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You may be surprised to know there's evidence that moderate consumption of alcohol has health benefits, especially for the heart. Of course, excessive alcohol i
by diego 12y ago
You may be surprised to know there's evidence that moderate consumption of alcohol has health benefits, especially for the heart. Of course, excessive alcohol intake is known to be detrimental.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/alcohol/art-20044551 http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healt...
Interestingly the same can be said for aerobic exercise. 30 minutes of aerobic exercise four times per week has positive health effects. Running 100 miles per week (the training schedule of a serious marathon runner) is bad in the long run (pardon the pun).
Of course, all this is for an average person. If you have a family history of liver cancer or alcoholism, it's probably a good idea to be a teetotaler. If you have bad joints, certain heart conditions or are too heavy it's possible that running is a net negative for you.
- nbouscal 12y agoThere is also evidence that moderate consumption of alcohol has health detriments. And of course, there's evidence that the benefits outweigh the detriments, and also evidence that the detriments outweigh the benefits. I haven't seen anyone do a good job of putting these together (in e.g. a funnel plot), but as far as I can tell the only justifiable conclusion at this stage is that we really don't know.
- Lost_BiomedE 12y agoAt some point you have to weigh risks and benefits for yourself personally. Sometimes this is due to incomplete information or because it is a grey area issue. You may want to use all cause mortality which says under a drink a day is optimum versus none or more. Or if you are male, you may want higher alcohol consumption due to the heart benefits, where you are of higher risk of a disease that tends to kill earlier than cancer. It is grey area depending on the individual, their genetics, and their wishes, IMO.