From the NY Times (registration required). While none of this is really new, it does reinforce the notion that there is some not completely understood correlation between those who drink moderate amounts of alcohol and healthy hearts. And that’s after controlling for smoking, exercise etc.
Compared with those who abstain from alcohol, people who consumed 1 to 6 drinks per week were about 16 percent less likely to suffer from heart failure or die of cardiovascular disease, and those who had 7 to 13 drinks per week were about 30 percent less likely to have these problems.
The lower risk held even after statistically adjusting for smoking, exercise intensity, body mass index, and having had a heart attack during the course of the study, as well as many other variables.
A drink was defined as one 12-ounce beer, one 6-ounce glass of wine, or an ounce of hard liquor.
2 glasses of wine a night, that’s all we ask.
