Drinking Alcohol May Extend Your Life

Adolytsi writes "MSNBC has an interesting article on an Italian study on alcoholism. While the obvious notion of overconsumption of alcohol being detrimental to one's health is supported, apparently drinking it in moderation can actually extend your lifespan. A study on over 1 million drinkers and 94,000 deaths yielded the results: "According to the data, drinking a moderate amount of alcohol — up to four drinks per day in men and two drinks per day in women — reduces the risk of death from any cause by roughly 18 percent, the team reports in the Archives of Internal Medicine. However, "things radically change" when consumption goes beyond these levels, study leader Dr. Augusto Di Castelnuovo, from Catholic University of Campobasso, said in a statement. Men who have more than four drinks per day and women who have more than two drinks per day not only lose the protection that alcohol affords, but they increase their risk of death, the data indicates.""

Things radically change

[MECC]

FTA: However, "things radically change" when consumption goes beyond these levels

For starters, you wake up in bed with a stranger not knowing how either got there...

The things i do

[Programmer_In_Traini]

The things I do for my health ... *hic*

Makes me happy

[WhatsAProGingrass]

Good moods will help prevent a cold and alcohol will extend my lifespan. Good thing alcohol puts me in a good mood.

Re:Legal age

[Sciros]

The military should have its soldiers drink 2-4 drinks per day. Casualties will drop by 18% and morale will rise.

Re:Four drinks a day?

[Funkcikle]

Perhaps I am just a lightweight, but if I were drinking four drinks a day I would expect my chances of dying in a variety of ways to decrease, simply due to the fact that I was spending most of my time either singing "Brown Eyed Girl" or hugging people - both known to prolong life, generate vitality and fight discombobulation of the spleen.

Re:Legal age

[biocute]

Well, in certain countries, you're allowed to have (consent) sex at the tender age of 16, but you're not allowed to smoke/drink until you are 18, and not allowed to gamble until 21.

I guess it makes sense too, first you have sex, got (someone) pregnant, then you drink and smoke to numb your pain in making such a stupid mistake, and finally at 21, you resort to gambling to satisfy the needs for cigaratte, alcohol and your kid's school fees.

Re:Define "drink"

[farlcow]

1 pan-galactic gargle blaster

Reduce chance of death?

[endianx]

According to the data, drinking a moderate amount of alcohol -- up to four drinks per day in men and two drinks per day in women -- reduces the risk of death from any cause by roughly 18 percent, the team reports in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Will it reduce my chances of dying after being hit by a bus by 18%?

Re:Four drinks a day?

[hchaos]

Because I don't hink I'd consider four drinks every day to be "moderate" drinking.

Yeah, I barely consider four drinks every day to be drinking at all!

Re:military & drinking

[Anonymous Coward]

In the Philippines, bartenders [do not] check the age of American soldiers.

Fair enough. In the Philippines, American soldiers do not check the age of Philippino girls...

Re:Legal age

[Anonymous Coward]

If that's what you find stupid, then... oh, okay.

Obligatory Simpsons quote

[antifoidulus]

Homer: "To alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems"

Re:Legal age

[__aaclcg7560]

Three anonymous cowards went into a bar...

Re:Four drinks a day?

[Funkcikle]

You must be female. Because if you are a guy that kind of behavior would most likely result in an ass beating or a night in jail.

Clearly you do not know what kind of guy I am. Bring on the ass-jail combo, I say, and fetch the bucket of soapy frogs! And one more martini, please.

Re:Legal age

[therufus]

How many drinks did they have? This is important as it may affect their lifespan.

Offtopic, but amusing

[Anonymous Coward]

Once lived in a dorm that was co-ed by door, and was awakened one night by a drunken female staggering in my door and flopping down next to me in bed...She'd gotten off on the wrong floor from the elevator, and had mistaken my room for her room. I don't know who the hell she thought I was...Anyway...Being a chivalrous geek, I just rolled over and went back to sleep...I assumed that she would understand the nature of her mistake upon awakening, and maybe, I don't know, invite me to breakfast or something.

