Moderate alcohol consumption — the equivalent of one glass of wine per day — could lower a person’s risk of hospitalization, a new study claims.
Researchers from Harvard University, Italy’s Mediterranean Neurological Institute, and the University of Molise compared the number of hospital admissions for 21,000 participants living in Italy’s Molise region over a six-year period.
The study, published in scientific journal Addiction earlier this month, found that participants’ drinking habits were related to their number of hospital admissions.
“We observed that a heavy consumption of alcohol is associated with a higher probability of hospitalization, especially for cancer and alcohol-related diseases,” Simona Costanzo, the paper’s author, said in a press release. “On the other hand, those who drink in moderation present a lower risk of hospitalization for all causes and for cardiovascular diseases compared to lifetime abstainers and former drinkers.”
The study also confirmed previous observations that moderate alcohol consumption reduces mortality risk, regardless of the type of disease, Licia Iacoviello, Head of the Laboratory of Molecular and Nutritional Epidemiology of I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed, and professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the University of Insubria in Varese, said.
For any abstainers out there, those involved with the study were keen to stress that people should absolutely not start drinking to improve their health. As for the rest of us, let’s keep it to one glass a day.
