Understanding the hazards and potential health benefits of alcohol can be difficult; this is unsurprising given the lack of evidence favoring mild alcohol usage in healthy persons.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Moderate Alcohol Consumption

Mild alcohol intake may have certain health advantages, including lowering your chance of developing and dying from heart disease. Probably reducing your risk of experiencing an ischemia (when the arteries to your brain constrict or block, resulting in substantially restricted blood flow). Potentially minimizing your diabetes risk. However, eating a good diet and being physically active offer far higher health advantages and have received far more attention.

Bear in mind that even mild alcohol use is not without risk. Even light drinkers (those who consume no more than one drink per day) have a little but actual elevated risk of some malignancies, such as esophageal cancer. And driving when intoxicated is never a smart idea.

The Dangers of Excessive Alcohol Consumption

While moderate alcohol use may have some health advantages, excessive drinking has no health benefits. Excessive or high risk drinking is compared as consuming upwards of 3 beverages across any single day even consuming over 7 drinks per week for men or women over the age of 65, and having over than four drinks on any given day or having with over 14 drinks a week for males 65 and younger. Binge drinking can be defined by 4 or even more drinks consumed in less than 2 hours for women and five or maybe more drinks consumed in less than two hours for males.