How much alcohol should we drink each day for optimal health? This is the question that scientists at the University of Oxford (United Kingdom) have asked themselves. And using a mathematical model, they have concluded that drinking about a quarter of a glass of wine or a pint of beer daily is associated with the lowest levels of chronic disease . Specifically, this dose reduces the incidence of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, liver cirrhosis, epilepsy and five types of cancer. The estimated amount is much lower than what the health authorities recommended so far, which suggested consuming around 2-3 drinks a day.
"The moderate consumption of alcohol protects the heart, but 'moderate' implies much lower than what we considered until now", clarifies Melanie Nichols, co-author of the investigation that publishes the medical journal BMJ Open . If this measure were applied, he adds, at least 4,600 lives a year could be saved in the United Kingdom alone.
