Can Moderate Drinking Benefit Your Health? Experts Suggest It May Cut Diabetes Risk

Experts from the University of Southern Denmark have established an association between moderate drinking and lowered risk of diabetes. "Our findings suggest that alcohol drinking frequency is associated with the risk of diabetes and that consumption of alcohol over 3-4 weekdays is associated with the lowest risks of diabetes, even after taking average weekly alcohol consumption into account," researchers were quoted by PTI.

Men who consumed 14 drinks per week were found to have a 43 per cent lower risk of diabetes as compared to those who didn't consume any alcohol. Women who had nine drinks per week were at a 58 per cent lower risk over women who did not drink at all. The study also revealed that consuming 3-4 drinks a week reduced risk of diabetes in men by 27% and by 32% in women.

Reams have been written about moderate drinking while the medical fraternity seems to have divided opinion about its effects on human health. While some of the previous studies have deemed moderate drinking beneficial for health, many other researches note the ambiguity associated with what defines moderate drinking in various parts of the world. While the British government recently revised its guidelines lowering the maximum number of alcoholic drinks per week to 14, several other countries across the world have varying standards defining 'moderate drinking'. Some of the most recent studies have linked moderate drinking with cognitive decline, brain damage and risk of cardiovascular ailments.

"There is growing evidence that moderate alcohol intake may be a risk factor for atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm disturbance in the world, but the mechanism by which alcohol may lead to atrial fibrillation is unknown," Gregory Marcus, researcher at the University of California, San Francisco was quoted by IANS.

Inputs from PTI