10 Surprising health benefits of alcohol

Alcohol ruins your body right? It kills brain cells. It destroys your kidneys. It makes you fat. But while we’ve heard these lines from countless people, how many of them have actually stopped to do their research? In fact, there are actually several surprising health benefits of alcohol. So, the next time your great Aunt Mary tries to shame you, come back at her with one of these fascinating facts.

1.  On the contrary, it can lengthen your life. That’s right Aunt Mary, those who consume moderate amounts of alcohol have shown to increase levels of ‘good cholesterol’, which acts as protection against heart disease. According to Harvard University, alcohol may also prevent small blood clots that ultimately cause heart attack or stroke.

2. And reduces risk of diabetes. This specifically refers to type II diabetes, but diabetes nonetheless. Alcohol is a known deterrent of type II diabetes.

3. Better sex drive? Yes please. For men this usually means preventing against erectile dysfunction. Studies indicate that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol decrease the risk of erectile dysfunction. For both men and women, red wine is especially known for increasing drive and performance. So, while you may not want to toss a whole bottle back, a couple glasses of wine at the table, can do glorious things in bed.

4. It (red wine) can help you lose weight. In truth, not all alcohol is created equally, so we would t want you to go around thinking drinking a beer is the same as drinking a glass of red wine. However if you are an avid red wine drinker, red wine can actually help you burn fat. This is due to the antioxidants that encourage the growth of bacteria in the stomach. These antioxidants improve the digestion process overall.

5. Most delicious remedy for the common cold. By remedy, we mean prevention, but either way it’s a new reason to love your favorite drink right? Keep in mind this only applies to non smokers that consume moderate amounts of alcohol, otherwise smokers that consume alcohol show an increases risk. Studies indicate that wine, especially red wine, has the best results for preventing the common cold and can reduce your chances by 60%.

6. Alcohol can improve your creativity. If you’ve ever felt like you’ve had the best ideas while consuming alcohol, it’s no surprise. Alcohol content stimulates the imagination and generates creativity. If you ever have writer’s block, or creator’s block, drinking a glass of cranberry and vodka can especially relax the mind and help your ideas flow more naturally.

7. It can also improve your memory. And therefore lower your risk of dementia.  Research shows that moderate drinkers are 23% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other memory impairments than non alcohol drinkers. In layman’s terms, small amounts of alcohol stresses the cells a bit, so that they are better able to cope with and survive major stressors.

8. Bye bye gallstones. If you don’t know what gallstones are, the simple way to put it is: they’re not pretty. A gallstone is a small, hard, crystallized mass that forms in the gall bladder abnormally.  Fortunately all it takes is two units of alcohol per day to reduce the risk of gallstones by one-third.

9. No heart disease, and no stroke. Alcohol behaves in a similar way throughout the body to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.

10. You can’t have a healthy party without it. I mean a good party is equally as critical to our health as anything right? Now you just have 10 more reasons to serve it.