[chrisweekly]

smoking - yes, it's incontrovertible. drinking - less clear; mortality rates for teetotallers (total abstinence) are higher than for even moderate to heavy drinkers, and there are health benefits from eg 1-2 servings of red wine. IMHO the issue is the degree to which people slip from a drink or maybe 2, to 3 or maybe 4.

[strstr]

Most people that are sick stop drinking. This polluted the early studies on alcohol safety.

More recent studies have pointed in the direction of “no safe quantity of alcohol”.

[chrisweekly]

Thanks. Wish I had a citation handy; I do recall reading a decent one that accounted for that, looking at lifelong habits. (shrug)