Moderate drinking makes you 25% to 40% less likely to have a heart attack, stroke, or hardened arteries.

Question

Small amounts of alcohol can raise your HDL or "good" cholesterol" levels. Not to mention that moderate drinkers are far more likely to exercise than people who don't drink, and they may even get more healthy effects from it, as well as prevent or make it less likely for someone to get kidney stones. Furthermore, alcohol makes you more social, which decreases the risk of mental health illnesses, as well as helps the brain due to the fact that it decreases the risk of alzheimer's.

Comments

I've also been seeing this go around the internet. I've seen that the Mayo Clinic has evidence that SUGGETS that drinking moderately can help but I think there needs to be more research on proving it actually benefits you.
https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/balancing-the-risks-benefits-of-alcohol

Answer 1

The main claim of this factcheck is true, however, more context is necessary for fully understanding the implications of such a statement. Moderate drinking does reduce risks of CAD [coronary artery disease] due to its effects of managing stress stimulation, yet long-term drinking also reduces the performance of the amagydala as well as increases the risk of cancer. As The Harvard Gazette states in their article More evidence moderate drinking is good for your heart. Also: a reason: "Yet while light/moderate drinkers lowered their risk for cardiovascular disease, the study also showed that any amount of alcohol increases the risk of cancer." The effects of light/moderate long-term drinking on the amygdala's function and cancer risk are further by research done by Mayo Clinic and the National Library of Medicine. Furthermore, there are many other conditional factors that play in as well, such as age, genetics, history of family substance abuse, and time of day as seen in this Mayo Clinic article.

Sources:

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(13)01002-1/fulltext

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/06/is-drinking-in-moderation-good-for-your-heart/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6761693/

Comments

I really appreciate your analysis of this claim. Your sources are all very credible sources and are clearly laid out in your response. I also liked how you didn't entirely dismiss the claim, but added another part that further explains your own claim. Adding more information that helps expand the context is a great way to highlight a claim, but advance it further. This particular claim can also be dangerous in some ways, so it's good that you explained the dangers of it as well.

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I think it's really important how you pointed out the claim was really only half true and that there is actually a lot more context surrounding it. Having those direct quotes about how drinking can help but also harm helps to get your point across well. I also appreciate how you pointed out that research is still being done to learn more about this situation.