For as long as I can remember it has always been preached to me that “drinking isn’t good for you” or to “stay away from alcohol.” Is alcohol really bad for your health though? Yes, alcohol (in excess)brings out the worst in some of us and can also cause liver damage but what if we drink it in moderation? Scientists and doctor claim that alcohol is beneficial in a sense that it is heart healthy( helps lower cholesterol) and can boost your brain activity.
According to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, those who do drink seem to have better brain functions and a lower risk of mental decline as opposed to those who do not drink regularly. After evaluating 12,000 women ages 70-81, moderate drinkers scored higher than those who did not drink. Other scientists and researchers have accredited the intelligence of their subjects to their consumption of alcohol. In the Huffington Post, Cognitive psychologist Jennifer Wiley, led a study where her team got their subjects intoxicated then tested their creative problem solving skills. Those with a BAC level of 0.07 tested higher in creative problem solving than those individuals that were sober. Now don’t read my post and go taking your next exam tipsy , because her same team tested the subjects on memory and they did not do so well( which is no surprise as many of us probably already know).
After doing some research it became apparent that alcohol is heart healthy! According to WebMD, drinking alcohol in moderation can lower your cholesterol by an astonishing 20 percent if one still eats healthy and exercises. Research has shown that “ethanol in alcoholic drinks is the substrate that can help lower cholesterol levels”. Cooking Light expresses on their website that red wine has many antioxidants (the same antioxidants found in grape juice, green tea, and fruits and vegetables) that “protect the heart by decreasing inflammation.”
All in all, alcohol doesn’t seem to be as bad as people like to make it out to be. While there should still be more research and facts to come in the many years, I still believe that recent studies are factual.
Sources:
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/wine-how-much-is-good-for-you
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/12/alcohol-smarter_n_1420750.html
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/wine-how-much-is-good-for-you