http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2608193/Bottle-wine-day-not-bad-Leading-scientist-claim-exceed-recommended-does-live-longer-teetotallers.htmlA study by a scientist has shown that people that drink up to 13 units a day live longer than those that don't!
Some people are however genetically predisposed to liver problems due to fat or alcohol, so if you are one of the unlucky ones, then it could cause problems. To me for Europeans this is not much of a surprise as in the middle ages we all drunk beer and mead (including children) as contaminated water made fresh water lethal. In Asia for instance where this was not practiced and a large percentage of the population genetically have problems in breaking down any alcohol, so can't drink it. I suspect that there has been some genetic selection in Europe so we have a certain alcohol tolerance. Contaminated water was also why tea and coffee became popular, as it hides the bitterness of boiled water, which was the other way of killing the bugs in unsafe drinking water.
The Government alcohol limits were decided arbitrarily and this whole area has now become politicised, but drinking until comatose, which many youngsters do at weekends obviously has many other dangers and causes vast expense to the NHS, who have to pick up the pieces.
Unfortunately, there have been no very long term surveys that I'm aware of, for people across the whole drinking spectrum from teetotal to raging alcoholics, so there are no statistics. The health Nazis tend to go for sensational soundbites and headlines, like 400% increase in liver disease from drinking for people in their early 30's. This has gone up from 9 people per year to 36, hardly the danger and epidemic that the health Nazis implied!
Now the health Nazis can see the end game of making smoking illegal, the sights are now firmly on drinking alcohol and what many consider enjoyable foods, as they can't have people enjoying themselves, can they, people must learn to be as miserable as they are.
Currently one of our biggest dangers to health an is an epidemic is type 2 diabetes, there were people around when I was a child who were fat including my mother, but none had type 2 diabetes, so what has changed in our diet or environment that is causing this? Passive and active smoking is known to be a factor, but smoking has gone down dramatically in the last 60 years. Plastics are a suspect and certainly in my parents generation, food tended to be loose and put in paper bags at the greengrocers, white paper at the butchers and soft drinks came in glass bottles. High fat, sugar and salt processed food is another suspect. Considering that diabetes cuts lifespan, typically by about 10 years and has some nasty progressive side effects, if not well controlled, including being a major suspect for causing dementia,
much more money needs to be spent on research into the causes of this disease.