Large-scale research suggests that drinking alcohol in older age may lower mortality risk. However, the scientists are cautious about potential biases in their own research and say that more research is necessary.

Share on Pinterest Does moderate drinking in older age have any health benefits? A new study investigates.

The debate around the potential health benefits of alcohol has been ongoing.

Some studies have suggested that moderate alcohol consumption extends life and protects the heart, while others have negated these benefits, arguing that the former studies are flawed and that there is no such thing as safe alcohol consumption.

For instance, some studies have suggested that light to moderate drinking helps protect women against stroke, and other studies have put this benefit down to resveratrol, the active compound in red wine.

Moderate drinking — sometimes defined as 2–7 glasses of wine per week — may also keep depression at bay, according to some research, although the same study showed that heavy drinking increased depression risk.

When it comes to the cardiovascular benefits of alcohol, the results are mixed. Some suggest that moderate consumption of wine and beer, but not spirits, protects against cardiovascular disease, while other results point to protective benefits of drinking vodka as well as wine.

However, many of the participants in these studies had a generally healthful lifestyle and adhered to a healthful Mediterranean diet, so it is hard to ascertain the precise role of alcohol in these results.

Furthermore, people’s drinking habits change with time, so it’s hard to track the effects of alcohol. Some researchers have warned that the available data are “not sufficient to recommend drinking to anyone.”

But now, the results of a new, large-scale study are in. The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is “one of the largest and most rigorous” studies on alcohol consumption and death risk in the United States, and a new report has presented the findings of a 16-year follow-up period.

The results appear in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.Katherine Keyes, Ph.D., an associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, in New York, is the first and corresponding author of the study.