[pwthornton]

There are plenty of studies that show alcohol is good for people in moderation, unlike smoking. Your friends father's views on alcohol will not happen. Prohibition was a massive failure in the U.S.

In fact, people who drink live longer than those that don't: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2017200,00....

Even heavy drinkers outlive those who abstain. Let that sink in.

The big issue with drinking isn't what happens to one's body, but rather what drinking causes some to do -- drunk driving, rape, assaults, etc. The biggest scourge from drinking is that it causes some people to do terrible things. And while heavy drinking can cause issues with one's body, that pales in comparison to what a drunk can do to others.

[zedshaw]

> The sample of those who were studied included individuals between ages 55 and 65 who had had any kind of outpatient care in the previous three years.

So they sampled a conveniently sick group of elderly men and then "controlled" for all the things that make them elderly men and that showed that the heavy drinkers lived 2nd longest (not the longest)?

I suspect that they probably had to cook their statistics in order to support their hypothesis. You find that when they have to "control for everything", instead of finding research subjects that they can actually randomize and properly control. They probably had so many variables controlled that it was just bound to fit whatever model they came up with.

[DanBC]

[snip]

Whoops! Apologies.

[xiaoma]

I'm guessing you didn't even bother to open the link. It addresses just that question right at the top of the page!

[pwthornton]

The study I linked to controlled for that.