Moderate Drinkers Live Longer

So far as we can tell, people who drink live longer than those who don't. This is because drinkers have a reduced chance of getting serious heart disease. Nobody knows why.

In 2006, the Archives of Internal Medicine, an American Medical Association journal, published an analysis based on 34 well-designed prospective studies—that is, research which follows subjects for years, even decades. This meta-analysis, incorporating a million subjects, found that “1 to 2 drinks per day for women and 2 to 4 drinks per day for men are inversely associated with total mortality.”