New research says that red wine has anti-cancer properties because it contains resveratrol, a chemical found in the skin of grapes and apparently, in red wine. It can protect the body against cancer despite red wine's alcohol content that predisposes the body to head and neck cancers.
Resveratrol is a potent antioxidant that kills free radicals. Free radicals causes cell oxidation and DNA damage that predisposes the body to the likelihood of cancer. Since alcohol is a major risk factor for head and neck cancer, red wine's content of antioxidants prevents this from happening.
According to Robert Sclafani, PhD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the CU School of Medicine, "Alcohol bombards your genes. Your body has ways to repair this damage, but with enough alcohol eventually some damage isn't fixed. That's why excessive alcohol use is a factor in head and neck cancer. Now, resveratrol challenges these cells -- the ones with unrepaired DNA damage are killed, so they can't go on to cause cancer. Alcohol damages cells and resveratrol kills damaged cells."
In a study of another disease called Fanconi anemia, which is a rare genetic disorder that affects one in every 350,000 newborn babies, the DNA naturally creates tangles called cross links and health genes have the capability to repair and disentangle a cross-linked DNA. In the condition, people have no ability to repair DNA cross links which causes damage to the DNA. They are at greater risk of developing cancers like leukemia, and head or neck cancers.
The genetic accelerator of cancer in the condition has the same mechanism in alcohol which also causes cancer. They both are caused by partially metabolized alcohol. The body has the ability of metabolizing alcohol by converting it to acetyl aldehyde and the body uses this compound to convert it to acetic acid, which is the waste product excreted in the body. Acetyl aldehyde is a known carcinogen that causes cross links in DNA.
Sclafani describes the effects of resveratrol in terms of probability: "The more you drink, the more you accumulate DNA damage, and the more chance that one or more cells will accumulate the specific type of DNA damage that can cause cancer. Now, resveratrol takes out the cells with the most damage -- the cells that have the highest probability of being able to cause cancer."
Resveratrol in red wine cannot completely undo the cancer-causing effect of alcohol but instead it can kill the most volatile cancer cells that can lessen the probability that alcohol can reduce cancer.
