Drink Alcohol if You Want to Live Longer – Study

Drinking too much alcohol can seriously affect your health. It negatively affects our body and mind. Drinking a lot over time can cause heart disease, liver problems, cancer and many other diseases. One study claims that alcoholic drinkers live longer than those that do not. So strange, isn’t it?Charles Holahan, a psychologist from the University of Texas (Austin) led a research about 69% of abstainers who died after 20 years and it was published in the Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research Journal.

This study analyzed over 2000 individuals from 55 to 65 years old and they were followed for about 20 years. The study included people who were:

1. Drinkers who drink heavily
2. Drinkers who drink moderately
3. People who abstain drinking.

According to the results, 69% of the people who abstained drinking and had a healthy lifestyle died after 20 years. About 60% of people who drink heavily and about 41% of moderate drinkers died. As we can see from the results above, moderate drinking is associated with the lowest mortality rates while non-drinking with the highest possible rates.

The analyzed results point out that people who were recovering from alcohol tend to die sooner than those that do.

Why Heavy Drinkers Outlive Non-Drinkers?

Although surprising, heavy drinkers are less likely to die than people who do not drink. It is a result of drinkers’ social interactions and the peace of mind.

Heavy and moderate drinkers tend to have a happy and healthy life for several reasons:

• Financial Stability. Alcohol is an expensive and luxury good. Some people may choose not to drink as a result of a financial instability instead of people who can afford that expensive pleasure.
• Social Activity. Heavy or moderate drinkers are not isolated, they are involved in the social interactions maintaing the physical and mental health.
• Feeling of Relaxation. Alcohol makes drinkers more relaxed since they forgot all of their problems nor even worry about what will come.

One thing more, nondrinkers show greater signs of depression than those who drink because the drinkers are socially active and communicative with other people.

If we consider the previous evidences moderate drinking is not only funny but also good for you. However, we can conclude that even though drinking is associated with longer life, it can be really dangerous. Bear in mind not to dependent on alcohol.