Yep, it’s the stuff of pub legends, a paper has been published in the European Heart Journal that says it is good for you to have tipple. But before we get too excited what is it really saying?
The authors followed over 14,500 people who were in their mid 50’s at the beginning of the study for a period of approx. 24 years.
They found that while in their middle age, those that imbibed around 7 drinks a week, be it beer, wine or spirits, had a lower risk of future heart failure compared with abstainers.
No level of alcohol consumption seemed to increase the chance of heart failure but drinking too much did lead to an overall increase in chance of death.
The authors note that the alcohol consumption was self reported in the form of a questionnaire but that the levels reported were consistent with the results of tests.
As people tended to drink more than one type of alcohol it was not possible to say if there was a difference between the different alcoholic drinks.
Interesting none the less, click here to check out more.