February 11, 2015
Bloomberg reported that alcohol kills 3.3 million people a year — which is about 6 percent of global deaths — and contributes to diseases like cancer and cirrhosis. Curtin University, Australia, health policy professor Mike Daube said in an editorial published accompanying the study in the British Medical Journal that reducing light drinking will improve health.
“In health as elsewhere, if something looks too good to be true, it should be treated with great caution,” Daube wrote. “Health professionals should discourage suggestions that even low-level alcohol use protects against cardiovascular disease.”
A Feb. 6 Harvard Medical School report was one of those too good to be true. It stated that people who have up to seven drinks a week in middle age have a lower risk of heart failure over the long term than those who abstain.
Another study published in 2012 from the University of Alberta in Canada, said that red wine "enhance exercise training and performance." Philly.com reported that a glass of red wine was equivalent to an hour of cardio. But the study really centered around resveratol, a compound found in red wine — and also nuts and fruits. Red wine is the only type of alcohol that resveratol is found in.
It is specifically red wine that has resveratol, and with anything moderation is the key.''
Despite overwhelming evidence that moderate alcohol consumption does not have health benefits, the British Medical Journal report said that women over 65 who drank sparingly benefited from drinking. The correlation is not clear. But the results are based on observation over time, so the study's authors said they can't prove that moderate drinking protects against heart failure.
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