Time: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

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Well, I'm a nondrinker and it was easy to predict that the article would attribute lack of drinking with lack of socializing. Where is the justice here, the big time drinkers will still generally outlive the non-drinkers?? What do you think of this study, do you buy it? Here's the link+article...

http://www.time.com/time/health/article ... 32,00.html

One of the most contentious issues in the vast literature about alcohol consumption has been the consistent finding that those who don't drink actually tend to die sooner than those who do. The standard Alcoholics Anonymous explanation for this finding is that many of those who show up as abstainers in such research are actually former hard-core drunks who had already incurred health problems associated with drinking.

But a new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that — for reasons that aren't entirely clear — abstaining from alcohol does actually tend to increase one's risk of dying even when you exclude former drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers' mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers. (See pictures of booze under a microscope.)

Moderate drinking, which is defined as one to three drinks per day, is associated with the lowest mortality rates in alcohol studies. Moderate alcohol use (especially when the beverage of choice is red wine) is thought to improve heart health, circulation and sociability, which can be important because people who are isolated don't have as many family members and friends who can notice and help treat health problems.

But why would abstaining from alcohol lead to a shorter life? It's true that those who abstain from alcohol tend to be from lower socioeconomic classes, since drinking can be expensive. And people of lower socioeconomic status have more life stressors — job and child-care worries that might not only keep them from the bottle but also cause stress-related illnesses over long periods. (They also don't get the stress-reducing benefits of a drink or two after work.)

But even after controlling for nearly all imaginable variables — socioeconomic status, level of physical activity, number of close friends, quality of social support and so on — the researchers (a six-member team led by psychologist Charles Holahan of the University of Texas at Austin) found that over a 20-year period, mortality rates were highest for those who had never been drinkers, second-highest for heavy drinkers and lowest for moderate drinkers. (Watch TIME's Video "Taste Test: Beer With Extra Buzz.")

The sample of those who were studied included individuals between ages 55 and 65 who had had any kind of outpatient care in the previous three years. The 1,824 participants were followed for 20 years. One drawback of the sample: a disproportionate number, 63%, were men. Just over 69% of the never-drinkers died during the 20 years, 60% of the heavy drinkers died and only 41% of moderate drinkers died.

These are remarkable statistics. Even though heavy drinking is associated with higher risk for cirrhosis and several types of cancer (particularly cancers in the mouth and esophagus), heavy drinkers are less likely to die than people who have never drunk. One important reason is that alcohol lubricates so many social interactions, and social interactions are vital for maintaining mental and physical health. As I pointed out last year, nondrinkers show greater signs of depression than those who allow themselves to join the party.

The authors of the new paper are careful to note that even if drinking is associated with longer life, it can be dangerous: it can impair your memory severely and it can lead to nonlethal falls and other mishaps (like, say, cheating on your spouse in a drunken haze) that can screw up your life. There's also the dependency issue: if you become addicted to alcohol, you may spend a long time trying to get off the bottle. (Comment on this story.)

That said, the new study provides the strongest evidence yet that moderate drinking is not only fun but good for you. So make mine a double.

(1Timothy 5:23) "No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent ailments."

... unless, of course, you (like me) might happen to have the body chemistry of an alcoholic and cannot possibly stop at "a little"!

I would think moderate drinkers live the longest b/c alcohol, particularly wine has health benefits for the heart/cardiovascular system. Now if you have alcoholism in your family, going completely sober is the best thing.

Do people really die sooner from lack of socialization or poor mental health? I've never heard of aspies dying younger.

That's encouraging. (adding booze to my grocery list)

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Last edited by Willard on 01 Sep 2010, 11:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Stress is the leading killer, followed by over eating.

Drinking leads to lower stress and a feeling of being full.

I assume you wrote that with your tongue in your cheek! Over time, excessive use of alcohol actually can "pickle the brain" by drying it out in a way similar to that of a cucumber becoming a pickle, and the result is called "Organic Brain Syndrome" (OBS) or "wet brain", with "mental symptoms" similar to those present during the latter stages of syphilis.

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Last edited by Willard on 01 Sep 2010, 11:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sure, I was only meaning to say alcohol's (or actually, wine's) ability to enhance one's health is not derived from its ability to preserve.

Considering that both my alcoholic parents are dead and I've met some very old teetotalers I would say that that assumption is false.

... and you might well be right, Shadwell. A little wine for the stomach and the kind of drinking some of us have done are far from being the same.

I grieve your loss.

Thanks.

Lol I am pretty asocial. No health problems here except orthostatic hypotension.

I think this mostly has to do with stress and the fact that alcohol is a social thing. Depression is proven to be worse for your health than smoking, so I'm assuming it's both stress in general plus the stress from being worse off socially.

After last evening, I can believe that. A cardiologist has been warning me about smoking while being so high-risk for a stroke because of my hypertension and circulatory problems ... but this depression is really tearing away at me and adding loads of stress, and last night I barely managed to side-step a stroke and dialing 911. Today my wife and I went and got a recumbent exercise bike so can at least try to do something about my circulation.