Thaindian News

August 31, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): ‘Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental’ studies point out the fact that heavy drinkers do live longer than the ones who drink moderately or even abstain from alcohol totally. The stunning results were backed by statistics which were taken after studying 2,000 people over a period of 20 years. A team from the University of Texas, Austin were actively involved in the study. Times Magazine published the results reporting that 69% of abstainers died early as compared to 60% heavy drinkers. The moderate drinkers were better off it seemed with only 41% of them dying at a relatively young age.

Dr. Petros Levounis who is the director of the ‘Addiction Institute’ of New York said that the benefits of alcohol on the cardio vascular system is a known fact. But on the other hand, the health hazards are many for the heavy drinkers too. However the age old question of ‘How much is too much?’ remains unexplained to date.

While the study was conducted taking a number of variables like age, gender and social habits under consideration, the life time abstainers were not included in the study. The authors agree to the criticism that the abstainers might have already sustained heavy damage on their health prior to giving up alcohol. Levounis also stated that some of the heavy drinkers who survived till old age might actually have other reasons apart from the intake of alcohol behind it.

Moderate drinking, however, has its benefits and low mortality rates linked with moderate alcohol consumption have been corroborated by several alcohol research studies.

The authors have warned the general public against taking the results too seriously and opt for excessive alcohol consumption and binge drinking as too much of it can impair the memory as well as cause a loss of reasoning and motor capabilities.