Studies show Vodka is more relaxing than wine!

Reach for the vodka, not the red wine
By Dorothy Bonn

After a stressful day, a swig of vodka may calm your nerves more effectively than a glass of red wine, claim UK researchers.

The team from two London hospitals gave non-migrainous medical students 5 mL/kg body weight of chianti—equivalent to about half a bottle—or an equal volume of vodka diluted to the same alcohol content and measured the effects of the two types of drink on arousal and stress by asking the students to complete a self-rating questionnaire before starting to drink and 1,2, and 3 hours later. Neurologist Richard Peatfield and his colleagues measured the students' plasma cortisol and prolactin concentrations and body temperature at the same time points. Neither group of students showed any change in any variable except stress, which was significantly reduced in those allocated vodka.

Alcohol is a known anxiolytic, so the reduction in stress in the vodka group was not surprising, but why an equivalent amount of alcohol taken as red wine was less effective is puzzling. The authors suggest that red wine contains an un-identified substance that counteracts the stress-reducing effect of alcohol. Peatfield et al, who presented their findings in a poster at the Migraine Trust's annual symposium held in London, UK, on Sept 9-12, speculate that red wine's propensity for triggering migraine attacks might be related, at least in part, to its relatively poor ability to reduce stress, since stress itself is a trigger for migraine.