Drink to Your Health

Drink to Your Health

Zenia Brink - May 23, 2008

The leading cause of death in the United States is heart disease, killing 652,486 people in 2004 according to the Center for Disease Control. There are many risk factors for Coronary Heart Disease including smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, family history, age, and sedentary lifestyle. But recent and not so recent studies have shown that the consumption of alcohol, particularly beer and wine, can help prevent coronary heart disease.

This Year at the World Beer Cup in San Diego, CA Dr. Mack C. Mitchell, Jr. spoke about the benefits of alcohol consumption. Dr. Mitchell is part of The Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation (ABMRF), which was established in 1982. ABMRF/ The Foundation for Alcohol Research is, according to their website, "a nonprofit research organization that provides support for scientific studies on the use and prevention of misuse of alcohol."

Dr. Mitchell began by citing a study done in 1974 by Arthur Klatsky that "showed a lower risk of fatal MI in those who drank less than or equal to six drinks a week. This was the beginning of a number of studies and a growing amount of evidence that show drinking in moderation can be good for your health.

Alcohol consumption has been found to not only modify risk factors for coronary heart disease, but also decrease the risk of myocardial infarction, thrombotic stroke, Osteoporosis, and type 2 diabetes. The risk for both type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease in moderate drinkers were found to be almost half to those who do not drink. Moderate drinking is defined as two drinks a day for men, and one drink a day for women.

Moderate alcohol consumption may also lower your health costs as you get older. A study published in the 2006 Health Care Financing Review KJ Mukamai et al. found that the medicare costs were less for those who drank more than one to six drinks a week, compared to abstainers.

The publications on moderate drinking have increased almost 200% since Klatsky published his paper in 1974 and with advancements in science and technology, the known effects of moderate alcohol consumption, will only increase. Who knows, maybe in the next couple years instead of "take two aspirin and call me in the morning" it'll become "drink two beers and call me in the morning."

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