Drinking Alcohol Might Be More Important Than Exercise When It Comes To Living Longer

beer cheers

Shutterstock


Unless you’re preparing yourself for some kind of Princess Bride situation at some point in the future, willingly ingesting poison is generally frowned upon. However, that doesn’t stop hundreds of millions of people around the world from doing so each day in the form of alcohol. It’s not exactly a secret that booze can have a vastly negative impact on your life, whether we’re talking about liver damage or the blow to your personal image that comes with someone posting a video of you drunkenly performing “Tubthumping” at karaoke.

With that said, there has been plenty of research over the past few years that suggests drinking can actually be beneficial to your health as long as you’re not crushing a six-pack every single night of the week. Now, a new paper has surfaced that says alcohol could be an important key to living a longer life— and it might be even more beneficial than exercise over the long-term.

The Independent shared the results of a study conducted by University of California neurologist Claudia Kawas, who examined the habits of a number of older people over the span of 15 years to see which activities contributed to a longer life. According to the results, having a couple of drinks per day decreased the risk of an early death by 18% (by comparison, exercising between 15 and 45 minutes a day lowered the risk to 11%).

The results echo those of a study from a few years ago that discovered people who had a couple of drinks per day aged slower than those who abstained. It also contradicts those of another one from last year that said moderate drinking could have a negative impact on your memory, which was in turn contradicted by one that says it might help you remember more.

At this point, I have no idea what the fuck to believe, so I’m just going to go with the evidence that allows me to tell myself my lifestyle habits are a good idea.

 

Connor Toole avatar and headshot for BroBible
Connor Toole is the Deputy Editor at BroBible. He is a New England native who went to Boston College and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. Frequently described as "freakishly tall," he once used his 6'10" frame to sneak in the NBA Draft and convince people he was a member of the Utah Jazz.