There are numerous studies which suggests that alcohol in moderation may promote heart health and even ward off diabetes and dementia. However no study has ever proved a causal relationship between moderate drinking and lower risk of death. It may be that moderate drinking is just something healthy people tend to do, not something that makes people healthy.
Dr. Tim Naimi, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, “The bottom line is there has not been a single study done on moderate alcohol consumption and mortality outcomes that is a ‘gold standard’ kind of study — the kind of randomized controlled clinical trial that we would be required to have in order to approve a new pharmaceutical agent in this country.”
Alcohol has been tied to breast cancer and can lead to accidents even when consumed in small amounts, and is linked with liver disease, cancers, heart damage and strokes when consumed in larger amounts.
To examine the effects of alcohol on the brain, Live Science reports that researchers had
eight men and seven women drank alcohol through a straw while lying in an MRI scanner. It took only 6 minutes after consuming an amount of alcohol equivalent to three beers, changes had already taken place in the brain cells. Their brains began to run on the sugar in alcohol instead of glucose, the normal brain food.
The concentration of substances such as creatine, which protects brain cells, also decreased as the concentration of alcohol increased. Choline, a component of cell membranes, was also reduced. This probably means that alcohol triggers changes in the composition of cell membranes.
[Source]
Chapter: Health :: 10 July 2009
