A recent study exploring links between alcohol consumption and health risks in older adults has also found that wine and drinking during meals was associated with a protective effect. Michael Apstein, wine writer and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, reports on the findings.
Public health officials and scientists continue to debate whether moderate drinking is harmful or beneficial. There is no debate that heavy drinking or binge drinking is harmful to health. Both are.
In the late 20th century, there was a flurry of studies that showed—and a 60-Minutes television segment that popularised the idea—that moderate drinking protected the heart.
Recent studies have questioned the cardioprotective effect of alcohol and indeed some note that any amount of alcohol increases the risk of developing cancer and is harmful to health.
A major problem with studies regarding alcohol and health is that they rarely distinguish the type of alcohol consumed—wine, beer, or spirits—and the pattern of drinking, that is, with or outside of meals.
Those factors are critically important because the type of alcohol consumed and the setting in which it is consumed affects the blood alcohol level, which is what likely drives the effects of alcohol, be them potentially beneficial or harmful to health.
Now, we have an important and well-done study that addresses these factors.
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