Now for the good news about BOOZE!

Moderate drinkers are at less risk of heart attacks than teetotallers (if you are drinking red, that is)

FRANK SINATRA, famous for his heavy drinking, once said: ‘Alcohol may be man’s worst enemy, but The Bible says: “Love your enemy”.’ And that neatly encapsulates our lovehate relationship with booze. We know the dangers of heavy drinking, but most of us still get a lot of pleasure from a tipple.

Despite the pressures of lockdown, the average amount of booze being consumed in the UK hasn’t changed that much, but where we are drinking, what we are drinking, and who is doing the drinking certainly has.

Surveys suggest that while a third of us have cut back, another third (mainly men and women in their 50s, who were already fairly heavy drinkers) have drunk more over the past year.

According to research by the University of Sheffield, there has also been a significant switch from drinking beer to drinking spirits, partly driven by the gin trend.

This could help explain the latest tragic figures showing there were 7,423 deaths in the UK caused by excessive alcohol consumption, the highest level for 20 years and up 20 per cent on 2019.

Due to the pubs and bars reopening, I fear those figures are likely to rise further in the months ahead.

I am particularly interested in alcohol, as although I was never a heavy drinker, I have recently cut back on the booze. These days I try to stick to only a few glasses of red wine at the weekends.

WHEN school, I was we were at medical taught there is a U-shaped curve when it comes to drinking. heavy drinkers and people who abstain were said to be at greater risk of heart disease ( and therefore risk of premature death) than moderate drinkers — who averaged under two units a day (that’s roughly a can of strong lager, a double shot or a medium-sized glass of wine). As a moderate drinker I found this very encouraging.

Since then, however, many researchers have disputed that claim, arguing that the studies which suggest moderate drinking is beneficial are flawed.

One problem is that when researchers compare people who don’t drink with moderate drinkers, the non-drinkers sometimes include former alcoholics and those in poor health, which skews the apparent benefits of moderate drinking.

Recently, however, there have been a number of careful studies which again point towards potential benefits of moderate drinking. One such study, which will be presented at the American College of Cardiology conference next week, has found that moderate drinking may be good for the heart, at least in part, because

of its ability to reduce stress.

It was based on the health records of more than 53,000 people — mainly middle-aged women. The researchers found that those who reported a moderate alcohol intake (fewer than 14 units a week) had a 20 per cent lower chance of having a heart attack or stroke than those who never drank, or who drank less than one unit a week. What was particularly interesting is they also used high-tech brain scans on nearly 800 people to get a direct measure of their stress levels — and found that, compared to moderate drinkers, non- drinkers showed higher levels of ‘stressrelated activity’ in their brains. The researchers suggest the fact that drinking alcohol, particularly in a social setting, helps you relax could explain why moderate drinkers have lower rates of heart disease.

It’s not just the quantities that affect health — what you drink also matters.

There is some evidence that red wine is better for you than other alcohol types, including a recent study, from UK Biobank (a huge database of British participants). This found that red-wine drinkers had lower rates of heart attacks and strokes than people who preferred beer, cider or spirits, even when they’re drinking roughly the same number of units a week. It could be that red-wine drinkers are simply more affluent, or that there is something in red wine that is protective. In one of the few randomised, controlled trials of drinking that I have managed to find, researchers from Ben- Gurion University of the Negev in Israel took 224 teetotal volunteers (all of them had type 2 diabetes) and randomly allocated them to drinking a medium-sized glass (150ml) of red wine, white wine or mineral water, during their evening meal, every day for two years.

The wine and water were provided free of charge and the empty bottles collected afterwards. An impressive 87 per cent of them stuck to their allocated drink.

It was good news for the wine drinkers compared to the water group — the red- wine drinkers came out on top, with the white-wine drinkers a close second.

Both recorded significant improvements in their cholesterol levels and the quality of their sleep also improved.

This was a smallish study done for a relatively short period of time, but it adds to research showing that the occasional glass of wine is unlikely to do you harm, and may even do you good. Cheers!