Researchers Say Alcohol Does Not Reduce Life Expectancy

However, experience shows that it does!
What is the effect of alcohol upon the human body? Scientists say there is no definite answer to the question. It is for sure that steady drinking of alcohol destroys the functions of liver, heart and brain. On the other hand, as researches revealed long ago, some portion of red wine is good for health.

Researchers from Finland's National Public Health Institute attempted to find out the effect of alcohol drinks upon life expectancy. Hard drinking as such does not reduce the life span but on the contrary makes it longer. Finnish researchers performed an experiment on rats to verify the theory traditionally saying that alcohol reduces the life span. As it turned out in the framework of the experiment, alcohol only has an effect upon the probability of accidents, inclination to committing crimes and health problems. Rats genetically predisposed to hard drinking lived much longer.

Researcher from Finland's National Public Health Institute David Sinclair says that as concerning experiments involving people, it is difficult to differentiate between long drinking of alcohol and factors accompanying hard drinking. The experiment on rats conducted under controlled conditions helped the researchers avoid this problem.
   
The researcher says: "This is proved be the basic result of the research saying that rats of the AA line predisposed to drinking alcohol were healthier and lived longer than ANA rats that drank less alcohol irrespective of the very fact of alcohol drinking." In this case, the scientist says, the life span was determined by genetic factors only. 
 
The research involved 194 rats of the AA genetic line and 123 rats of the ANA line. Part of each group was given 12-per cent alcoholic solution as the only liquid within 3-24 months, others were allowed to drink water only. Upon conclusion of the experiment, the rats were examined, and the researchers arrived at two remarkable conclusions.  
   
First of all, steady compulsory drinking of alcohol did not reduce the life span in both groups. Second, rats predisposed to hard drinking were healthier and lived longer; the death rate among rats drinking less alcohol was three times higher than among other rats participating in the experiment. The rule became apparent irrespective of the fact whether rats were drinking alcohol in reality (in other words, if the reasons were genetic).
 
The results of David Sinclair's research were published in the magazine Alcoholism: Clinical And Experimental Research. However, the researcher warns that the research does not prove that drinking alcohol is safe for people. So, even if you are perfectly healthy, you should not try to prolong your life by drinking alcohol, as it may entail sad results.