One of the best things about enjoying the health benefits of red wine is the wine itself.

Being healthy has never tasted so good!

So naturally, some researchers are trying to spoil the party — because a new study looks at the benefits of the polyphenols in red wine… when taken without the actual wine.

I’m happy to report that the experiment was a failure.

Researchers gave 61 men and women with an average age of 61 one of three drinks for four weeks: A dairy beverage with a high dose of the polyphenols found in red wine… a dairy beverage with a lower dose of those same polyphenols… and a dairy beverage with no polyphenols.

After four weeks, there was no change in blood pressure levels. The patients were all hypertensive before… and remained so afterwards with average readings of 145/86.

But even the researchers must’ve expected that.

“Previous human studies showed no effect of red wine drinking on blood pressure,” researcher Ilse Botden, MD, a PhD student at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam told WebMD.

The researchers concluded that whatever the heart benefits of red wine might be, they don’t come from lowering blood pressure. Like I said, that’s no surprise — the real surprise is that they reached any conclusion at all about red wine… since no one in the study actually drank any.

The researchers were on the right track in one regard, however: Red wine isn’t actually the best source of some of its famous antioxidants. A single resveratrol supplement, for example, can contain as much of the polyphenol as an entire case of wine.

But take it WITH your wine, not instead of it — because studies have shown that booze itself holds some terrific benefits, no matter what kind of alcoholic beverage you drink. In fact, a moderate drinking habit can help your heart, lower your risk of stroke and may even extend your life… even if it won’t lower your BP.

And of course, booze is also great for the brain: One recent study found that moderate drinkers are 30 percent less likely to develop dementia and 40 percent less likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease than non-drinkers.

If you can get all that from drinking, why get it any other way?

You might think the only “exercise” you’ll get from drinking wine comes from lifting the glass — or maybe struggling to open the bottle.

But it turns out resveratrol, the famous “red wine antioxidant,” can actually trick the body into thinking it’s getting some actual exercise — giving you a big-time metabolic boost with every little sip.

In just 30 days, 11 obese-but-healthy volunteers — as healthy as obese people can be, anyway — given 150 mg of resveratrol a day had real and measurable changes throughout their bodies.

They shaved five points off their blood pressure, lowered their blood sugar, and even reduced their levels of liver fat. In fact, just about the only thing it didn’t do would be one thing you’d really hope for the most — because none of the volunteers actually lost any weight.

I know. So much for the “red wine diet.”

But while they didn’t look any different from the outside, what took place on the inside was nothing short of amazing: The researchers wrote in Cell Metabolism that the volunteers had dramatically slower metabolisms during sleep.

These were the kinds of changes normally seen in people who try the impossible-to-follow ultra-low calorie diet… except these volunteers didn’t cut back on their calories at all.

The only “catch” here is that you can’t expect to get these types of benefits from red wine alone — because while it might be the tastiest way to get the antioxidant, it’s not actually the best way to get it.

In fact, you’d need between 50 and 100 glasses of red wine a day to get the 150 mg of resveratrol used in the study!

So clearly, if you want the benefits of resveratrol, you’re going to have to invest in a quality supplement or an antioxidant blend with resveratrol in it. It’s worth the money: Other studies have shown that it can protect the heart, save your vision, reduce blood sugar levels and even help you live longer.

But don’t toss the wine, either. It’s loaded with polyphenols that can boost your heart health and stimulate your immune system.

And booze in general is packed with benefits: Studies have also shown that moderate drinkers who enjoy any type of alcohol live longer, healthier lives than people who don’t drink.

So get a little exercise tonight and raise a glass to your lips. It’s the best workout of all.

Resveratrol isn’t the only way to boost your health and longevity — keep reading for something even simpler.

If you’re a senior and you had a drink or two last night, you had way too much.

That’s ridiculous, of course — but that’s the warning from a group of buzz-killing British shrinks, who claim that booze intake should be limited to just 1.5 units of alcohol a day for seniors.

That’s what you’ll get from a small glass of wine or half a pint of beer — or maybe they expect seniors to start drinking out of thimbles now.

In any case, Britain’s Royal College of Psychiatrists claims that so many seniors are now too drunk too much of the time — and if you haven’t noticed all these white-haired boozers stumbling down the street, it’s because they’re “invisible.”

They say seniors like to drink alone, at home, making them “invisible addicts.”

But one look at the numbers in this report finds these supposed boozers aren’t invisible — they’re imaginary.

For example, the report claims that the number of seniors who consume “too much” booze has risen by 60 percent in men and 100 percent in women since 2001.

How much is “too much?” Let’s dig a little deeper: Back in ’01, 5 percent of older women reported a single pint of beer (or the equivalent) at least once a week… compared to 10 percent by 2008.

Similarly, 1 percent admitted to having the nerve to have a second pint a beer once a week in 2001… compared to 2 percent in 2008.

That’s right — a drink or two once a week is all it takes to make you an “invisible addict” and leads to a “100 percent increase” in the number of boozing senior women.

I won’t waste your time with the numbers for men — but as you might guess, slightly more men drank slightly more than women overall.

In reality, these men and women aren’t addicts, invisible or otherwise.

These are vibrant, active seniors — and they’re getting a healthy boost with every single sip. A drink or two a day can help protect your heart, save your brain, and slash your risk of any number of disease.

Moderate boozers even live longer.

So ignore the shrinks, and pour yourself a drink — and don’t be afraid to let them see you do it.

Show ‘em you’re not invisible.

Coca-Cola used to call its drink “the ideal brain tonic,” proving that companies put marketing ahead of reality even in the long-ago days of Way Back When.

But while soda will actually rot your brain, there’s another beverage that really can protect it — and it’s something many of us already enjoy at the end of the day: Booze.

I’ve told you before how alcohol can boost your health and well-being and slash your disease risk, and a new study confirms that a moderate drinking habit can even save your brain from the ravages of dementia.

Researchers tracked 3,202 Germans over the age of 75 who did not have dementia at the start of the three-year study. Roughly half didn’t drink at all, while 25 percent sipped less than one a day, 13 percent enjoyed between one and two, and 12 percent drank even more than that.

Overall, the researchers found that the moderate drinkers — those who had a glass or two a day — were 30 percent less likely to develop dementia during the study period than non-drinkers.

These healthy drinkers also had a 40 percent lower risk of the most frightening cognitive disorder of all: Alzheimer’s disease.

Wine was the most popular drink, followed by beer… but the researchers wrote in Age and Ageing that there were no significant differences in the types of booze — just between moderate drinkers and nondrinkers.

Other studies have also found that drinking can protect the brain and lower the risk of dementia. Research published in 2009 found that seniors who enjoyed between eight and 14 drinks a week were 37 percent less likely to develop dementia than nondrinkers.

Another study published last year found that women who have a drink or two a day have a 52 percent lower risk of Alzheimer’s, while men can lower the odds by 20 percent.

Think that’s all? Not even close — there’s actually been more than 70 studies on this over the years, and most of them have reached a similar conclusion.

Just remember: Too much booze can actually hurt your brain, not save it. Heavy drinkers have a higher risk of dementia, and by some estimates alcohol abuse plays a role in up to 10 percent of all cases.

Keep it moderate, however, and you won’t just protect your brain. A healthy drinking habit can lower the risk cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some forms of cancer.

Drinkers are also happier, wealthier, smarter — and they even live longer, too.