One thing I've noticed in compiling in this blog's daily Breakfast Buffet entry: One week there's some story about on how alcohol is good for you; the next week it's bad for you. Good for you. Bad for you. It's as if every study is being conducted by a bi-polar scientist.
Fortunately I am not alone in my frustration. Liquor specialist and author Camper English began collecting a list of "alcohol is (blank)" articles on his Web site Alcademics. In the 10 months since he started the project, he's found 22 studies ranging from the very optimistic -- "Light alcohol consumption may help bones" -- to articles about how drinking leads to blindness, cancer and smaller brains.
One study might not mean much but looking at 22 studies combined, some things become clearer.
Alcohol is almost certainly linked to an increase in certain cancers, especially in the pancreas, liver and bowels. Red wine appears to lower the risk of cancer in the lungs, especially among high-risk groups like smokers.
As for other maladies, the French Paradox still holds up and red wine is suggested for heart disease, and some types of white wine are probably OK too. Red wine is also recommended for preventing brain diseases such as Alzheimer's and may help delay erectile-dysfunction. (But definitely not in the short-term.)
Got
it all straight? Neither do I. There are so many caveats and hedges. If
you're at a higher risk for pancreatic cancer than heart disease, red wine may be causing more harm than good. But if you smoke and have
heart disease, it might save your life. Beer is never as healthy as
wine and after two glasses of red wine per day, the alcohol has a
negative effect on the body. And if you want more info than that, find
your own mice to experiment on.
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