Have a Drink On me

Our puritanical nation, and its weird obsession with health strikes again....

WSJ.com - Health JournalThere is a drug that can lower your risk of heart attack, diabetes, osteoporosis and mental decline by 30% to 60%, but doctors aren't prescribing it.

The reason? It is alcohol.

Increasingly, scientific research supports the idea that drinking a small amount of alcohol each day is better for you than never drinking at all. This isn't true for people with some conditions, but overall, data collected from large observational studies show that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol can lower the risk of dying by about 25% in any given year for the average person, compared with those who rarely drink.

The evidence that alcohol is good for you continues to spark debate in the medical community about whether doctors have an obligation to inform patients about the health benefits of drinking. Because excessive alcohol consumption can be harmful -- causing addiction, traffic accidents and potentially fatal medical problems -- most doctors say it is never a good idea to tell a nondrinking patient to start consuming alcohol. Although most people can drink responsibly, it is impossible to know which patient may eventually start to abuse alcohol as a result of moderate daily consumption.

....So while the evidence is strong, it isn't conclusive. As a result, the American Heart Association doesn't recommend drinking alcohol to gain cardiovascular benefit, noting that there are less risky ways to protect your heart.

But the issue poses a significant dilemma for doctors. If a physician is aware of a drug that could have life-saving benefits, he or she has an ethical and legal obligation to inform the patient -- even if the drug carries risks. Shouldn't the same rules apply to alcohol?

....

Not to mention medicinal marijuana, another good-for-you-for-certain-ailments drug that shall not be named by doctors, because there could be societal repercussions.

Here's a look at the benefits of moderate drinking.

HEALTH RISK
EFFECT OF ALCOHOL

Heart attack
37% lower risk in men who drink five to seven days a week

Diabetes
34% lower risk of developing disease; up to 60% more protection for diabetics at high risk of heart attack

Stroke
40% to 60% lower risk with one to two drinks a day

Dementia
42% lower risk with consumption of one to three drinks daily

Osteoporosis
Women who have six or seven drinks a week have significantly higher bone density than nondrinkers
Source: Southern Medical Journal, July 2004

More:

In a scientific advisory statement issued in 2001, the American Heart Association noted that there were at least 60 studies linking alcohol consumption with lower heart-attack risk. Research also shows that regular and moderate alcohol consumption lowers risk for diabetes, osteoporosis, dementia and stroke.

For instance, in the Nurses Health Study, which follows more than 80,000 women, those with diabetes who drank at least a half-serving of alcohol a day had a 52% lower risk for heart attack than nondrinkers. (A serving is a glass of wine or beer or a shot -- 1 to 1.25 ounces -- of whiskey). A 2,000-patient study showed that people who were moderate drinkers in the year before heart attacks had a 32% lower risk of dying during the four years after the heart attack. A 17-year study in England of more than 5,000 men found that moderate drinkers were 34% less likely to develop diabetes.

Ironically, the Puritans drank rum and whiskey like it was water.

Americans steadily drank more and more whiskey during the early 1800s as supply increased and price tumbled. The annual per capita consumption of distilled spirits in 1830 was five gallons--nearly five times the amount people consume today. Like rum, whiskey was legal tender. People bartered with whiskey, paid their taxes with whiskey, and on some occasions, paid their ministers' salaries with whiskey.

And realistically, because alcohol (and thc) also stimulate the pleasure centers of a user, somehow this means that it cannot be good. Asprin is ok because it doesn't make you high.