September 5, 2007 10:30 AM

How Much Booze Is Good For You?

(WebMD)  Light drinking helps heart health. But more than one drink a day for women and more than two daily drinks for men are harmful.

That's the bottom line from a state-of-the-art review of drinking and health by University of Missouri cardiologist James H. O'Keefe, M.D., and colleagues.

The researchers note that study after study shows health benefits for moderate drinking. These benefits appear to come not from the type of alcohol, but from the alcohol itself.

That's been seen as terrific news for tipplers. If a little is good, wouldn't a little more be better? No, O'Keefe and colleagues assert. More is not only not better - it's harmful. Just a little too much is worse than none at all.

And binge drinking, the researchers say, is harmful even for otherwise light drinkers.

A drink may be smaller than you think. O'Keefe and colleagues say a drink is a 12-ounce bottle of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled liquor which all have between 13 and 15 grams of alcohol.

Despite the health benefit of moderate alcohol consumption, the researchers warn doctors against advising people to drink.

"Sobering statistics warn that moderate daily drinking is a slippery slope that many individuals cannot safely navigate," they note.

O'Keefe and colleagues report their findings in the Sept. 11 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.



By Daniel DeNoon
Reviewed by Louise Chang
©2007 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved

© 2007 WebMD, LLC.. All Rights Reserved.
Add a Comment See all 17 Comments
by reporter21 September 6, 2007 3:14 PM EDT
Sisters keep their mother''s body in a fridge for ten years! Maybe they need a drink?
Two sisters have kept their dead mother in an a fridge for 10 years - so they can visit her every week.....

Is this something to write home about?

Continue....www.poconocommunitynews.com
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by emma915 September 6, 2007 2:55 PM EDT
Look at it this way. While you''re swallowing, you''re not breathing. Breathing these days is really bad for your health.
Reply to this comment
by rray52 September 5, 2007 10:16 PM EDT
%u201CThat''s the bottom line from a state-of-the-art review of drinking and health by University of Missouri cardiologist James H. O''Keefe, M.D., and colleagues.%u201D

State-of-the-art
Is this a new ranking category for research reviews? It implies that other published research reviews are not state-of-the-art. What criteria is used to classify it as state-of-the-art?
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by cfin5 September 5, 2007 8:49 PM EDT
sevenveils, Spectrum108,.....I advocated no such "chip" implant or national ID card. Rather the opposite as I see no need for it. My point is guns don''t kill people, bad attitude does. Drinking and driving is bad attitude towards those who want to be as safe on the road as they can without a BA someone killing them with a car.....If you have any better suggestions then post them for us to consider instead of griping about it.
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by badbrown126 September 5, 2007 8:19 PM EDT
Diet, eat right ... still die. You might as well have some fun while you are here. Make mine a double!!!
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by themurph2000 September 5, 2007 7:51 PM EDT
There are more old drunks than old doctors.
Posted by scribe7716 at 12:37 PM : Sep 05, 2007

Ah, but that was back in the days when you could retire a rich doctor at 50 instead of half your salary going towards malpractice insurance because of people suing you for $100 M because you left a scar two inches too long for their liking.

"And that, more than anything else, led to my drinking problem."------Ted Striker, "Airplane!"
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by jetlizhan September 5, 2007 7:18 PM EDT
cheers!!
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by lewiston14 September 5, 2007 6:33 PM EDT
It would also be a privacy matter that will never make it off the table. Hell everybody in washington is on something
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by lewiston14 September 5, 2007 6:29 PM EDT
"then why is it not important for someone with DUI offenses to be restricted from alcohol purchases? Put the international prohibiting "BIG RED CIRCLE SLASH MARTINI GLASS" mark on their next drivers license and make it mandatory for anyone buying alcohol to present drivers license at the point of sale no matter one''''s age or gender. License holders with that mark are then rejected from the purchase"


now that is funny. Just go have a 16 year old buy you a few cases. end of story.
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by boldwin223 September 5, 2007 5:50 PM EDT
Down south, Bubba called his attorney and asked, "Is It true theys suin them cigarette companies fer causin People to git cancer ?"

"Yes, Bubba, sure is true," responded the lawyer.

"Well, I was thinkin . ..
What I want to know is, kin I sue Budweiser fer all
them ugly women I slept with?"
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