Yesterday, New York Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire posted a photo of himself bathing in a delicious tub of red wine on Instagram. Amar’e admitted he’s been doing the wine treatment — which is apparently popular among a certain set of athletes — for about six months, claiming it helps with circulation. That, of course, is a giant pile of bullpucky, confirmed by an actual doctor, Dr. Lewis Maharam, a sports medicine specialist in New York:
“There’s no downside to it so I don’t have a problem with them doing,” Maharam said. “But I don’t recommend it because I don’t know that it works or really doesn’t work … until I see hard evidence published in a real journal that has been scrutinized before the research gets published I’m skeptical.”
“It’s like you know when athlete does it and they hear about it and they say it’s good … a word-of-mouth type of thing,” he said, adding Stoudemire is the first pro basketball player he’s seen publicly admit to trying it.
The good news for Amar’e is that Dr. Maharam says there may be positive psychological effects. Still, we just hope that Amar’e isn’t shelling out for top-shelf vino in the name of some holistic gobbledygook. Even if he and his $160,000,000 in career earnings can afford it.
[BSO]
