Alcohol’s Effect on Health: What the Science Says

After a long week slaving away at tiring jobs, nothing seems to taste or feel quite as good as a cool beer under the setting sun, with the comforting thoughts of sleeping in the next day. Health risk aside, not many of us would give up this little piece of luxury. But, what about when that one solitary drink turns into a few at the pub with some friends? Or when you binge drink over the whole weekend? Than we might have problems.

While most of us know on some level that drinking isn’t healthy, it rarely stops us from indulging every now and again. The benefits in the moment outweigh potential costs. Well, there is definitely a limit to how much you should be drinking, but as the New York Time points out, a little could be healthy:

Compared with those who never drank alcohol, those who consumed one to two drinks a day had a significantly reduced risk of death from both coronary heart disease and well as ?all causes.? Those who consumed three or more drinks a day still had a lower risk of death from coronary heart disease, but had a higher risk of death over all.

Results like these have been consistent across a number of studies in different populations. Even studies published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research agree that moderate drinking seems to be associated with a decreased risk of death over all.

It turns out we don’t need to feel guilty about a few quiet drinks then. The trick is to stop it from turning into anything more than that. Make sure to check out the full post for all of the details.