Health Headlines: Red Wine Can Regulate Blood Sugar

Drinking red wine may help regulate blood sugar according to a new study in the journal Nutrition. Study participants that took a 250 mg resveratrol (the natural compound found in red wine) supplement once a day for three months had lower blood glucose levels than those that didn’t take the supplement. Researchers suspect that resveratrol may help stimulate insulin secretion. Like we needed another reason to drink wine. [Today]

Sugary drinks are linked to a higher stroke risk in women, according to a new study in Japan at Osaka University. The study found that women who drank a sugary soda everyday were 83 percent more likely to have a stroke. Sugary drinks have also been tied to heart attacks, obesity, and diabetes. [Reuters]

More people die from heart attacks in the winter, but don’t worry Massachusetts, it has nothing to do with cold weather. At the American Heart Association’s annual meeting earlier this week, researchers reported that after reviewing data from seven states in both hot and cold climates, more people die of heart attacks and strokes in the winter months. But there was no difference between warm states like Arizona and cold states like Massachusetts. Then why winter? Researchers are still uncertain but believe it has to do with the flu and depression. [NBC News]

Looking older than you really are can be a sign of poor heart health, according to the America Heart Association. In a Danish study about the differences in biological and chronological age involving 11,000 people, researchers found that people with bald patches on the crown of their heads, creases near the ear lobes, and bumpy deposits on eyelids had a 57 percent greater risk for a heart attack. But don’t worry, gray hair and wrinkles were just regular signs of aging. Whew. [USA Today]

Recycled heart devices can offer new life for the poor according to a study in the journal the Annals of Internal Medicine. Apparently, a Philadelphia heart specialist and his colleagues were smuggling used cardiac devices to India for years. Recycled implantable cardioverter-defibrillators are devices that jolt a failing heart back into rhythm. They can be collected safely from U.S. patients and funeral homes, transported, sterilized and re-implanted in people who otherwise would not be able to afford them. There are still many ethical and legal issues surrounding this system, which is currently prohibited by federal regulators. [NBC News]