Drink To Your Health, Studies Say It Is Ok

It’s a prohibitionist’s nightmare: Studies keep showing that light-tomoderate drinking is good for health.

Of course, the abuse of alcohol is clearly detrimental. Prolonged heavy drinking leads to cirrhosis of the liver, high blood pressure and many other serious, often fatal, health effects. Binge drinking can trigger stroke in young adults, according to a study last month in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke.

Some risks are debatable. Drinking during pregnancy is a proven cause of birth defects, although a few experts take issue with the standard advice for pregnant women to avoid even a single drink. Also debatable is the weak but alarming link between heavy drinking and breast cancer.

The issue generating the most controversy is whether Americans in general should drink to their own health. Evidence is stronger than ever that alcohol, in limited amounts, protects against the nation’s leading killer, heart disease.

A drink or two a few times a week raises beneficial HDL cholesterol while boosting the body’s bloodthinning component, discouraging blockages in blood flow that cause heart attacks and strokes. Red wine is especially good at blood-thinning, perhaps accounting for the low rate of heart disease in France, where fatty foods are legion.

Here’s the latest advice on alcohol and health, from last month’s Science Writers Forum of the American Heart Association in Santa Barbara: If you don’t drink, don’t start. The risks are too great. Other measures - proper diet, exercise, quitting smoking - are more protective of your heart.

Don’t drink if you plan to drive, if you’re a woman trying to conceive, or if you have high blood pressure, ulcers, a family history of alcohol abuse, liver disease or an irregular heartbeat.

If you do drink, follow the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans: no more than one drink a day for women or two for men. A drink is about 12 ounces of beer, four ounces of wine, or one ounce of liquor.

Those 65 or older should stop at one drink. They’re more sensitive to alcohol and at higher risk for falls, adverse reactions with medicines and aggravating existing illnesses.