Tech | September 08, 2010 | 119 comments

Why Alcohol Is Good For You

source: http://gizmodo.com/5632914/why-alcohol-is-good-for-you

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It's one of those medical anomalies that nobody can really explain: Longitudinal studies have consistently shown that people who don't consume any alcohol at all tend to die before people who do. At first glance, this makes little sense.

Why would ingesting a psychoactive toxin that increases our risk of cancer, dementia and liver disease lengthen our lifespan?

Well, the anomaly has just gotten more anomalous: A new study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, followed 1,824 participants between the ages of 55 and 65. Once again, the researchers found that abstaining from alcohol increases the risk of dying, even when you exclude former alcoholics who have now quit. (The thinking is that ex-drinkers might distort the data, since they've already pickled their organs.) While 69 percent of the abstainers died during the twenty-year time span of the study, only 41 percent of moderate drinks passed away. (Moderate drinkers were also 23 percent less likely to die than light drinkers.) But here's the really weird data point: Heavy drinkers also live longer than abstainers. (Only 61 percent of heavy drinkers died during the study.) In other words, consuming disturbingly large amounts of alcohol seems to be better than drinking none at all.
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119 comments // Why Alcohol Is Good For You

  • ampersand
  • Brockula
  • Brockula
  • cztheday
  • Almibry
    • 0
      Almibry  
    • cztheday:

      More like "until you mastered (OK learned) speech."

      You used to be honorable... now you're making personal attacks based on gender.
      I was going to use a "honorable as a knight until you fell of your horse" simile, but nooo.
      You're still WAY above ME.
      Now you're insulting my purity? Way to go asshole, THAT wasn't MY fault. I'm going to go kill myself now. I hope you're happy.

    • 1 year ago
  • versasrev
    • 0
      versasrev  
    • Almibry:

      OH man I was hopping you were having a fight based on my updates :(

      I really wanted to get in on some thread bashing... guess it's back to being civil though :(

    • 1 year ago
  • cztheday
    • 0
      cztheday  
    • Almibry:

      Holy shit, Al. You told me to call you a bad girl. That is an old Mae West (sexpot actress from 30s and 40s movies) line that just popped into my head "I was as pure as snow...until I drifted...." I have great respect for you and would never intentionally say something hurtful. Please forgive my insensitivity.

    • 1 year ago
  • ampersand
    • +1
      ampersand  
    • cztheday:

      cztheday, She's kidding!
      (I know it's hard for a sensitive guy to not rush to apologize in all instances--but still..)

      And, Almibry, you are still my favorite drama queen.

    • 1 year ago
  • Almibry
  • cztheday
  • cztheday
    • 0
      cztheday  
    • ampersand:

      I don't know if I would call her a drama queen, but I LOVE her timing. I was just trying to decide whether three floors up was far enough to kill me and had decided that it would likely just break both of my legs. Then again, that seemed like a small enough price to pay. Yes, I would say she has me pretty much where she wants me.

    • 1 year ago
  • Almibry
  • Almibry
  • cztheday
    • -1
      cztheday  
    • Almibry:

      Ego? What's an e-...yes, I see what you mean. One teardrop on a woman's cheek and I go into quivering lump of protoplasm mode. See you at 5. I'll pack my gavel.

    • 1 year ago
  • littlelumpo
    • +1
      littlelumpo  

    • Article says:
      69% of abstainers died within 20 years
      61% of heavy drinkers died within 20 years
      (is this difference statistically significant?)
      41% of moderate drinkers died within 20 years

      If alcohol did seem to be correlated with longer lifespan, maybe the picture is a little more complicated.

      Let's consider why some people abstain- Religion is the most common reason for abstaining, followed by medical concerns.

      I'm not sure if religion could have an impact, besides areas where people tend to be more devout might be more likely to be poverty-stricken, with poorer medical care. But I can easily believe that people who quit for pre-existing health issues may die sooner.

      I can't really explain why light drinkers would be more likely to die within 20 years than moderate drinkers, though... any ideas?

    • 1 year ago
  • versasrev
    • 0
      versasrev  
    • littlelumpo:

      8% is statistically significant. Usually most studies have a 5 % margin of error meaning that 13-3% of heavy drinkers lived longer. I'm going to have to check to research to find the error margin to be sure.

      Essentially though, anytime the differences in percentages is greater than the margin for error, the difference is statistical significant. At least I would say so as long as it was a whole percent. Although in this case (as others) on could argue that the difference was due to some variable that wasn't taken into account.

      Gotta love research!

    • 1 year ago
  • littlelumpo
  • UtopianSky
    • +4
      UtopianSky  

    • I think this is correlation without causation.
      There are other factors to consider- for example, light drinkers probably have more of a social life than non-drinkers, and that could aid longevity.

    • 1 year ago
  • versasrev
    • +1
      versasrev  
    • UtopianSky:

      That was one of the speculations done by the original researchers. But yes you are essentially right; as the research doesn't say why this outcome occurs merely that it does. Further research will be needed to determine the exact nature of these results, and without such saying alcohol is beneficial is presumptuous, as well as misleading.

    • 1 year ago
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