Two drinks a day good for healthy men

In case we wanted to know, this study indicates that for guys who don't smoke, who eat a healthy diet, and who exercise regularly, having two drinks of any kind of alcohol each day is consistent with a far lower incidence of heart attack than for guys who don't drink or drink only half a drink a day. As always with medical studies, they're not claiming causality, just association.

Still, it's good news to know that enjoying alchohol in moderation might be not only mind-altering relaxing for the moment but actually good for you in the long run. Let's hope they hurry up and confirm this for women.

But speaking of living longer, it's our position here at SWWAN that when single working women's position in society is elevated to its proper place, our generally higher rates of frequency of illness and earlier death will decrease significantly. And here's a BBC report on a study that indicates social status and cohesiveness have a strong bearing on longevity. Notice Japan's higher life expectancy (keeping mind, of course, that all these statistics are for men only...)

LIFE EXPECTANCY RATES
1. Japan 81.3
2. Sweden 79.9
3. Canada 79.2
4. Spain 79.1
5. Switzerland 79.0
5. Australia 79.0
7. Israel 78.9
8. Norway 78.7
8. France 78.7
10. Italy 78.6
15. UK 77.9
18. US 76.9
Source: UN Development Programme

And if you want more to read about social status and health (and how science works with alternative therapies), I love this book: Manifesto for a New Medicine, written by a physician who discovered through his own inability to be healed by western medicine that we in the west don't know everything there is to be known about staying well and about healing--and we seriously underestimate the role of love and sharing.