.) contains on average 125 calories.  So if you are consuming say 2 glasses 4 times per week that is 1,000 added calories per week.  It can easily cause the weight to creep on.

Bottom line

Articles reviewed vary but the consensus seems to be 1-3 glasses of wine per day for 4-5 days per week is considered a moderate, healthy amount to consume to reap benefits.

This is not meant to encourage you to drink up!  In fact, you can reap many of these health benefits from food alone.  But if you already drink wine, it may be good to know that staying in the moderate range can be supportive for your body.  This means not consuming wine every day but having 2 days off from drinking.

If you add in other alcoholic beverages then you go from moderate drinking to excessive drinking.  Please be mindful of the amount you consume and it is best to avoid it (even if it does have health benefits) if you have had issues with alcohol in the past.

Final Thought

While I do not imbibe personally (I have the alcohol flush gene on both sides which explains why I have never enjoyed the effects nor taste of alcohol) I have read about the quality and purity of wines.  What I did not realize is that many are filled with contaminants just like a processed food would be.  So do your homework before purchasing.

I recently came across a site www.dryfarmwines.com which does purity testing and has no sugar in its wines.  Check it out for more information on why the quality of your wine is important.

Sources

Carson, T. (10/18/13) The Health Benefits of White Wine.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/377858-   the-health-benefits-of-white-wine.

Bjarnadottir, A. (nd) Red wine: Good or Bad?  http://authoritynutrition.com/red-wine-good-or-bad/

Truesdale, L. (8/16) 9 Secrets to Long Life.  www.deliciousliving.com

Karen Brennan, MSW, CNC, Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition (candidate), author of the E book Tru Foods Depression Free Nutrition Guide; How Food Supplements and herbs can be used to lift your mood and owner of Tru Foods Nutrition Services, LLC believes in food first when addressing the root causes to your health conditions.  For more information, visit her website at www.trufoodsnutrition.com

This information is meant for educational purposes only.

Wine Consumption: The Pros and the Cons

Edward Snowden urges pros to encrypt client communications

Hyperlink to video: Edward Snowden: ‘If I end up in chains in Guantánamo I can reside with that’

The NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, has urged lawyers, journalists, medical doctors, accountants, priests and other individuals with a duty to safeguard confidentiality to improve protection in the wake of the spy surveillance revelations.

Snowden mentioned specialists have been failing in their obligations to their customers, sources, sufferers and parishioners in what he described as a new and challenging globe.

“What last year’s revelations showed us was irrefutable proof that unencrypted communications on the net are no longer risk-free. Any communications ought to be encrypted by default,” he mentioned.

The response of specialist bodies has so far been patchy.

A minister at the House Office in London, James Brokenshire, explained for the duration of a Commons debate about a new surveillance bill on Tuesday that a code of practice to defend legal professional privilege and other individuals requiring specialist secrecy was beneath review.

Snowden’s plea for the professions to tighten safety came during an substantial and revealing interview with the Guardian in Moscow.

The former Nationwide Security Company and CIA computer professional, desired by the US below the Espionage Act right after leaking tens of thousands of top secret documents, has provided only a handful of interviews given that in search of short-term asylum in Russia a yr in the past.

Edward Snowden in the course of his interview with the Guardian in Moscow. Photograph: Alan Rusbridger for the Guardian

During the 7 hrs of interview, Snowden:

• Stated if he ended up in US detention in Guantánamo Bay he could reside with it.

• Provided uncommon glimpses into his daily lifestyle in Russia, insisting that, contrary to reports that he is depressed, he is not unhappy and does not have any regrets. He rejected numerous conspiracy theories surrounding him, describing as “bullshit” recommendations he is a Russian spy.

• Said that, contrary to a declare he performs for a Russian organisation, he was independently secure, living on savings, and income from awards and speeches he has delivered on the internet round the planet.

• Made a startling claim that a culture exists inside the NSA in which, in the course of surveillance, nude images picked up of folks in “sexually compromising” situations are routinely passed all around.

