Alcoholic Beverages

Alcoholic Beverages

One a Day Can
Help Keep You Young

You've rarely overindulged, seldom had a hangover and never worn a lamp shade on your head. But you do sip a soothing glass of wine at the end of each day, and despite all that you've heard about the benefits of moderate drinking, you wonder if you're doing the right thing.

Well, drink up--in moderation, doctors say--because a glass of alcohol a day may be just the tonic to relieve stress, help you think more clearly, fend off heart disease and promote longevity.

"If you take a look at mortality studies, the people who live the longest drink a glass or two of alcohol a day. So if someone can control her alcohol consumption, then a glass of wine, a can of beer or a mixed drink a day can extend her life," says Eric Rimm, Sc.D., a nutritional epidemiologist at the Harvard University School of Public Health in Boston.

In fact, death rates for women who savor a drink a day are 16 percent lower than for those women who either drink more or nothing at all, Dr. Rimm says.

To Your Health

Most of us have heard about the French studies that concluded that drinking moderate amounts of red wine lowers heart disease risk. But other studies have shown that a 12-ounce beer, a cocktail made with 11/2 ounces (or one shot) of liquor or a 5-ounce glass of white wine are about equally protective of the heart.

In Oakland, California, for example, researchers at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center followed 72,008 women for seven years. While they concluded that white and red wines were most protective--they reduced heart disease by 30 percent--researchers also found that beer and liquor were only slightly less protective.

"It doesn't matter what you drink. If you look at the studies, they show it could be hard liquor, wine or beer," says William P. Castelli, M.D., director of the Framingham Heart Study in Massachusetts, which has followed more than 5,200 people since 1948.

The Effect on Heart Disease

Overall, worldwide studies have consistently found a 20 to 40 percent drop in heart disease risk among moderate drinkers. That's about the same reduction in risk as lowering cholesterol or blood pressure or doing regular aerobic exercise, says Michael Criqui, M.D., professor of epidemiology at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine.

Women, for example, who had three to nine drinks a week were 40 percent less likely to develop heart disease than nondrinkers in a study of 87,526 nurses ages 34 to 59 at the Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Another large study by the National Center for Health Statistics followed 3,718 women for 13 years. Women who reported drinking up to two drinks a day were almost 40 percent less likely to develop heart disease.

Small amounts of alcohol may combat heart disease by increasing the amount of HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol in your blood stream, Dr. Criqui says. HDL, the good cholesterol, helps sweep LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol, the bad kind that can clog and damage arteries to the heart, out of the bloodstream. Dr. Criqui also suspects that alcohol can help prevent blood clots that can lead to heart attacks and some kinds of stroke.

In a British study comparing 172 women who had strokes and 172 women who hadn't, researchers found that the women who abstained from alcohol were nearly 21/2 times more likely to have a stroke than moderate drinkers. But moderation is the key. Other studies have found that people who drink heavily have an increased risk of stroke.

Alcohol may also raise estrogen levels in postmenopausal women, says Judith S. Gavaler, Ph.D., chief of women's research at Baptist Medical Center and a member of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, both in Oklahoma City. In a study of 128 women, Dr. Gavaler found that those who had three to six drinks a week had levels of natural estrogen that were 10 to 20 percent higher than women who didn't drink. Higher estrogen levels can help prevent heart disease and osteoporosis in women who have passed menopause.

In moderate amounts, alcohol also helps inhibitions melt and tension float away, says Frederic C. Blow, Ph.D., research director of the Alcohol Research Center at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. By decreasing sexual inhibitions, alcohol can help people relax, therefore making sex more enjoyable.

What Drink Does for Your Mind

In addition, one drink can help keep your mind sharp, says Joe Christian, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis.

In a 20-year study of 4,000 male twins, Dr. Christian found that men who continued to drink one or two alcoholic beverages a day had better learning and reasoning skills in their sixties and seventies than those who drank less or more. Although his study didn't include women, he suspects that moderate amounts of alcohol improve blood circulation to the brain and probably have the same affect on women.

