Day 183: Drink to live!

Christ, look at this:

Moderate Drinkers May Live Longer Than Non-Drinkers

When compared to abstainers or heavy drinkers, moderate drinkers have the lowest mortality risk.

A new study published online in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research has shown that moderate drinking among older adults is associated with lower mortality rates than those observed in adults who did not drink at all. What makes this study different from previous studies with similar findings was that the researchers controlled for additional factors, most notably non-drinkers who previously drank problematically. In similar studies that do not control for the health problems caused by previous heavy drinking, the interpretation of findings regarding the potential benefit of moderate drinking is more difficult.

The study, led by Charles J. Holahan, Ph.D., of the University of Texas at Austin, included 1,824 adults between the ages of 55 and 65, and controlled for former problem drinking status, existing health problems, and important sociodemographic and social-behavioral factors. When controlled for these factors, the data showed that non-drinkers had a 45 percent increased mortality risk over moderate drinkers. Additionally, heavy drinkers showed a 51 percent greater mortality risk than moderate drinkers.

The authors note that, “The apparent health-protective effects of moderate alcohol consumption compared to abstention may be related to reductions in cardiovascular illness.” The authors caution, however, that these health-protective effects “appear to be limited to regular moderate drinking. Heavy episodic drinking—even when average consumption remains moderate—is associated with increased cardiovascular risk.”

http://www.spectrum.niaaa.nih.gov/newsfromthefield/ModerateDrinkers.aspx

A 45% increased mortality rate compared to non drinkers??? And these are non-drinkers that aren't ex-alcos. Unbeliveable.

Here is more:

RESULTS: Controlling only for age and gender, compared to moderate drinkers, abstainers had a more than 2 times increased mortality risk, heavy drinkers had 70% increased risk, and light drinkers had 23% increased risk. A model controlling for former problem drinking status, existing health problems, and key sociodemographic and social-behavioral factors, as well as for age and gender, substantially reduced the mortality effect for abstainers compared to moderate drinkers. However, even after adjusting for all covariates, abstainers and heavy drinkers continued to show increased mortality risks of 51 and 45%, respectively, compared to moderate drinkers.

CONCLUSIONS: Findings are consistent with an interpretation that the survival effect for moderate drinking compared to abstention among older adults reflects 2 processes. First, the effect of confounding factors associated with alcohol abstention is considerable. However, even after taking account of traditional and nontraditional covariates, moderate alcohol consumption continued to show a beneficial effect in predicting mortality risk.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20735372

Two times more risk? On this study, non drinkers are worse off than heavy drinkers, unless I am reading this wrong?

At least in older people.

What does this mean for me? Well, I think if you are wanting to slim down and look like the greek god who runs through the hills, then being off the piss is very helpful. If you want to live from 50-85, and don't knock off half a bottle of scotch every night ,then it would appear a daily glass of the happy water is the way to go.