Drink less alcohol, live longer?

According to a report by Dutch researchers, drinking a glass of wine every day may help reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular problems and other problems in men, and may help them. live longer than many years.

Marga Ocke, co-author of the study and a researcher at the National Institute of Health and Environment in Bilthoven, the Netherlands has the following advice: 'People who are currently drinking should drink less , from 1 to 2 drinks a day, and it is better to drink wine. '

Ocke and her colleagues reported the results of this study at the American Heart Association's Annual Association for Epidemiology and Cardiovascular Prevention held in Orlando, Florida.

Many other studies have shown that moderate or moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease in men and women, but people are still arguing about which alcohol is good. than.

In the Zutphen study, Ms. Ocke's group evaluated 1,373 men born between 1900 and 1920 and were followed seven times in 40 years for alcohol intake. (Zutphen is an industrial city in eastern Netherlands where all these people live).

Participants in the study were followed up until they died or until the last interview was conducted in mid-2000. They were asked about their drinking, eating, smoking, indicators habits. Body mass (BMI) and history of whether or not there has been a heart attack, stroke, diabetes or cancer.

(Photo: Flickr)

Statistics on alcohol consumption have been adjusted to explain other risks.

Compared to not drinking alcohol, drinking less alcohol is associated with a 36% reduction in the risk of death from all causes and a 34% reduction in cardiovascular disease. Drinking ' less ' alcohol is understood to drink 20 grams or less of alcohol a day (one glass of wine contains 10 grams of alcohol).

Among wines, wine is associated with a lower risk of death. People who drink about 1.5 ounces (1 ounce = 28.35 grams) of wine, or about a quarter of a glass of wine for a long time, have a 40% lower rate of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease. 48% lower than those who do not drink wine.

In this study, wine drinkers were nearly 4 years longer than those who abstained from alcohol, and on average, people who drank wine lived 2 years longer than those who drank beer or other spirits. . In general, men who drink a small amount of any alcohol for a long time (from 20 grams or less per day) will live 1.6 years longer than those who abstain from alcohol altogether.

It's hard to tell whether there is any difference between red wine and white wine. Ocke said: 'In the current study, we do not divide drinkers into groups that drink white wine or red wine, but 70% of the alcohol consumed is red wine.' Ocke acknowledged that similar studies so far have focused on determining which wine is the best, but she believes her research is more reliable. She said most studies have suggested that the way of drinking alcohol is relatively stable, but in real life, these methods vary.

In the study, Ocke's team found that the number of people drinking alcohol nearly doubled, from 45% in 1960 to 85% during the 2000 poll. The ways of drinking also changed.

Ms. Ocke even said that more research is needed to check this result.

The researchers stressed that they only found a correlation between drinking less alcohol and having a healthier, longer life. This does not prove that drinking alcohol is the cause of health promotion . However, they argue that alcohol can help increase beneficial cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and help reduce blood clots associated with stroke.

Matt Kaeberlein, assistant professor of pathology at the University of Washington Medical School in Seattle, said: "This new study is more" comprehensive "than previous studies. The number of people studied is much more reliable for the study. He said: ' It gives you reliability in statistics.'

Another study reported at the conference brought good news to people who drank coffee but did not smoke.

This study was conducted by a group of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland, California. Researchers evaluated 127,000 people for testing between 1978 and 1985, of which about 59,000 never smoked. The researchers then looked at more than 83,000 people who had been hospitalized for coronary artery disease.

They found that smokers who smoke or have ever smoked have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. People who smoke or have ever smoked and addicted to coffee - drink six cups of coffee a day or more - have a 50% higher risk of coronary artery disease.

In non-smokers, drinking coffee is not associated with the risk of coronary artery disease.

Hong Linh