Alcohol Defense - iveness

WebMD has a website called Medscape which is used to educate health care professionals on current research and best practices in medicine. It often has CME programs to earn credits for licensure renewal etc. I went to the website recently in order to print my CME credits and while I was there I saw a piece about the health promoting aspects of alcohol. The specific recommendation on alcohol is as follows: women - no more than one glass of wine/beer/liquor ( as measured in serving sizes of 4oz, 12oz, 1.5oz respectively) per day and men no more than 2. The science states that this moderate amount of alcohol could reduce adverse cardiovascular outcomes compared to persons who consume NO alcohol and those who consume too much.



A primary care physician noted that even as this evidence was nearing conclusiveness, he did not recommend that his abstainers begin drinking and he wondered if he should. He asked the Medscape community if they recommended alcohol consumption to their patients. He received many responses. I am personally in support of the alcohol and health connection. I am also aware that some persons are alcoholics and cannot drink any amount of alcohol because they cannot keep it at the health promoting level.

Comments were varied and for and against, but one was especially aggressive and anti alcohol. This response was from a man who was in AA and had been sober for many years. He felt that there was absolutely NO place for alcohol, No amount, in any one's life. Which leads me to this response:

Unlike tobacco, there is a health promoting way to use alcohol for some persons. Because alcohol is a poison to alcoholics does not mean it is a poison to others. I would ask that particular person if he would make the same declaration about peanuts if he happened to be allergic to them?

Just because something is bad for one person doesn't mean we all have to avoid it. Some things are bad for all people - period - pollution, inactivity, mercury, tobacco, processed foods - etc....

This is an exception then. Research does show us a positive use for alcohol and in case you are wondering -caffeine. And for both, over consumption, just like over consumption of food, is deleterious.