If health came in a bottle, it would create mayhem at the local market. As people threw elbows and ran over one another with rabid shopping carts, bottles of health would fly off the shelves, secured in the clenched grip of hissing customers. People would push, shove, and use props - such as a crying child or a seeing-eye dog - to get their hands on this product. A bottle of health would be a best seller.While it might not be a bottle of health, per say, a bottle of wine is the next best thing.

Those of us who are wine drinkers all know that red wine benefits the heart and white wine benefits the lungs. But, what we might not know is that the health benefits don’t stop there…not even close. The health benefits of wine transcend the human body, refusing to develop a monogamous relationship with any one part.

While acupuncture is a distinctive feature of traditional Chinese medicine, China's herbal medicine has many parallels to, and is a part of the general quest for effective medicines to treat illness. Chinese ancestors recognized their dependence upon nature in both health and sickness. Led by instinct, taste and experience, they used plants, animal parts and minerals that did not belong to their usual diet. Until well into the 20th century, much of the pharmacopoeia of scientific medicine was derived from just this type of herbal lore. Today in the United States, about one quarter of the prescriptions dispensed by pharmacies contain at least one active ingredient derived from plant material.

Insulin was the first, and remains the primary means of treatment for Type 1 diabetes and is administered by subcutaneous injection. This method is necessary since insulin is destroyed by gastric stomach secretions when it is taken by mouth. Insulin injections must be balanced with meals and daily activities, and glucose levels must be closely monitored through frequent blood sugar testing. Many diabetics need inject insulin only once a day; others require two or more injections. The usual time for a dose of insulin is before breakfast. The dosage is initially established according to the severity of the condition, but it often has to be reassessed as one or another of the variables in the person's condition changes.

During the past several years a large number of different classes of drug therapies for patients with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes have been developed. The concept of genetic re-engineering of insulins to produce insulin analogs (synthetic insulin) with improved properties has enhanced the ability to affect glycaemic control with fewer adverse reactions. For Type 2 patients, the number of orally active antidiabetic agents has increased from one class of agents (the sulfonylureas - sulfa drugs) to the current total of four classes of agents. The three new classes include agents of potentially even greater glycaemic efficacy, such as Biguanide 'Metformin'; age nts directly improving the underlying insulin resistance of Type 2 diabetes, specifically thiazolidinediones such as 'Troglitazone'; and finally agents that alter the rate of hydrolysis and absorption of oligosaccharides, such as the alpha-glucosidase inhibitor 'Acarbose'.

The sulfonylureas as a group have proven to be not very effective. After three months of continual treatment at an adequate dosage, only about sixty percent of Type 2 diabetics are able to control blood sugar levels using these drugs. Furthermore these agents generally lose their effectiveness over time. After an initial period of success they fail to produce a positive effect in about thirty- percent of the cases at best.

In addition to being of limited value, there is evidence that the sulfonylureas actually produce harmful long-term effects. Tolbutamide has been reported to be associated with increased cardiovascular mortality. Other major side effects of the sulfonylureas are hypoglycaemia, allergic skin reactions, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and liver damage. Common examples of sulfonylureas include Chlorpropamide (Diabinese), Glipizide (Glucotrol), Tolazamide (Tolinase) and Tolbutamide (Orinase).

Metformin has been used in the management of Type 2 diabetes in more than 90 countries for over 30 years. It was approved for use in diabetes patients in the United States in 1995. Metformin reduces the excessive hepatic glucose production that characterizes Type 2 diabetes. With reduced hyperglycaemia, glucose uptake by peripheral tissues is enhanced while insulin levels remain stable or decline. Metformin also lowers elevated cholesterol and lipids, particularly the serum levels of triglycerides. Frequency of adverse effects is low at the doses needed to obtain the desired metabolic effect.

