Moderate Drinking is Good for Health (Discover More!)

Harold Mandel, M.D., points out below that moderate drinking is good for health. And the alcohol can be wine (red or white), beer, or spirits. Spirits include whiskey, gin, rum, vodka, tequila, etc. Posted here by permission of Dr. Harold Mandel.

Professor David J. Hanson, Ph.D. of the State University of New York in Potsdam has reported that moderate drinking is good for health. Hanson has reported moderate drinkers generally have better health and live longer than those who are either abstainers or heavy drinkers. Moderate consumers of alcoholic beverages actually have fewer heart attacks, strokes and lower rates of diabetes, arthritis, enlarged prostate, dementia (including Alzheimer’s disease), and several major cancers.

Alcohol as Medicine

Throughout history alcohol has been used medicinally. The Old and New Testaments mention the medicinal properties of alcohol 191 times. Even the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has reported that moderate drinkers have the greatest longevity. The Director of NIAAA has commented that “Numerous well-designed studies have concluded that moderate drinking is associated with improved cardiovascular health.” And the Nutrition Committee of the American Heart Association has reported that “The lowest mortality occurs in those who consume one or two drinks per day.”

Better Health

Overall moderate drinkers tend to enjoy better health than do either abstainers or heavy drinkers. Daily moderate drinkers across the United States experience significantly less acute hospitalization. Overall moderate drinkers have lower levels of poor general health, long-term illness, and psychological distress when compared to abstainers and heavy drinkers.

Drinking may even be good for your career. A Dutch study found that moderate drinkers under stress were less likely to be absent from work than were either abstainers or heavy drinkers. Lifelong teetotalers as well as former drinkers are consistently less healthy than light to moderate drinkers. Investigators have concluded that “abstinence is at least as unhealthy as excessive drinking.”