Can Wine Stave Off a Cold?

Can a glass or two of wine stave off a cold? How about red wine? How about eight to fourteen glasses of red wine a week?  The answers, according to a recent column by NYT’s health answer man Anahad O’Connor, are yes, yes, and yes. In the final, but most important paragraph of a column that disputes the notion that alcoholic drinks may diminish the likelihood of catching a cold, O’Connor tells us that in 2002, researchers in Spain followed 4,300 healthy adults,
examining their habits and susceptibility to colds. The study, published in The
American Journal of Epidemiology, found no relationship between the
incidence of colds and consumption of beer, spirits, Vitamin C or zinc, but it did find that drinking 8 to 14 glasses of wine per week, particularly red wine,
was linked to as much as a 60 percent reduction in the risk of
developing a cold. The scientists suspected this had something to do
with the antioxidant properties of wine. Read more  from Anahad O’Connor.