• Spoke at length about his potential, which appears destined to be spent in Russia for the foreseeable future soon after expressing disappointment over the failure of western European governments to offer him a home.

• Mentioned he was holding out for a jury trial in the US rather a judge-only a single, hopeful that it would be challenging to find 12 jurors who would convict him if he was charged with an offence to which there was a public curiosity defence. Negotiations with the US government on a return to his nation seem to be stalled.

Snowden, who recognises he is practically definitely stored underneath surveillance by the Russians and the US, met the Guardian at a hotel inside of strolling distance of Red Square.

The 31-year-previous revealed that he functions on-line late into the evening a solitary, digital existence not that dissimilar to his earlier daily life.

He explained he was utilizing part of that time to work on the new emphasis for his technical skills, developing encryption equipment to aid professionals such as journalists safeguard sources and data. He is negotiating foundation funding for the venture, a contribution to addressing the difficulty of professions wanting to protect client or patient data, and in this case journalistic sources.

“An unfortunate side effect of the growth of all these new surveillance technologies is that the operate of journalism has grow to be immeasurably harder than it ever has been in the previous,” Snowden mentioned.

“Journalists have to be especially aware about any kind of network signalling, any type of connection, any sort of licence-plate reading device that they pass on their way to a meeting point, any area they use their credit score card, any place they take their phone, any email speak to they have with the supply due to the fact that quite 1st speak to, before encrypted communications are established, is adequate to give it all away.”

Journalists had to make sure they made not a single error or they would be putting sources at danger. The very same duty applied to other professions, he explained, calling for training and new specifications “to make certain that we have mechanisms to ensure that the regular member of our society can have a realistic measure of faith in the skills of all the members of these professions.”

He extra: “If we confess anything to our priest inside a church that would be personal, but is it any various if we send our pastor a personal e-mail confessing a crisis that we have in our life?”

The response of expert bodies in the United kingdom to the challenge varies, ranging from calls for legislative adjustments to construct in protection from snooping, to obvious lack of concern.

Ross Anderson, professor of protection engineering at Cambridge University, mentioned he shared Snowden’s issues about the vulnerability of the professions to surveillance by spy and law enforcement agencies.

“If you consider your HIV standing is secret from GCHQ, forget it,” he said. “The equipment are obtainable to protect information and communications but only if you are important adequate for your doctor or lawyer to care.”

Timothy Hill, technological innovation policy adviser at the Law Society, which represents United kingdom lawyers, explained the occupation was concerned.

“Legal professional privilege – the proper to seek the advice of a legal adviser in confidence – is a long established frequent law correct. Its fundamental part in our legal program wants to be reasserted.”

The society is pressing to have existing legislation rewritten to include explicit safety for legal professional privilege from government surveillance.

“There requirements to be a debate about the implications of the Snowden revelations for skilled privilege in the digital age,” Hill mentioned. “It is not occurring. This is not being debated in parliament.”

He stated the society was in search of to strengthen law firms’ cybersecurity awareness but that a more powerful statutory framework was essential.

Michelle Stanistreet, the National Union of Journalists common secretary, echoed the considerations. “For democracy to perform, it wants to have a free of charge press and journalists who are in a position to do their occupation with out concern or hindrance. But this is turning out to be increasingly beneath threat.”

She additional: “Final year’s revelations show that unencrypted communications can indicate that journalists may be unwittingly handing above their contacts, footage or materials, towards their will.”

The Common Health care Council gives guidance to United kingdom physicians about guarding info towards improper disclosure.

It stated that “except if doctors have a management role, they are not anticipated to assess the protection specifications of big-scale personal computer systems offered for their use in the NHS or in other managed healthcare environments.”

