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Why is alcohol good for you, moderate drinking prolongs life

For some time now, there have been many headlines saying that drinking alcohol daily in moderation is beneficial to us.

On 14th of August 2017, two reports were published saying that alcohol consumption leads to longer life. The first was in the TIME Magazine headlined “Having a Drink May Help You Live Longer”. The second was by ‘Alzheimers News Today’ headlined “Moderate Drinking of Alcohol Tied to Longer and Cognitively Healthier Life in Study”. ‘Cognitively’ means “the mental processes of perception, memory, judgment, and reasoning……”

The TIME Magazine report reads as follows:

“Consuming alcoholic beverages on a daily or near-daily basis was linked to a cognitively healthy and longer life in older adults in a study by led researchers at the University of California San Diego.

Moderate to heavy (but not excessive) drinking was defined as up to three daily alcoholic beverages for women and for men age 65 or older, and up to four for men under age 65.” …..MORE

The Alzheimers News Today report reads as follows:

“The study, titled “Alcohol Intake and Cognitively Healthy Longevity in Community-Dwelling Adults: The Rancho Bernardo Study,” is the first “to examine the association of the amount and frequency of alcohol consumption with cognitively healthy longevity versus being cognitively impaired in later life or dying before age 85,” its authors report. It was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease…..” …..MORE

Both of these reports should encourage us older people to relax with a drink daily.

The fact that alcohol makes you healthy, first came to the notice of doctors in the early 1900s. When autopsies were done on people who had died due to excessive drinking, the doctors noticed that all the dead victims of alcohol abuse had very clean blood vessels. There were absolutely no signs of Atherosclerosis, the build-up of cholesterol inside their arteries. So the idea was born that alcohol could be good for health by keeping our arteries clean.

Even though everyone was aware of drinking alcohol health risks, several researchers have reported the benefits of moderate drinking. Nobody has stated clearly what makes alcohol healthy, but the fact remains that alcohol drinkers do live longer.

Can a diabetic person drink alcohol

If you have diabetes and taking pills for it, then you should careful when drinking alcohol. The purpose of the diabetes pills is to lower the blood sugar by producing more insulin. When you drink alcohol it is absorbed into the bloodstream without undergoing the normal digestive process. There will be alcohol in your bloodstream in a matter of a few minutes, like within ten minutes after taking a drink. When there is alcohol in your blood stream, your liver gives priority to remove the alcohol in your bloodstream rather than to regulate your blood sugar. One of the main function of the Liver is to absorb and store excess glucose when the blood sugar is high and to supply glucose when the blood sugar is low. When diabetes people drink, make sure to have something to eat before or while drinking. This is to ensure that there is enough supply of sugar in the bloodstream. Your liver’s store of glucose will be unavailable in case of low sugar, while there is alcohol in the blood.

How much alcohol per day is good for health

How much alcohol is safe to drink daily for good health depends on age. The accepted norm for daily alcohol drinking is to drink in moderation. Drinking in moderation is defined as having no more than 2 standard drinks per day for men if you’re a male 65 years and younger, or one standard drink a day if you’re a female or a male 66 and older.

What is a standard drink

A standard drink is defined as

  • 12 oz (355 ml.) normal beer (5% alcohol)
  • 5 oz. (150 ml.) glass of wine (12.5% alcohol)
  • 1.5 oz. (45 ml.) of 80 proof distilled spirits like gin or whiskey (40% alcohol)
  • In the United States, the ‘Proof scale’ of measurement is used, with the proof of a alcohol being double the ABV – Alcohol By Volume. A 40% ABV spirit contains 40% pure Alcohol by Volume. Thus a 40% ABV spirit is 80 proof. Straight whiskey is 40% ABV or 80 proof.

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