Drinking wine in small amount may increase men's lifespan

Wine lovers have got one more reason to drink daily after a Dutch study on Thursday revealed that drinking a small amount of alcohol, especially wine, may extend men’s life expectancy by a few years.

Presenting their study at the American Heart Association’s 47th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, Dutch researchers claimed that drinking a small amount of alcohol, less than a glass per day, was associated with lower rates of death from cardiovascular as well as the overall causes.

After comparing various spirits, the researchers found the best results only from one glass or less of wine per day, echoing the previous studies that associated the light to moderate alcohol intake with a lower risk of cardiovascular death.

In January, researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands found out that drinking moderately can cut the risk of heart attacks in men suffering from high blood pressure. 11,711 men suffering from high blood pressure participated in the study and were asked to consume a drink daily. The study participants were asked to fill a questionnaire every four year and report how often they consumed beer, red wine, white wine and spirits.

In their recent study, to measure the impact of long-term alcohol consumption on health and life expectancy, the researchers tracked 1,373 men born between 1900 and 1920, and who lived in Zutphen, an industrial town in the eastern part of the Netherlands. The participants were surveyed in detail about alcohol consumption seven times over 40 years.

Some study subjects were followed until they died and the rest until the final survey taken among survivors in mid-2000. During the surveys, they were asked about drinking, smoking, weight and dietary habits, and prevalence of heart attack, stroke, diabetes and cancer.

After comparing the data, researchers found that drinking wine was more protective than spirits and beer. They noticed that life expectancy was 3.8 years higher in those men who consumed wine compared to those who did not drink alcoholic beverages, while it was more than two years longer than users of other alcoholic beverages.

Although, the Zutphen study did not look at how alcohol may provide health benefits, but Streppel said it could be due to an increase in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, or to a cutback in blood clotting.

On their recent study conducted to find benefits in moderate drinking, Streppel from Wageningen University and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands said, "The main message is that if you already consume alcoholic beverages, do so moderately, one or two glasses per day maximum."

"And if you have to choose a certain beverage, then at least drink wine, because it has an additional beneficial effect above just the effect of alcohol itself," said Streppel, who is also the lead author of the study.

Despite the positive health benefits, starting to drink alcohol is not advised as alcohol consumption can be addictive, Streppel said.

American Heart Association does not recommend people to begin wine or any other form of alcohol consumption to gain these potential benefits. The agency still recommend lowering your and cholesterol, blood pressure and controlling weight.