Is Alcohol Actually Bad for You?

Beer/Wine Consumption – Service to Body

Individuals who tend to enjoy a glass of beer or wine occasionally would be glad to know that they would be doing a kind of service to their bodies. A study was carried out earlier in 1979, by Archie Cochrane and two of his colleagues, drawing a connection between alcohol consumption and health.

They made attempts to work out what was responsible for the different rates of death from heart disease in the 18 developed countries which included the UK, US and Australia. They came up with substantial and transparent link between growing alcohol intake especially wine and declining rates of ischaemic heart diseases.

Cochrane and his colleagues, quoting earlier research which had been found in connection with alcohol intake and lower death rates, from heart attacks, recommended that the aromatic and other compounds of alcohol have been assumed recently to be antioxidants like plant based polyphenols which were probably beneficial instead of the alcohol.

A group of over 50,000 male doctors in the US was surveyed by researchers in 1986, on their drinking as well as eating habits, medical history together with their health state over 2 years, observed that the more alcohol they reported drinking, their chance of developing coronary artery disease was lower inspite of their dietary habits.

Standard Drinking Habit – Lesser Chance of Death

Another bigstudy on male doctors was also published in 2000, and it was found that a `U’ shaped relationship between modest alcohol intake and in the event of death rather than the disease of coronary artery.

Those who consumed a standard drink daily had a lesser chance of death than those who drank less than one in a week or those who consumed extra on a daily basis.This indicated that there was some advantage for the consumption of alcohol and a healthy ground between too less or too much wherein the benefits for cardiovascular health adjusted well with the risk of death from all causes.

However there were queries raised – whether alcohol was providing the benefits or was it a marker for other healthy behaviours. Are the ones drinking in moderation also the types who tend to exercise regularly, maintain a balanced diet and look after themselves well?

Yet another study was once again carried out in 2005, in medical professionals and this time around 32,000 women and 18,000 in an effort to find answer to these queries by observing how their drinking habits could affect with the risk of heart attack and the physiology as well.

Benefits of Alcohol on HDL Cholesterol

Those consuming one to two glasses of alcohol, around three to four times in a week tend to have a lesser risk of heart attack which according to the researchers presumptions could be the outcome of the benefits of alcohol on HDL cholesterol which is considered to be good and the haemoglobin A1c - a diabetes danger together with fibrinogen which is an agent that aids in blood clotting.

These tend to have an important role in the metabolic syndrome, the group of abnormalities which tends to be the cause of cardiovascular diseases as well as diabetes. Other studies have indicated that alcohol could change the balance of these factors for improvement which aims at a possible mechanism wherein alcohol in reasonable measure could benefit health.