This Beverage Might Hold the Key to Improving Life Expectancy

Reading about the leading causes of death around the world may cast a pall of gloom, but it does highlight the importance of having a healthy diet and performing exercises.

This is because heart disease and obesity, two of the major natural killers, are very much preventable if you observe a healthy lifestyle. While science has provided evidence that strengthens this fact, it also brings an occasional surprising discovery.

A new study, which has been published in the journal Age and Ageing, has stumbled upon the strong link between having a regular tipple and improving longevity.

A Surprising Finding

Researchers found that women and men enjoying a regular drink daily are at 40% more likely to reach 90 years old compared to those who are teetotal or rarely drink. This may sound preposterous to some who have always found evidence between drinking and early death. The research, however, does not encourage you to go out binge drinking because it does point out that the benefits are only gained if you stick with one drink daily.

The findings also draw a clear line between men and women who drink. Researchers say that wine drinking is most conducive to improving longevity for women, while men attain the same benefits when having other spirits like gin, brandy, or whiskey.

The Study on Alcoholic Beverage

More than 5,000 males and females were observed by researchers at the Maastricht University Medical Centre in The Netherlands. Most of the participants were born between 1914 and 1918 or during World War 1.

Researchers asked the participants on their drinking habits back when they were still in their sixties and seventies. The researchers then observed them check how many of these volunteers reached 90 years old.

The Amazing Results

At the end of the study, researchers found that 34% of women and 16% of men were able to reach 90 years old. When researchers, however, compared abstainers with daily drinkers, they found that women and men drinking five to ten grams of alcohol daily were at 40% more likely to reach 90. Ten grams of alcohol is around the same amount as that of a small glass of wine, which is a standard measure of liquor or a half-pint of beer.

Furthermore, researchers also found that drinking up to 15 grams per day slightly improved the chances of participants to reach the age of 90. Exceeding this amount, however, canceled the longevity benefits linked to alcohol consumption as bigger daily alcohol intake can also lead to premature death.