Edward Snowden urges pros to encrypt client communications

Finance pros have a part to play in the NHS

‘Only thirty% of finance staff feel valued by their nationwide government wellness division, falling to 17% by the public’, says Paul Briddock. Photograph: Wolfram Schroll

A lot more than a yr has passed considering that the reorganisation of the NHS in England, and April marked a new chapter as Simon Stevens took up his chief executive publish. To mark a year on from the alterations, the Healthcare Fiscal Management Association (HFMA) took a snapshot looking at the attitudes of their members, these doing work on the frontline.

Amid the backdrop of monetary pressures, it is estimated that the NHS in England demands to discover £30bn of cost savings by 2020-21, the results have been telling, particularly when it comes to how finance workers truly feel they are perceived by clinical colleagues and the general public. Even though 89% truly feel highly valued by their line managers and a even more 69% by their boards, 39% do not come to feel clinicians value the contribution they make to the sector.

Even so, the finance perform has a critical function to play in the NHS. On the transactional side, finance experts hold the organization side of large nearby organisations ticking in excess of – at the most standard degree, employees and invoices get paid. But the finance function is a lot greater than this. Finance professionals have a large position to perform in governance, accountability, yearly reports and maintaining accounts that inform public sector funding choices in the future.

Perceived attitudes of individuals past the hospital doors have been even a lot more worrying as only 30% of finance employees truly feel valued by their national government wellness department, falling to 18% for individuals and only 17% by the public. One finance manager even admitted it was “tricky” to inform a stranger the place they worked, and this in component was exacerbated by media pillorying of managers inside of the NHS.

Why are we in this situation? Do we danger dropping talented personnel working in the sector due to a lack of understanding about the work they do? Moving forward it is clear the NHS wants to transform the way it delivers providers. We want to enhance the top quality of solutions and meet growing demand – driven by an ageing population and growing levels of extended term illness – from broadly flat, real terms budgets.

There is a consensus across the sector, from finance specialists and clinical workers, that adjust can only come about by shifting patient pathways – for example delivering far more providers in the local community to support patients to deal with their conditions and stay away from inpatient hospital admissions. At the identical time there is probably to be a part for greater specialisation or integration of companies – such as the alterations in stroke care. Strategies for all of these moves forward require to have a firm economic foundation and strategic organizing from a multi-disciplined staff. Clinicians tasked to make selections about companies want good top quality details and intelligence at their fingertips, evaluating the recent state of play to forecasted alternatives – their finance colleagues can offer these. Even in which required adjustments could increase fees, individuals on the frontline want to recognize how and exactly where these charges will arise, so they can program for them.

In contrast to some perceptions, most finance professionals questioned were motivated to remain in their part due to public sector values (70%) or “the opportunity to improve companies for individuals” (60%), demonstrating that monetary staff, in spite of what might be reflected by public view, are as committed to public service aims as the clinicians they employ. So to move forward, perhaps a broader understanding of healthcare finance is necessary?

It is honest to say that a day never ever passes without a NHS financial story in the information. Numerous of these highlight concerns that teams of finance specialists and clinicians have been doing work hard to solve long ahead of they are reported on. Whilst it is essential to inform the public, there need to also be a accountability to give an appropriate context – how a lot it charges to offer sufferers with X and in which the cash comes from for Y – to paint a rounded and reasonable image. Patients should be at the heart of everything the NHS sets out to do and I was pleased to see the attitudes of fellow finance experts reiterating this as component of the results we located.

The analysis also showed that job fulfillment was large (six.8 out of ten) and improved with seniority – a reassuring sentiment to hear in a time of mounting pressure and flux. There have been a quantity of aspects which preserve personnel morale sturdy one is the opportunities the NHS supplies for them to take on new roles and difficulties.

We all have a central part to perform in generating clinically-led transformation come about, achieving the ambitions set out by the new NHS framework and finding out from the problems of the past. But we will only ever attain a fit-for-the-future NHS as a staff – clinicians and healthcare financial professionals doing work together.

Paul Briddock is policy and technical director at the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA)

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Finance pros have a part to play in the NHS