Study says drinkers live longer than teetotallers

A new study has found that people who drink alcohol regularly live longer than those who completely abstain.

Researchers at the University of Texas found that those who did not consume any alcohol appeared to have a higher mortality rate, regardless of whether they were former heavy drinkers or not, than those who drank heavily.

The research, which was published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, found that the lowest mortality rate was found in moderate drinkers, defined as those who have one to three drinks per day.

Authors in the journal wrote: “A model controlling for former problem drinking status, existing health problems, and key socio-demographic and social-behavioral factors, as well as for age and gender, substantially reduced the mortality effect for abstainers compared to moderate drinkers.

“However, even after adjusting for all covariates, abstainers and heavy drinkers continued to show increased mortality risks of 51% and 45%, respectively, compared to moderate drinkers”.

They concluded: “Even after taking account of traditional and non-traditional covariates, moderate alcohol consumption continued to show a beneficial effect in predicting mortality risk.”