Another week has flown by and the weekend approaches. Most likely a lot of you will make plans with friends and imbibe in a few libations during the weekend’s festivities. While I’m a social drinker myself, love those vodka/red bulls, this week’s Friday Health Check notes some of the benefits and hazards of consuming alcohol.
Moderate Drinking is Healthy
Many people link alcohol with disease and obesity. An avalanche of evidence shows that moderate drinking is good for you. Italian researchers found that two to four drinks per day in men and one to two drinks per day in women promoted longevity, but drinking more than that increased the risk of death. The researchers pooled the results of 34 published papers on alcohol consumption and longevity. Some of the studies lasted as long as 26 years and involved more than 1 million people. Moderate drinkers decreased their risk of death from all causes by 18 percent compared to nondrinkers. The researchers concluded that moderate drinking is healthful, but stopped short of advising teetotalers to start drinking. Other studies showed that alcohol consumption increases the risk of some cancers, domestic violence, traffic accidents, absenteeism and sexual abuse. People with a family history of alcohol abuse or breast cancer, or problems of substance abuse should avoid alcohol, but moderate alcohol consumption is healthy in others. (Archives of Internal Medicine, 166: 2437-2445, 2006)
Posted on May 4th, 2007 by Leo
Filed under: Friday Health Check
The problem I encounter is that it doesn’t seem like having 20 drinks in one day is quite as good for me as having 4 drinks per day over the course of 5 days.
It’s very rare that I will have a beer or drink when I am just home with my wife, but put me outside shootin’ the shit with the neighbors and we can put 4-5 back with no problem.
I agree
yeah, me too
Elaborate a bit more on this…this is the kind of article that would be PERFECT!
you have to try jagermeister and red bull, now thats good!
La Leah, here’s the link: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/166/22/2437
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