‘Prolonging life’ – with alcohol and exercise

I am getting to like the Danes a lot, especially their medical researchers.

A few weeks ago, a Danish study found that as we get older we grow smarter, now another research team has apparently discovered that alcohol can ‘prolong life’ – when drunk in moderation and in combination with moderate exercise.

The bad news (isn’t there always?) is that people who neither drink nor exercise have a 30 to 49 percent high risk of suffering heart disease than those doing one or both.

The study – published in the European Heart Journal in January – supports other research studies indicating light to moderate drinking (that’s around a regular two drinks a day) is associated with reduced risk of heart disease.

However, the Danish research also underscored the added benefit from both exercising and drinking.

In one of the largest studies of its kind, the Danish researchers spent 20 years looking at information on the drinking and exercise habits of almost 12,000 men and women aged over 20.  People consuming less than one drink per week were classified as ‘non-drinkers’, while ‘moderate’ drinkers imbibed between 1 and 14 drinks per week. The ‘heavy’ drinkers putting away 15 or more drinks a week fared as badly as the non-drinkers.

Lead author Jane Østergaard Pedersen concluded: “Both moderate to high levels of physical activity and a moderate alcohol intake are important for lowering the risk of heart disease deaths.”

After all the bad press drinking alcohol has been getting, it’s reassuring to learn that a little may go a long way when mixed some moderate exercise to help us live longer, healthier and happier.

It all sounds like the perfect lifestyle cocktail.

Live long, live well, Wanobians.