Troglitazone is a member of a new class of drugs that are 'insulin sensitizers'. It was selected on the basis of its effect to lower glycaemia without increasing insulin levels, its ability to improve lipid levels and absence of significant side effects or adverse events in short-term human studies. The new generation oral drugs do have a specific and beneficial place particularly for patients who are on an appropriate diet and exercise program, have attained an optimal weight and are still unable to adequately control blood sugar levels. However with the increased number of oral antidiabetic agents soon to increase even further, the medical emphasis upon management of hyperglycaemia in Type 2 diabetes with these agents will likely increase. Realistically this is the easiest and least time-consuming response that can be made by practitioners to the impact of managed care plans. However to prescribe these agents alone and in combination for even minimal degrees of hyperglycaemia without an adequate trial of diet and exercise will only serve to accentuate the problem. For the noninsulin dependent diabetic, dietary and life style changes can often provide adequate remediation.

Medical Cost Attributed To Diabetes: Medical cost for persons with diabetes are higher because they visit physician's offices, hospital outpatient departments and emergency rooms more frequently than their non-diabetic counterparts and are more likely to be admitted to hospitals and nursing homes. One estimate of the total health-care expenditures for diabetes in the USA is approximately $100 billion per year in both direct and indirect costs, or about 12% of all health-care expenditures.

The following is a list of the unobvious ways wine is helping you or has the potential to help you in the future. They all exist in an underground world of unsung wine benefits, where grapes anxiously wait for their day in the sun.

Extreme Weight Problems: While the term "beer belly" may have given alcohol a bad rap when it comes to weight, wine is actually proven to help the severely overweight. In order for this to be true, dry wine, wine that does not contain sugar, needs to be ingested: four or five ounces are taken at dinnertime or bedtime. In one study, the average weight loss of those who ingested this wine was twice that of those who didn't. Along these lines, because wine helps with anxiety and ridding the body of tension, it has also helped those who suffer, on the other end of the weight spectrum, from anorexia.

Old Age: Old age is not a disease, but an affliction to our health nonetheless. Still, it's an affliction those of us in youth hope to someday procure. While growing old can bring about all kinds of problems, wine can aid in their relief. For starters, wine decreases the dependency on certain medications, particularly medications that relax and sedate people. Wine has also proven to increase appetites, self-esteem and social lives of those in old age.

Intelligence: On an average basis, people who moderately consume wine are of higher education levels than those who don't drink alcohol or drink far too much. This isn't to say that you should, Merlot in hand, roll your eyes at the idiocy of someone drinking a beer, but it's reassuring to know wine drinkers are in good, and smart, company.

Bone Strength: Bone strength may be of little concern to those who are young, but it's extremely important in advanced age: a skeletal build with low density will have a bone to pick with its owner when Osteoporosis sets in. Men and women who are moderate wine drinkers, however, generally have bones that are denser than non-drinkers: the greater the density, the less likely the fractures.

Cancer: Red wine, filled with antioxidants, is proven to be a liquid nemesis of cancer, preventing it before it can fester. Packed with strong compounds, wine is laden with protective affects. In fact, the CDC found that women who averaged 12 glasses of wine per week were rewarded with an 83 percent decrease in endometrial cancer rates.

Kidney cancer, along these lines, seems to have found an enemy in alcohol. According to a study conducted in Sweden by Dr. Alicja Wolk of the Karolinska Institute, women who drank moderate amounts of alcohol had a 38 percent lower kidney cancer risk than those who didn't. For women 55 and older, the risk of kidney cancer was cut to 66 percent.

Diabetes: Type 2 diabetes, non-insulin diabetes that usually develops with age, is less likely to attack those who are moderate drinkers. Because the majority of people who get type 2 diabetes are women, a study was recently performed by Dr. Michael L. Bots at the University Medical Center Utrecht. During this study it was revealed that women who consumed 5 to 30 grams of alcohol per week were not as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as those who abstained completely.

While it is often lauded for the way it benefits the heart and the lungs, wine, the over achiever of alcohol, doesn't just stop there. From your mind to your ankle bone, wine provides a glassful of benefits. And, what's more, these are the only ones known so far. As the wine revolution gains even more ground, and more studies are performed, the benefits of wine may continue to be increasingly known, pouring good health on all who consume it.