Benefits of Drinking Alcohol - yes advantages of drinking

A MUST READ AS FROM NOW ON YOU WILL FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF HAVING A DRINK


David J. Hanson, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the State University of New York at Potsdam, is the expert on alcohol, and writes that moderate drinkers tend to have better health and live longer than those who are either abstainers .He cites research that shows that moderate drinkers:
* Have fewer heart attacks and strokes.
* Have lower incidence of hypertension, peripheral artery disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and the common cold.
* He also links moderate (sensible!) drinking to a lower risk for a myriad of other conditions, ranging from Parkinson’s disease to “poor physical condition in the elderly."


Some cardioprotective benefits have been demonstrated for light to moderate alcohol consumption (up to 1 drink daily for women and 1 or 2 drinks daily for men). Most studies have shown that light to moderate drinking is associated with risk reductions for CHD of approximately 30% to 35%.

Alcohol consumed in moderation seems to have an antiatherosclerotic effect, with decreased incidence of peripheral arterial disease Like exercise, alcohol consumption seems to be most cardioprotective when done daily and in moderation.

consumption of 1 drink daily by women and 1 or 2 drinks daily by men was associated with an 18% reduction in total mortality

Although low-dose, daily alcohol consumption has been linked to better health than less frequent use

Guidelines from the United Kingdom suggest that middle-aged or elderly men and postmenopausal women who drink seldom or never might consider the possibility that light drinking would benefit their health

The strongest medical evidence exists for the link between moderate drinking and a reduced risk of heart disease.

Dr. Kenneth Mukamal, an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, was the lead author of a New England Journal of Medicine study examining the roles of drinking patterns and heart disease that found, after 12 year of follow-up, that men who consumed alcohol between three and seven days a week had fewer heart attacks than men who drank once a week.