The answer seems to depend on whether the drinker is at risk for heart disease, diabetes, or certain types of cancer.
The consensus seems to be that it is not good to drink five or six drinks at a time and that one or two glasses of liquor a day can be beneficial for your health.
These are the results of an analysis by the National Institutes of Health in the United States that seeks to clarify the information compiled so far about the effects of alcohol.
Overall, the report concludes that the potential benefits of alcohol and the amount a patient can consume without aggravating their health problems should be determined for each patient taking into account their age, sex, and medical history.
According to the indications, men can consume two drinks a day and women one drink a day without causing serious health problems. However, a man should not exceed four drinks on any given day, and a woman should not exceed three.
Broken down by type of disease, the main conclusions of the study are the following:
- For people 40 years of age or older, consuming one to four drinks a day significantly reduces the risk of heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States.
- But consuming five drinks a day or more markedly increases the risk of contracting heart disease.
- Consuming small amounts of alcohol several times a week, a drink or two daily or every two or three days, seems to be the most ideal way to drink if you want to protect the patient’s heart as much as possible.
- Apparently, this amount of liquor consumed with certain frequency helps to increase the so-called good cholesterol and serves as an anticoagulant substance.
- Women who are at risk of breast cancer due to a family history and those who take estrogen after menopause should weigh the potential cardiac benefits of alcohol against the risk of breast cancer.
- One or two drinks a day several days a week appears to reduce the risk of adult or Type 2 diabetes, a condition that has reached epidemic proportions.
