Finally, a reason to start drinking alcohol
Sat Mar 8, 2008
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WA****NGTON (Reuters) - People who do not drink alcohol may finally
have a reason to start -- a study published on Friday shows non-
drinkers who begin taking the occasional tipple live longer and are
less likely to develop heart disease.
People who started drinking in middle age were 38 percent less likely
to have a heart attack or other serious heart event than abstainers --
even if they were overweight, had diabetes, high blood pressure or
other heart risks, Dr. Dana King of the Medical University of South
Carolina in Charleston and colleagues found.
Many studies have shown that light to moderate drinkers are healthier
than teetotallers, but every time, the researchers have cautioned that
there is no reason for the abstinent to start drinking.
Now there may be, said King.
"This study certainly ****fts the balance a little bit," King said in a
telephone interview.
King's team studied the medical records of 7,697 people between 45 and
64 who began as non-drinkers as part of a larger study. Over 10 years,
6 percent of these volunteers began drinking, King's team re****ted in
the American Journal of Medicine.
King said he does not know why some of the volunteers started
drinking. "This was a natural experiment," he said.
"Over the next four years we tracked the new drinkers and when we
compared them to the persistent non-drinkers, there was a 38 percent
drop in new cardiovascular disease."
The findings held even when the researchers factored in heart disease
risks such as smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, race, education
levels, exercise and cholesterol.
Several of the volunteers had more than one risk factor and still
benefited from adding alcohol, King said.
Fewer than one percent of people in the study drank more than is
recommended, King said. Recommended amounts equal a drink or two a day
by most guidelines.
"Half of them were wine drinkers only. There was a much bigger benefit
for wine-only drinkers," he added.
Now King's team has started a new study in which his team will
randomly assign non-drinkers to start either having a glass of wine a
day, a glass of grape juice, or grape juice spiked with antioxidents,
compounds believed to help fight heart disease.
But the findings do not mean people should drink freely, King said.
Another study published this week sup****ts that advice. Researchers at
the National Institutes of Health found that how much and how often
people drink affects their risk of death from several causes.
Their study of 44,000 people showed that men who had five or more
drinks on days they did drink were 30 percent more likely to die of a
heart attack or stroke than men who had just one drink a day --
regardless of what their average drinking intake was.
Writing in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research,
the team at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and
the National Cancer Institute found that regular, moderate drinking
was healthier than having the occasional binge.
Even men who drank every single day of the year were 20 percent less
likely to die of heart disease than men who drank just one to 36 days
per year -- if they drank moderately.
"Taken together, our results reinforce the im****tance of drinking in
moderation," the researchers wrote.
Matthew 15:10-12 When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said
to them, "Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a
man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man." Then His
disciples came and said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were
offended when they heard this saying?"
Mark 14:12 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed
the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to
go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?"
Acts 10:12-15 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the
earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice
came to him, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." But Peter said, "Not so,
Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean." And a voice
spoke to him again the second time, "What God has cleansed you must
not call common."
Romans 14:2-3 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is
weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does
not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God
has received him.
Colossians 2:16-17 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or
regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of
things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
MORMON DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS - SECTION 89
9) And, again, strong drinks are not for the body or belly.
12-13) Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the
Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless
they are to be used sparingly; and it is pleasing unto me that they
should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.
18-21) And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings,
walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in
their navel and marrow to their bones; and shall find wisdom and great
treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; and shall run and not
be weary, and shall walk and not faint. And I, the Lord, give unto
them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the
children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.
http://www.truthandgrace.com/Mormon.htm
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