There’s a lot of back and forth on the real benefits of that glass of wine with dinner or that beer of a sunny Sunday afternoon.
And while we’re all in agreement that excessive drinking is good for neither your pride nor your health, the war wages on whether your weekly pleasures are help or a hindrance to your overall health.
Well this new study has sided pro-drinking, as it’s revealed that people who drink wine, liquor or beer regularly are LESS prone to heart failure of heart attacks – hurrah!
The study claims three to five drinks a week contributes to a healthy lifestyle – now this is a health tip we can get on board with. It even points towards moderate drinking being *more *beneficial than steering clear of the stuff altogether.
Imre Janszky, a professor of social medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology who led the study said:
"It's primarily the alcohol that leads to more good cholesterol, among other things"
Butbefore you go ahead and guzzle down that pint, remember moderation – as with most things – is still always the key.
Janszky warns:
“But alcohol can also cause higher blood pressure. So it's best to drink moderate amounts relatively often.”
Through two separate studies conducted by Janszky and colleagues at the University and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, results were pulled together that showed that people who drank regularly had better cardiovascular health than those who indulge in little alcohol, or none at all.
Three to five drinks a week seemed to be the key, as adults who fell into that category were 33 per cent less likely to suffer a heart attack – a figure that’s supported by other researchers, too.
In one study, 58,827 participants were assorted in different catergories considering how much and often they drank of average, and there health was monitored between the years 1995 – 2008.
Of that sample, 2966 people suffered a heart attack in that time., and the analyses showed that for every additional drink weekly, the risk of heart attacked decreased by 28 per cent.
However, Janszky insists:
"I'm not encouraging people to drink alcohol all the time. We've only been studying the heart, and it's important to emphasize that a little alcohol every day can be healthy for the heart.
“But that doesn't mean it's necessary to drink alcohol every day to have a healthy heart."
Don’t spoil it for us, Jansky.