"To drink or not to drink" is an individual choice...
Recently I was asked how much wine you can actually drink per day, a question that sounds simpler than it looks. In order to prevent annoying people from one of the two camps (the anti-alcohol lobby and the pro-alcohol lobby), I will answer this question referring to a press release from the” Stichting Alcohol Research” in The Hague, Netherlands that I received from them. I also will get into a few points regarding specific physical ailments and the influence of alcohol on them. Of course this article is not entirely complete as I am not a doctor but I hope you will learn from it anyway. Perhaps it´s not so easy "legibly" but I sincerely hope that everyone can get their benefit from it.
Press release, The Hague, The Netherlands,
Moderate alcohol consumption reduces the risk of premature death.
The brochure "Health effects of moderate alcohol consumption" brings together the results of 30 years of national and international scientific research in an orderly manner. Moderate alcohol consumption reduces the risk of premature death by an average of 18%. Various positive, but also some negative health effects play a role in this. However, averages cannot always be translated 1-to-1 to an individual. In addition to the favorable effects of moderate alcohol consumption on cardiovascular diseases, there is now also more and more known about the positive effect on type 2 diabetes and the negative effect on some forms of cancer (breast cancer), and the underlying mechanisms further clarified. "Overall there is a J-shaped relationship between death risk and alcohol consumption. Here, moderate alcohol consumption of 1 to 2 glasses per day shows a reduction in the risk of death compared to total abstainers. This reduction is largely attributable to the favorable effect of moderate alcohol consumption on the heart and blood vessels. When consuming more than 2 glasses a day by women and more than 3 glasses a day by men, this beneficial effect disappears and becomes negative. When giving advice on alcohol consumption, it is important to consider the complete picture and to take individual and familial risk factors into account, "says Dr. Henk Hendriks (TNO Quality of Life), expert in the field of alcohol research.
So far the concise version of the press release.
Is "moderate" the same as "responsible"?
Moderate alcohol consumption is not always the same as responsible alcohol consumption. In some situations "responsible" means that no alcohol should be consumed at all. This is the case, for example, among minors, women with active pregnancy wishes or women who are pregnant, in combination with traffic participation or when operating machines. Also in combination with certain medications and certain diseases, it is advisable not to drink alcohol. But there are more situations imaginable. Personal advice on this can best be given by your own doctor or dietitian.
Drinking pattern
In recent years there has been increasing scientific evidence that not only the average weekly alcohol consumption plays a role, but also that the drinking pattern has a major influence on the health effects. Moderate and even (daily) alcohol consumption is more favorable than drinking alcohol on weekends only, even if on a weekly basis the total amount stays below 7-14 glasses a week.
Moderate alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease
There has been convincing scientific evidence that people who regularly consume a moderate amount of alcoholic beverages have a 20-30% lower risk of heart disease than total abstainers or heavy drinkers. The extent of the protective effect of moderate alcohol consumption for cardiovascular disease depends on many factors, including gender, age, existing risk profile for cardiovascular disease and drinking pattern. The protective effect of alcohol is the biggest in men over the age of 40, in postmenopausal women and in persons with increased cardiovascular risk.
-Serum HDL: HDL removes cholesterol from the body. More than 40 studies show that moderate alcohol consumption increases the serum HDL concentration and thus reduces the risk of a heart attack by 16%.
- Coagulation factors: Alcohol lowers the concentration of plasma fibrinogen and therefore reduces clotting capacity in the blood.
Insulin Sensitivity: Alcohol lowers insulin resistance values and therefore reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. In addition, moderate alcohol consumption improves insulin sensitivity in skeletal muscle.
Moderate alcohol consumption and other health effects
-Smaller risk of metabolic syndrome
-Smaller chance of complications in diabetic patients
-Smaller chance of gallstones
-Possibly less chance of dementia
-Possible lower risk of osteoporosis
-More chance of breast cancer and cancer in the mouth and neck area
I refer again to the fact that I wrote this article based on medical reports as I’m not a doctor.
I wish you all good health, Salud!
Roel Peters RP-Vinos USA
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