Do you think that a shot or two is good for your heart? The answer seems to be not as evident as we have been told for years. Numerous studies have confirmed that moderate drinking has its benefits. The French with their love for red wine and saturated fats are boasting to have a better situation with heart health compared with other nations, including the Americans (the so called “French Paradox”). Healthy hearts of the people living in Mediterranean countries are traditionally attributed to red wine, though the scientists agree that other types of alcohol can have similar effect.

Meanwhile, doctors from Japan insist that alcohol can increase blood pressure beginning from the first drink. According to them, alcohol is a serious risk factor for raised blood pressure due to their direct interrelation. Adding to the confusion is a comprehensive study from Denmark. As for the Dane, a daily drink or two, especially for the middle-aged men and women and on, is able to decrease the risk of heart attack.
No wonder that one can feel himself confused with the situation. While additional research and evidence are always welcome, there is quite solid argumentation that moderate drinking supports healthy heart. The question is what to consider moderate consumption. It is clear that too much alcohol is extremely dangerous both for your heart and for blood pressure, not to say about the damage to your liver. So making the difference between useful and harmful may appear the most important point of it.

The original recommendation puts it to be no more than 21 units of alcohol for men and no more that 14 for women per week. A recent study from Harvard informs that only a drink or two a day is good for man with a healthy heart and only one for women. Some people suggest raising the limits. The lowest rate of mortality in Great Britain was concluded for men consuming 21 to 30 units of alcohol per week. Another study found that a bottle of wine daily (meaning 63 units a week) exposes you to the same risk level as for an abstainer.
The opposite views only confirm the fact that reasonable dosage varies with age, health, sex, and race. Other important factors are food that goes with your drink and time of day. By the way, “units” used to form public alcohol policy for about two decades are now said to lack any solid basis. When proposed in 1987 by the British Royal College of Physicians, the guidelines were a kind of intelligent guess. It was never possible to say exactly what was good and what was not.

Instead, there is a much better way than counting units. Most people know it as common sense. You always feel when you have had too much (even not admitting it to yourself or the others). In any way, public health policy won’t help when a person has got problems with his sleep and mood, or even an obvious hangover. In fact, you do not need unit counting to drink safely and moderately.

Remember that the line between healthy shot or two and harmful excess is rather thin, so better to have too little than too much. Excessive alcohol consumption can increase your blood pressure, which is much more dangerous than constant hypertension. In such cases do revise your habits and dosage in order to get rid of a bad feeling about them.

Keeping that in mind, you are welcome to have a drink to healthy glowing cheeks. One should say that moderate drinking is good not only for health but for a healthy public life as well. As a natural way to relive stress and to lower blood pressure, alcohol should not be expelled from our lives.

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