An article by Stanton Peele makes the case that there is strong evidence that reasonable levels of drinking are healthy, and if fact beneficial to your health compared with abstinence.
For all levels of drinking, including the highest one, for both men and women, death rates did not reach those for abstainers.
[...] Of course, abstainers may not drink because they are already ill. Thus the meta-analysis relied on studies that eliminated subjects who are abstaining due to illness, or else contrast drinkers with lifetime abstainers.
There isn't a list of references in the article, but this study may be one of the supporting ones: Alcohol Dosing and Total Mortality in Men and Women: An Updated Meta-analysis of 34 Prospective Studies.
There are, no doubt, reasonable criticisms that can be made, but there does seem to be a case for saying that drinking some alcohol is beneficial.
Article also published in: Pacific Standard Magazine
(Score: 1) by Chillgamesh on Thursday August 28 2014, @07:24PM
People who have a habit of drinking around 2-4 drinks a day tend to stay home and drink instead of being outside where there are more risks.
People who drink more are either doing it at the bar (risky) or reaching a level of intoxication that causes them higher risk.
Perhaps people who dont drink are more stressed (risk) and dont spend their time at home with a safe slight buzz