How Alcohol can be good for your health

While you may be surprised to read this, but moderate alcohol consumption can provide health benefits. Of course going overboard and regularly drinking til you can no longer stand is most likely to do more damage than good. Understanding the value of a good tipple in contrast to an out and out binge drinking is critical to how either will affect your health.

Cardiovascular disease.

Interestingly Harvard University’s school of public health discovered that in moderation alcohol raises HDL – high-density lipoprotein, which is a good cholesterol. Higher levels of HDL protect against heart disease, the number one killer in the western world today. Furthermore, a connection has been established between moderate alcohol consumption and increased insulin sensitivity as well as factors that influence blood clotting, which prevents the formation of clots in the arteries preventing heart attack and stroke. These findings are equally applicable to both men and women.

Longevity

The Catholic University of Campobasso completed a study that showed that drinking under four alcoholic drinks a day for men and two a day for women decreased the chance of early death by as much as eighteen percent. Quoting Dr Giovanni De Gaeto, apparently drinking small amounts regularly with a meal appears to be the right way to consume alcohol in a healthy way and this is reinforced by the Mediterranean diet where wine is considered complimentary to either lunch or dinner, although to enjoy this benefit, the rest of the day should be alcohol free.

It does wonders for your sex life

Despite the fact that abusive consumption of alcohol will have the opposite effect, it has now been established that drinking in moderation helps to prevent erectile dysfunction. Good news for the men out there.  In the Journal of Sexual Medicine, a study that was published in 2009, researchers  revealed that erectile dysfunction was reduced in as many as twenty-five to thirty percent of regular alcohol users. An epidemiologist, the lead researcher at the University of West Australia conducted the study with one thousand seven hundred and seventy Australian male participants. The researcher Kew-Kim Chew however hesitantly made the point that his research team are not advising men to go overboard and that further research is required to explore the connection between impotence and alcohol use.

It Boosts Immunity

While a susceptibility to the common cold is increased by smoking, Carnegie Mellon University’s psychology department has uncovered that a moderate intake of alcohol, in fact, reduced the risk of catching a common cold for non-smokers. The original study was conducted in 1993, however in 2002 Spanish researchers found that drinking eight to fourteen glasses of red wine per week contributed to a reduction of up to sixty percent in the risk of developing a cold. The general scientific opinion us that the antioxidant properties found in wine are what contributes to this effect.

It decreases dementia risk

An ongoing study that started in 1977 and included a whopping 377,000 participants has indicated that moderate alcohol drinkers are twenty-three percent less likely to develop dementia according to the journal Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment. This includes Alzheimers disease, other forms of dementia and other cognitive impairment. Edward Neafsey Ph.D., one of the co-authors of the study said that although he wouldn’t encourage non-drinkers to start drinking, the ongoing moderate intake of alcohol can be beneficial.

Prevention of gallstones

The risk of gallstones can be reduced by as much as thirty-three percent by drinking two units of alcohol every day according to the researchers at the University of East Anglia. Those participants that reported consuming two units of alcohol a day were over thirty percent less likely to develop a risk of gallstones. The researchers have emphasised that the observation was made in the instance of moderate alcohol intake.

Reduced Risk of Diabetes

In comparison to those who don’t drink at all, those who drink a moderate one or two units a day are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes according to a Dutch study. This outcome was released and published by Reuters, and the agreed result is that moderate alcohol consumption can contribute to a healthy lifestyle.

It would, therefore, appear that consistency with lighter drinking rather than weekend binges are whats going to help to keep you alive longer. Pickling your insides in alcohol is not the answer, however providing your body with some alcoholic fuel may well be the answer to a long and productive life.