Here They Go Again…
It was only a week ago that we were celebrating “Drink Wine Day” and its health benefits. And then this morning I heard about another study with negative conclusions attributed to drinking alcohol. Don’t you wish those scientists would get their stories straight?
It was reported on this morning’s “Today Show” that the results of a British study show a correlation between women drinking alcohol and their increased risk for breast, rectal and liver cancer. That’s not to say that the good benefits of wine, reducing heart attacks and strokes in women, have been challenged. And, in fact, the risk of renal, thyroid, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma are decreased.
So what’s a girl to do? To drink, or not to drink – to misquote a beloved bard – is the question of the day. Is it better to reduce our chances of developing breast and other cancers, or to minimize our chances of developing heart disease and strokes? I suppose the most important lesson from today’s news is that if you were a person who drank for merely “medicinal” purposes, it’s probably not a prescription you should continue to follow.
Personally, I will continue to drink alcohol in moderation. For generations many older people have imbibed wine with dinner or beers at a picnic and have lived to a ripe old age. I enjoy wine, an occasional cocktail, or shot of whiskey, and I’m not going to become a prohibitionist just because of another piece of scientifically contradictory information. I believe that despite these studies, there’s more at work than meets the eye. And I believe our scientists are still limited in their understanding of how our bodies work as a whole.
Comments
Got something to say?