But if one drink a day is good, why aren't four drinks a day better? "Alcohol is clearly the most mixed of mixed blessings," Dr. Criqui says. "At one or two drinks a day, we don't see most of the complications of alcohol. However, the medical problems as well as the personal and social problems of heavy drinking are well known. There are terrible family problems, broken homes and spousal and child abuse. All of that is associated with heavy alcohol use."

In addition, the risks of stroke, heart disease, liver disease and alcoholism all rise with more than a couple of drinks a day. And the risk of breast cancer may rise with more than one. A study of 34 women between the ages of 21 and 44 at the National Cancer Institute found that just two drinks a day between days 12 and 15 of a woman's menstrual cycle can elevate estrogen levels anywhere from 21 to 31 percent. Elevated levels of estrogen are thought to increase the risk of breast cancer. Scientists aren't sure how much extra estrogen is enough to trigger disease, so they prefer that you err on the side of caution: Drink no more than one a day.

If you do drink, here are some ways to moderate your alcohol use.

Don't binge. A drink a day means exactly that. "The best evidence is the drinking has to be done in small amounts spread over several days," Dr. Criqui says. "Drinking seven drinks on Friday night and seven more on Saturday can dramatically increase your blood pressure and actually increase your potential for blood clots."

Set a limit. If you know how much you're going to drink before you take your first sip, it will be easier to stick to that limit, even if you're pressured by friends to have more, says William R. Miller, Ph.D., research director at the University of New Mexico Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addiction in Albuquerque.

Women should not drink more than one a day, advises Sheila Blume, M.D., medical director of alcoholism, chemical dependency and compulsive gambling programs at South Oaks Hospital in Amityville, New York. Women get drunk on less alcohol than men because they weigh less, have less body water to dilute the alcohol and have less of an enzyme in their stomachs that helps metabolize the booze.

Make it last. If you drink slowly, you'll give your liver a chance to metabolize the alcohol so it won't build up in your body. Make your daily drink last more than an hour, says Dr. Blume.

Chow down. Eating will slow the rate at which alcohol is absorbed into your bloodstream. But avoid salty foods such as peanuts and pretzels that will make you thirsty and tempt you to drink more, Dr. Miller says.

Do something. Dance, play billiards or video games or talk to someone, Dr. Miller suggests. You'll probably drink less if you do.

Dilute your drink. Start out with a regular drink, but when it's half gone, add water or club soda to it. Every time your glass is half empty, add more water or club soda, Dr. Blume says.

Drink water. "If you're thirsty, your body wants water, not alcohol," Dr. Miller says. "All this nonsense about alcohol being a thirst quencher isn't true. It actually makes you thirstier. So if you drink a big glass of water first, you're more likely to drink alcohol in moderation."

Try grape juice. Grape juice, like red wines, contains resveratrol, a chemical produced in the grapes' skin to fight off fungus. Researchers suspect that the chemical lowers the risk of atherosclerosis. So instead of sipping on wine after your one-drink-a-day is gone, try drinking grape juice.

Protect your baby. Birth defects are more common if a pregnant woman continues to drink, Dr. Blume says. "One drink during the course of nine months isn't going to hurt the baby, but because we don't know what a safe level of alcohol consumption is for pregnant women--it's probably different for each individual--the safest course is not to drink," she says.

Call a cab. Alcohol is involved in nearly half of the fatal automotive accidents in the United States. If you weigh 150 pounds, for example, and have four drinks before you get behind the wheel, you're 4 times more likely to get into an accident than if you were sober, says Steve Creel, a California Highway Patrol Public Affairs officer. If you have ten drinks, your risk is 65 times greater. Even if you don't drink enough to be legally intoxicated, you can be arrested for drunk driving if the police believe you are endangering yourself or other motorists, Creel says. So if you drink, have a designated driver or get a taxi ride home.