Drinking alcohol in moderation is proving to be very healthy.But what does “moderate” mean?How do you know when alcohol is damaging your health?In fact, even scientists admit that alcohol can be beneficial in certain (small) doses.Take red wine, for example, which contains antioxidants, vitamins and trace elements.Damage occurs when alcohol damages a person's internal organs, which is certain to happen if you drink more than 170 grams every eight days.
So can you drink alcohol in moderation?What risks do people who drink alcohol face?When does moderate drinking end and binge drinking begin?
The most important thing is to drink in moderation
“The most important thing is to drink in moderation,” a person who has moved away from the terrible and destructive alcoholism often thinks.
A dose of 90 grams of pure ethanol per day can cause serious danger to the human liver.For the time being, that's 285ml of vodka (a little more than a cup of vodka).Just 19 grams of ethanol (or 60 milliliters of vodka) can cause brain damage in 24 hours.This applies to absolutely healthy people, with a normal and functioning liver, healthy brain, kidneys and other organs.
Now imagine what awaits a person if he drinks a glass of vodka every day:
- Alcohol addiction can begin to develop and become difficult to break;
- After six months, he will begin to suffer from alcohol dependence due to a genetic predisposition to the disease;
- If there is no genetic predisposition, the problem will manifest itself within 36 months (3 years).
- After a few months, there will be a strong desire to increase the dose regularly.
If we assume that a person has a serious disease (for example, viral hepatitis), then his moderate dose will be reduced by 2 or even 3 times.
What should be clear is this: Moderate drinkers – how much can you drink without causing harm to your body?How much water do you need to drink to get all your body systems back to normal?
All calculations are based on the fact that a healthy person consumes 170 grams of alcohol per day.As a result, interesting results and conclusions were obtained:
- If a person consumes 170 grams of pure alcohol in 1 day, he must avoid any (even the weakest) alcoholic beverages for the next 8 days.
- The allowed (acceptable) monthly dose is 586 grams.
- In other words, you can drink a little over a bottle and a half of classic vodka every month.
If it turns out that you drink more than 170 grams during a holiday, then you need to increase the interval between drinking, and the time for the next time you drink, for example, not after 8 days, but after 10-12 days.This will significantly reduce the harm and negative consequences of alcohol.
In this case, what conclusion should you draw: drink less or drink in moderation?Experts prefer the first option.Less frequently means once a month, but no more often than that.Although some people believe that if the dosage is followed correctly, it doesn't matter how often a person drinks.
Wine: Healthy or Not?
Moderate drinkers, at least those who call themselves so, insist on this: Drinking dry red wine is extremely healthy.Their rationale is based on the fact that wine contains strong antioxidants and may prevent cancer.
On the contrary, scientific research shows that heavy drinking is harmful.It contains certain substances, excess of which can cause complications unconsciously, so such a drink is harmful.
Here are some solid facts you need to know about the benefits of wine:
- This drink contains the antioxidant resveratrol, which is also found in grape juice, but in much smaller amounts.
- It contains valuable trace elements that improve human health.
- An acceptable dose for people in good health is approximately 3 glasses of wine (450 ml drink) every 7 days.
It should also be mentioned that claims about the efficacy of red wine in treating atherosclerosis are just rumors, as modern studies prove the opposite.
It turns out that drinking wine can be useful, but only if you adhere to established standards and do not exceed the safe dosage of the drink you consume.
Is it okay to drink beer in moderation?
Besides wine, another drink that many people claim is healthy is beer.Yes, it is true that unpasteurized beer or draft beer is good for the body, but even here there are certain limits, after which the drink becomes harmful to the body.600 ml per day is a perfectly acceptable standard, although this has its reservations, since drinking even small amounts of beer for several years can lead to the development of the third stage of alcohol dependence.
Drinking beer in moderation has the following benefits:
- Cosmetic effects on skin conditions.
- Normalize blood pressure.
- Calms the human nervous system.
- Maintain necessary cholesterol levels.
It is important to remember that beer addiction develops secretly and bit by bit, which makes it difficult to notice in the initial stages.Therefore, this disorder is more difficult to treat than addiction caused by the abuse of vodka or other alcoholic beverages.Therefore, it is fundamentally wrong to prove that beer is a safe alcoholic beverage.
The stimulating effect of moderate amounts of alcohol
As with all other alcohols, there are benefits to be gained from drinking in moderation, given the so-called paradoxical stimulant effects.
What is the significance of this principle?This is the irritating effect of low-dose exposure to substances that would cause toxic effects in higher doses.Simply put, if drinking large amounts is bad for you, drinking small amounts can have a stimulating effect.
This effect is obtained not by moderate drinkers, but by those who drink insignificant amounts (about 50 ml of vodka twice every 7 days) and no more than one gram.
Is it better to drink moderately or not drink at all?
Now that you know all this data about the benefits or harms of alcohol, what do you want to do now?Should you quit drinking alcohol for good or should you drink in moderation for your health?
Previous research has been wrong about the benefits of moderate drinking.Today, scientists from major countries in the world are talking about this issue.
These experiments showed the following results: People who drink moderately and moderately are much healthier than people who drink absolutely no alcohol.But what's the problem?The truth is that everyone is included in the category of abstainer: people with poor health, people who drank alcohol in their youth, people who cannot drink for health reasons.
Therefore, the results are unreliable.The scientists corrected their error by conducting some additional research and found that people who don't drink alcohol are healthier than those who drink moderately, and the former live much longer than the latter.
Are there any benefits to alcohol?Should you drink alcohol in moderation?
A 1999 study conducted by a medical scientist showed that moderate alcohol consumption is beneficial to the human cardiovascular system.A similar study was conducted the same year, demonstrating the benefits of alcohol on the human brain.
The experimental results are as follows:
- Patients who learn to drink in moderation are less likely to have a myocardial infarction.They drank 14 to 56 grams of pure alcohol (less than 1 glass of vodka) per day.Additionally, people who adhered to the moderate dose were less likely to develop intellectual disability.
- Those who made the bold decision not to drink alcohol at all had a slightly increased risk of heart attack and a slightly increased likelihood of developing dementia.
- The most obvious health problems are those who regularly drink large amounts of alcohol.In this case, myocardial infarction is prone to occur and brain diseases are more likely to occur.
Immediately after receiving research results like this, several burning questions came to mind: Can I drink alcohol in moderation?So, does this mean a little alcohol is still better than teetotal?
But here it is important to mention another experiment conducted by scientists in 2008, which showed a completely different effect - patients who drank moderately were more likely to develop serious brain diseases than those who abstained completely.
Conclusion: Is it possible to drink alcohol to react?
As you can see, the experiments showed quite different results, which is not surprising since health and a person's lifespan on earth are affected by many factors beyond alcohol intake: daily nutrition, lifestyle, working conditions, climate.This is why a specific study cannot provide 100% objective information.
Only one thing can be said for sure - there are benefits to drinking in small amounts, but this benefit is not particularly obvious in the context of the dangers you face after drinking.In addition, the harm of alcohol is immediate and can be easily discovered by scientists and doctors when examining the human body.
How to drink alcohol in moderation?Is it worth it?If you really care about your health, it's best to forget about alcohol altogether.Only eat things that are truly good and have no harm so that you no longer have any doubts.