Why Alcohol Is Good For You

It’s one of those medical anomalies that nobody can
really explain: Longitudinal studies have consistently shown that people who
don’t consume any alcohol at all tend to die before people who do. At first
glance, this makes little sense. Why would ingesting a psychoactive toxin that
increases our risk of cancer, dementia and liver disease lengthen our
lifespan?

Well, the anomaly has just gotten more anomalous: A new study,
published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental
Research, followed 1,824 participants between the ages of 55 and 65. Once
again, the researchers found that abstaining from alcohol increases the risk of
dying, even when you exclude former alcoholics who have now quit. (The thinking
is that ex-drinkers might distort the data, since they’ve already pickled their
organs.) While 69 percent of the abstainers died during the twenty-year time
span of the study, only 41 percent of moderate drinks passed away. (Moderate
drinkers were also 23 percent less likely to die than light drinkers.) But
here’s the really weird data point: Heavy drinkers also live longer than
abstainers. (Only 61 percent of heavy drinkers died during the study.) In other
words, consuming disturbingly large amounts of alcohol seems to be better than
drinking none at all.

We live in a reductionist age, in which every longitudinal effect is
explained away at the most fundamental possible level. And so this study will no
doubt lead researchers to probe the benefits of red wine, with its antioxidants
and resveratrol.
It will also lead people to explore the cardiovascular benefits of alcohol,
since many of the perks of drinking (such as increased levels of HDL
cholesterol) seem to extend to people who drink beer and hard liquor.

These are all important hypotheses, the sort of speculations that assuage
this drinker’s heart. (I’m no Don Draper, but I certainly enjoy my evening IPA.)
Nevertheless, I worry that in the rush to reduce, to translate the unexpected
longitudinal effect into the acronyms of biochemistry, we’ll miss the real
import of the study.

Let’s think, for a moment, about the cultural history of drinking. The first
reason people consume booze is to relax, taking advantage of its anxiolytic
properties. This is the proverbial drink after work – after a eight hours of
toil, there’s something deeply soothing about a dose of alcohol, which quiets
the brain by up-regulating our GABA receptors. (But don’t get carried away:
While the moderate consumption of alcohol might reduce the stress response,
blood alcohol levels above 0.1 percent — most states consider 0.08 the legal
limit for driving — trigger a large release of stress hormones. Although you
might feel drunkenly relaxed, your body is convinced it’s in a state of mortal
danger.) And so the stresses of the day seem to fade away – we are given a
temporary respite from the recursive complaints of self-consciousness. Since
chronic stress is really, really bad for us, finding a substance that can
reliably interrupt the stress loop might have medical benefits.

But drinking isn’t just about de-stressing. In fact, the cultural traditions
surrounding alcohol tend to emphasize a second, and perhaps even more important,
function: socializing. For as long people have been fermenting things,
they’ve been transforming the yeasty run-off into excuses for big parties. From
Babylonian harvest festivals to the bacchanalias of Ancient Greece, alcohol has
always been entangled with our get togethers. This is for obvious reasons:
Alcohol is a delightful social lubricant, a liquid drug that is particularly
good at erasing our inter-personal anxieties. And this might help explain why,
according to the new study, moderate drinkers have more friends and higher
quality “friend support” than abstainers. They’re also more likely to be
married.

What does this have to do with longevity? In recent years, sociologists and
epidemiologists have begun studying the long-term effects of
loneliness. It turns out to be really dangerous. We are social primates, and
when we’re cut off from the social network, we are more likely to die from just
about everything (but especially heart disease). At this point, the link between
abstinence and social isolation is merely hypothetical. But given the extensive
history of group drinking – it’s what we do when we come together – it seems
likely that drinking in moderation makes it easier for us develop and nurture
relationships. And it these relationships that help keep us alive.

Of course, relationships have their own chemistry, a language of dopamine,
oxytocin, vasopressin, etc. But I think that in the rush to decipher the bodily
molecules, we are missing the essential lesson, which is that some of the most
valuable health benefits don’t come from compounds that can be bottled, or
condensed into a gel capsule. Instead, they come from other people, from those
lovely conversations we share over a glass or three of wine.

Surgeon General’s Warning: Of course, these longitudinal correlations don’t
mitigate the negative, and frequently devastating, consequences of alcohol and
alcoholism. Let’s not forget that alcohol can be an addictive substance, and
that, in many contexts, drinking promotes violence and thuggishness, and not
polite socializing. It’s also essential to note that all of the aforementioned
health benefits of alcohol (such as de-stressing and socializing) can also be
achieved for free, such as with meditation or by simply being a good friend.

Image: One of my favorite
IPA’s.