Three hours later I was standing in the hall with no shirt, after being thrown out of my own room by a still-drunk girl who was convinced that I'd sneaked into her room in the night! One of my floormates called campus security (probably for their own amusement), and the whole thing ended up being written up (in garbled form) as a security report in the campus paper.

Not only did I not get breakfast, poor girl was so humiliated by the whole incident that she avoided me until I transferred 18 months later.

I think the moral is either: Don't drink the punch, or Let sleeping geeks lie.

Re:waste of a study

[crabpeople]

Wow buddy, you sound streesed. How about a drink?

Re:Legal age

[Anonymous Coward]

"Only in America BTW, not the rest of the civilized world. Yeah, you yanks are crazy."

'The United States of America' and 'civilized world' are mutually exclusive.

Re:Offtopic, but amusing

[Anonymous Coward]

You should have brought *her* breakfast.

And, likely, a bucket.

Re:Things radically change

[jasonmantey]

Like this guy? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o2JT9N5Un0 [youtube.com] (my first link had an extra '/' at the end)

Re:Legal age

[SeaFox]

Three anonymous cowards went into a bar...

and the bartender said "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You gotta show some id to prove you're 21, and you can't all use the same one!"

Re:Define "drink"

[StarvingSE]

I'm no expert on the subject, but alcohol is the waste product of micro organisms as they ferment (wheat, barley, fruit, etc). There wouldn't be anything in your body to ferment and hence, no reaction.

btw, when I start to see 2 slashdot homepages on my screen at the same time, thats when my body tells me I have the perfect amount of alcohol.

Collegiate Behavior...

[Landshark17]

We college students have known about this for years!

Re:Four drinks a day?

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

But if it's a work day, you don't have very much time to get all those drinks down.

Wait, you don't drink at work? Insane. Our office manager picked up a couple cases of microbrew just today and stuck them in the fridge for us. We used to have to stock the fridge ourselves at my last employer. Man I love the computer industry.

Re:Define "drink"

[Sponge Bath]

...and 12-14 oz of beer

I always thought this was bizarre. A 12 oz beer just does not look right in a pint glass. It's like hot dogs coming 6 to a pack and buns 8 to a pack. Madness.

Re:Riddle me this...

[corbettw]

They're probably too hung over.

Re:Latecomers to the H2G2 party killing all jokes

[Anonymous Coward]

>Please don't kill Douglas Adams for me, and others.

Too late.

*ducks*

Re:Define "drink"

[eobanb]

when I start to see 2 slashdot homepages

Either that or you finally got xinerama working.

Re:Define "drink"

[grcumb]

I'm no expert on the subject, but alcohol is the waste product of micro organisms ....

Right. So it's technically correct to take a sip of 12 year old single malt and say, 'That's good shit.'

Re:Define "drink"

[QRDeNameland]

If you want obscure, my calculations say that the limit comes out to about one third of a firkin of ale per fortnight.

Cheers!

Re:Define "drink"

[Hucko]

Damn! For Aussies, this means we can only have a sip!

Re:Legal age

[BlueItalian]

we don't have a legal drinking age, but some places are *in theory* restricted to young people. I started with wine when I was 12, coming from the biggest wine making region of the country it's absolutely normal. The difference with anglo-saxon countries is cultural, we drink to taste, you drink to get ridiculously drunk and do something stupid (I lived in Madrid for a long time, I've seen it all...) because you're too "controlled" to do it when you're ain't. This applies specially to english people, americans are a mixed bag, Irish they just don't count because for them sky is the limit. I would like to see a drinking competition between an Irish and a guy from Friuli: that would be an amazing titan's clash.

Re:Define "drink"

[Anonymous Coward]

dern...i was excited when i went from a twelve pack to only four...till your post here. i guess i sould have KNOWN that quarts didnt apply when one uses the term..one drink