Normally when researchers come out with new information about women's health and more specifically menopause, the news is not good. Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health have released the results of a study that has shown that have one drink a day can improve a woman’s health overall as they age.
How exciting is that? Yes, you heard correctly, you can have one martini a day or a glass of wine as you age into your 50s and 60s and you will be healthier at age 70 than those who abstain from alcohol or those who indulge in more than one drink per day. If you enjoy your chardonnay you can now say with confidence, a glass of chardonnay a day keeps the doctor away or if you prefer, a Sam Adams.
The study was conducted in conjunction with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The results were published in PLoS Medicine a peer-reviewed medical journal. Entitled "Alcohol Consumption at Midlife and Successful Aging in Women: A Prospective Cohort Analysis in the Nurses Health Study”, the study is based on data provided by 121,700 female nurses who enrolled in the United States Nurses Health study which has been going on since 1976.
The study concentrated on women who were not heavy drinkers and who lived to be over 70. This involved 13, 984 participants. The results seem to indicate that in this group, women who had any single alcoholic drink every day during middle age had better health in general than women who drank nothing or who had more than two drinks at one time.
The researchers, QI Sun, Mary K. Townsend, Olivia I. Okereke, Eric B. Rimm, Frank B. Hu Meir J. Stampfer and Francine Grodstein, used the term “successful aging” to describe the positive condition of the participants. Successful aging was considered as being free of 11 major chronic diseases and having no major cognitive impairment, physical impairment, or mental health limitations.
The nurses were given a validated food frequency questionnaire. Of the nurses who participated and lived to at least 70, 98.1 percent were deemed to have not been heavy drinkers in middle age and these were the questionnaires that were considered for the study. Factors such as smoking were also taken into consideration.
One other aspect of the drinking that was taken into account, the amount and frequency of the drinking. Did the participants indulge in one drink a day or did they indulge in a week’s worth of drinks in just one or two occasions? Spreading it out over the entire week was deemed to be the preferred method.
The conclusion was that if you drink one drink a day for from five to seven days a week you will receive more benefit than if you don’t drink at all or have more than one drink at a time one to four days a week. Women who drank between 3-15 drinks a week had a 28 percent better chance of aging successfully.
Women who have one drink a day for at least 5 days a week have almost double the chance of being healthy at 70 over women who drink nothing at all. Having a glass of wine with dinner or beer with lunch really can help you to be healthier after 70. So raise a glass of the alcoholic beverage of our choice and toast successful aging for yourself and all the other woman in their 50s and 60s that you know.
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