不定项选择题 After the excesses of the holiday period, Dry January
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不定项选择题 After the excesses of the holiday period, Dry January seems like a wise idea, giving our livers, skin, and bank accounts a rest.
New research, however, suggests the benefits of cutting out alcohol may be exaggerated, and, as long as you maintain a healthy diet, the occasional drink may actually be good for you.
Researchers at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health studied 30 years of data on nearly 80,000 women and 40,000 men to understand how their lifestyle habits affected their lifespan. Aside from eating a balanced diet and avoiding cigarettes, they found that healthiest people with the longest life expectancies also drank a few units of alcohol a week.
Researchers are incredibly conflicted on alcohol particularly when it comes to overall health, and life expectancy.
In 2018, Cambridge University study found even one drink a week was enough to reduce a person’s lifespan by increasing their risk of cancer or liver disease.
However, the picture is blurred by a steady stream of studies finding that the occasional drink can be beneficial, especially for the heart.
“The cardiovascular benefits of moderate alcohol consumption have been consistently observed in large cohort studies,” Dr Frank Hu, chair of Harvard’s Department of Nutrition and author of the new study said.
For the new study, published last week in the British Medical Journal, Hu wanted to see how some common lifestyle factors affect our risks of developing heart disease diabetes and cancer earlier in life.
His team looked at two large data sets the Nurse’s Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study which tracked the health of 73,196 women for 34 years and 38,366 men for 28 years.
They found that women who, at age 50, ate a healthy diet exercised 30 minutes a day, had a healthy body weight and drank alcohol in moderation lived to an average of 84.4 years old without developing diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, or cancer. Women who did not practice those healthy habits were more likely to develop those diseases in their 70s.
It’s unclear exactly why alcohol, and red wine above all, appears to be so protective, but the research is robust according to Hu’s coauthor Dr Qi Sun, an associate professor of nutrition at Harvard.
“There is a really robust link with alcohol and high levels of HDL, the “good” cholesterol”, Sun told Insider “We also see moderate drinking associated with lower rates of chronic inflammation.”
Some research has found that red wine, for example, contains powerful antioxidants. Other research suggests red wine drinkers are simply wealthier, and therefore more likely to eat well and have time to exercise.
Despite the apparent benefits, Sun says non-drinkers should not take up liquor hoping for a boost. Alcohol consumption has been shown to increase the risk of cancer—more substantially for women than men Last week, new US data showed a rise in binge-drinking and alcohol-related deaths among middle-aged women.
The key is to find balance he said, “People shouldn’t cherry-pick any individual component or another. If you drink alcohol, it’s very important that you drink responsibly, not in excess, and that you also focus on eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy body weight, not smoking, and exercising. If you don’t drink you don’t need to start drinking.”
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