OK, Maybe Moderate Drinking Doesn’t Lengthen Life

After years of research supporting the convenient theory that moderate drinking can add a few years to one’s life, along comes a researcher from Australia, of all places, claiming that those studies failed to factor in the likelihood that many non-drinkers don’t drink because they’re not in good health. So, yes, of course they die sooner than the rest of us. The Aussies took a deep look at 87 studies, and discarded those that failed to factor in poor health as the reason for not drinking. Uh-Oh. A media release from Australia’s National Drug Research Institute reports that the remaining studies painted a different picture, one in which moderate drinkers no longer showed a longevity advantage. Oops.