The Daily Double: For Best Results, Try Two Drinks a Day for a Man, One Drink for a Woman

L.A. Times writer Susan Brink delivers the welcome advice: moderate drinking is a good thing. In fact, it looks like a far far better thing than not drinking at all. Brink reports that a study published last week in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that
light to moderate alcohol consumption in people age 70 to 79 is
associated with significantly lower rates of cardiac events and longer
survival. A week earlier, she reminds us, researchers reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology that moderate alcohol
consumption may help ward off development of heart failure.
Brink says those studies join dozens of others in showing that a drink a day for a
woman, two for a man, is good for heart health. Studies from at least
20 countries in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia consistently
show that moderate drinkers have rates of heart disease between 20 percent and
40 percent lower than abstainers or heavy drinkers, according to the National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.  Other research is showing exactly how alcohol is beneficial — and how to use it to best effect.