Is drinking alcohol good for you or not? On the face of it, it is, because people who drink occasionally live longer than abstainers-but it gets complicated.
People who drink heavily-they are downing more than three glasses a day-are 58 per cent more likely to die prematurely than a light drinker, someone who averages less than one drink a day. And the light drinker lives longer than the abstainer or the ‘infrequent’ drinker, who drinks fewer than 12 glasses a year.
But the abstainers and infrequent drinkers are a motley crew, and they include in their number people who don’t socialise, alcoholics and religious fundamentalists. Aside from their drinking habits, very little binds the group, although they seem to be in a lower socio-economic group than the drinkers, so other aspects of their lifestyles, such as diet, could be impacting on their longevity, say researchers at the University of Colorado.
(Source: Population Research and Policy Review, 2013; 32:325-52).
