Want to Live Longer? Toss Back a Few Cocktails

[multi]

I miss my one or two beers a night...
:/

[theknife]

Originally Posted by multi

I miss my one or two beers a night...
:/

on the wagon?

[multi]

Yep.. since Dec when my ulcer fucked up
people drinking beer around me all the time... It's been quite easy to avoid
so I don't think I am on any wagon

[JackSpratts]

Wine Adds Five Years to Life, More Than Beer, Dutch Study Finds
Eva von Schaper

Half a glass of wine a day may add five years to your life, a new study suggests. Drink beer, and you’ll live 2 1/2 years longer.

Dutch researchers followed 1,373 men for more than four decades, noting their eating and drinking habits.

Light alcohol intake was linked to lower cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and overall mortality in the study.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...1tc&refer=home

[JackSpratts]

Aging: Moderate Drinking May Help the Brain
Nicholas Bakalar

People over 60 who consume moderate amounts of alcohol have a reduced risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, according to a large review of studies.

The analysis, which appeared in the July issue of The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, reviewed 15 studies that together followed more than 28,000 subjects for at least two years. All the studies controlled for age, sex, smoking and other factors. The studies variously defined light to moderate drinking as 1 to 28 drinks per week.

Compared with abstainers, male drinkers reduced their risk for dementia by 45 percent, and women by 27 percent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/he...h/01aging.html

[JackSpratts]

Alcohol 'Protects Men's Hearts'
BBC

Drinking alcohol every day cuts the risk of heart disease in men by more than a third, a major study suggests.

The study was conducted in Spain, a country with relatively high rates of alcohol consumption and low rates of coronary heart disease.

The research involved men and women aged between 29 and 69, who were asked to document their lifetime drinking habits and followed for 10 years.

Crucially the research team claim to have eliminated the "sick abstainers" risk by differentiating between those who had never drunk and those whom ill-health had forced to quit. This has been used in the past to explain fewer heart-related deaths among drinkers on the basis that those who are unhealthy to start with are less likely to drink.

Good cholesterol

The researchers, led by the Basque Public Health Department, placed the participants into six categories - from never having drunk to drinking more than 90g of alcohol each day. This would be the equivalent of consuming about eight bottles of wine a week, or 28 pints of lager.

For those drinking little - less than a shot of vodka a day for instance - the risk was reduced by 35%. And for those who drank anything from three shots to more than 11 shots each day, the risk worked out an average of 50% less.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8367141.stm

[JackSpratts]

Healthy Types Enjoy a Daily Tipple

Drinkers who enjoy two or three glasses of wine a day are healthier than teetotallers, according to a study of 150,000 people.
Matthew Moore

Women who went to university consume more alcohol than their less-highly-educated counterparts, a major study has found.

Moderate drinkers had lower rates of heart disease, obesity and depression than those who abstained from alcohol entirely, researchers found.

But, while previous studies have highlighted the health-giving properties of wine, the authors of the latest report sounded a note of caution. Drinking modest amounts of alcohol does not necessarily make you healthier, they said. Rather, those who enjoy alcohol without indulging to excess tend to be wealthier and more successful than average, and are the sort of people who look after their health in general.

Boris Hansel of the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, who led the study of the medical records of 150,000 Parisians, said: “Moderate alcohol intake is a powerful marker of a higher social level, superior general health status and lower cardiovascular risk.”

In the study, light drinkers were defined as those who drank one unit of alcohol a day — the equivalent of one small glass of wine. Moderate drinkers consumed between one and three units a day — up to half a bottle of weak wine or a pint-and-a-half of standard strength beer.

Light and moderate drinkers scored better than both teetotallers and heavy drinkers on a range of health indicators.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddr...ly-tipple.html