Even Super-Healthy Men Can Use a Drink

There have been many studies showing that a moderate intake of alcohol can benefit longevity in people threatened by heart disease, over weight, or even diabetes. (By ‘moderate’ one usually means one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men – not much, really.)

Harvard scientists have done us a favor by studying the effect of alcohol intake on coronary artery disease risk in men who follow a healthy lifestyle; i.e. they already have a low risk of a heart attack. Subjects were selected from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study who reported 4 desirable lifestyle behaviors – BMI below 25, moderate to vigorous exercise 30 minutes a day, no smoking, and a healthy diet. They were followed for 16 years, with 4-yearly reporting of any heart attacks and alcohol intake (beer, wine, and liquor).

There were 106 heart attacks among the 8850 men. Compared with abstention, a reduced risk of having a heart attack was seen in men taking 5 to 30 grams a day of alcohol. One drink is generally considered to contain 12 grams of alcohol, so the ‘benefits’ range seems to be about half a drink to 2½ drinks a day. In those men following only 3 beneficial lifestyle behaviors, this reduced risk was equivalent to adapting the 4^th healthy behavior.

This sounds like good news. If you are only following three of the four healthy lifestyles, you can make up the benefit with a couple of drinks a day. And I think it would be quite alright for women to assume this finding might apply to them – but maybe at a slightly lessened intake level . . .