There’s nothing more relaxing than winding down with a glass of red wine after a long, tiring day. If you do this, then you’d be happy to hear that drinking a glass of red wine is more than just relaxing. It benefits your mental health and this has been proven by studies. Red wine, when drunk in moderation, can actually improve your mental health in various ways. So pour yourself a glass of red wine and sit down as we walk you through its 4 best-known benefits for your mental health.
1. ANTI-STRESS EFFECTS
Now, one of the many benefits of red wine is that it helps with destressing and depression. Red wine contains a plant compound known as resveratrol that is found in the skin as well as the seeds of grapes and berries that possess anti-stress effects. This compound blocks out the depression enzymes that your brain formulates and this was proven by a study conducted at the University at Buffalo. This plant compound impacts the neurological processes, which helps in shutting down stress-causing enzymes in the brain, ultimately helping you destress. In fact, resveratrol is also considered an alternative effective drug for treating patients suffering from depression. So, if your job stresses the sh*t out of you, get back home, pour yourself a mega-pint of red wine and chase your stress away.
2. RED WINE HELPS WITH ANXIETY
Do you have those days when your anxiety just hits the roof and you don’t even know why or how to overcome it? A good old glass of red wine will help you with that. Careful consumption of alcohol in general, especially red wine, helps lessen and eventually puts a stop to your over-whelming anxious thoughts. Since alcohol, in this case wine, is a central nervous system depressant, it momentarily calms your anxiety and sort of “disconnects” your train of thought, allowing your anxiousness to disappear. Drinking a glass of wine on a Wednesday night to give you temporary relief from your anxiousness won’t hurt.
3. RED WINE INDUCES RELAXATION
Here’s a fun fact about red wine. For centuries, red wine has been used for fun, pleasure and relaxation. This is because red wine has many sedative properties that can help your mind and body to loosen up. As mentioned above, through previous studies that were conducted, wine is known to help with anxiety due to its natural calming effects towards the body. Because wine can depress your central nervous system, it causes your senses to slow down, allowing your body and mind to relax. So all that sweating, palpitations, mind racing, etc., can be treated with a warm glass of red wine at the end of the night. If you have kids in the house, and you know kids can drive you up the wall, put those nasty butts to sleep, grab yourself a bottle of red wine, turn on Netflix and just let every sip of wine devour you.
4. LOW RISK OF ALZHEIMER’S
This one is a long-term benefit. Red wine actually helps lessen the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. In an Australian research report, it was stated that people aged 60 experience a 30% lower rate of Alzheimer’s after moderate drinking of red wine. In one of the UCLA studies, it was found that grapes prevent cognitive and other possible metabolic declines which are related to your brain and thinking abilities. This is possible because of the resveratrol and the antioxidants found in grapes. Red wine helps improve memory, which is pretty ironic seeing as how it can also shut down your thought processes for relaxation. A small amount of wine every now and then can reduce brain inflammation and in turn help “clean” your brain – whatever that means. Get yourself a glass of red wine and have a good walk down memory lane whenever you need to.
And that, folks, is how red wine helps strengthen your mental health – of course when drank in moderation. Go splurge on a good bottle of red wine and boost your mental health whenever you need to.
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