(07-12-09) Alcohol: Find the Proper Balance

by Frank Mangano

You`ve no doubt heard the phrase "everything in moderation." It`s hard to find anyone that follows this maxim religiously; everyone falls off the wagon now and again, whether it`s eating too much or exercising too little. But the one place in which you really need to follow this maxim as closely as possible is when it comes to alcohol.

A new study always seems to be coming out hailing the health benefits of alcohol consumption, like how it can lower the risk for lung cancer. But just as you`re about to celebrate this fine finding with a glass of wine, another study comes out that contradicts it, ending the party before it even began.
Take prostate cancer as an example. In 2007, a study was published in Harvard Men`s Health
Watch, and it reported that men who consumed four to seven good-sized goblets of red wine cut their risk of prostate cancer by 52 percent compared to those who don`t drink red wine at all.

Fast forward to two years later and head west. In a study out of the University of California San Francisco and published in the journal Cancer, researchers found that people who drink heavily are at twice the risk for prostate as those who drink sparingly.

How can something so beneficial to preventing prostate cancer be so permitting of prostate cancer at once? Well, it all boils down to how much was drunk.

In the first study, those who cut their risk drank only four to seven drinks of red wine - over the course of a week. In the second study, people who increased their risk drank four to seven drinks over the course of a day - for five or more days a week.

Now, the Harvard study found that with every extra drink of red wine, the risk of prostate cancer dropped by six percent. This would seem to suggest that more may be a good thing after all, but the University of California study puts this misperception in its proper place.

Moderation is crucial in all things. The aforementioned studies serve as good examples of how
something so beneficial to avoiding health hazards can create health hazards if it`s abused. Keep this in mind when doing something you think you can never do enough of - like exercising or drinking water - as doing too much of it will almost always reverse its healthful effects.

Sources:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...

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