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Wouldn’t it be great to live forever? Well, maybe not forever, but long enough to see your grandchildren, or even great-grandchildren, grow up.
Not everyone is lucky enough to achieve that. Still, we are currently seeing more and more people reach an advanced age.
The question is, why are today’s generations living longer than the generations before us?
Of course, quality healthcare and better living conditions play a role. And perhaps something more. That’s exactly what we’ll focus on in this article.
Living longer with wine?
What could be the secret of longevity? One study aptly named the 90+ Study began in 2003 to examine the oldest people, who are today the fastest-growing segment of the population.
The participants in this study were also part of an earlier 1981 study that included over 14,000 people from California. By using information from both studies, researchers were able to find out what allows people to reach their 90s.
The aims were to determine the following:
- Identify factors associated with longevity.
- Investigate the causes of dementia in the oldest people.
- Examine the degree of cognitive and functional decline in the oldest.
- Find clinical-pathological correlations in the group of the oldest people.
- Determine risk factors for mortality and dementia.
Scientists visited study participants twice a year and performed neurological and neurophysiological examinations. They also examined their dietary habits, regularly performed activities, medical history, medications used and other lifestyle factors.
And one of their main findings was that moderate alcohol consumers lived longer than complete abstainers.
How much alcohol does “moderately” mean?
Drinking wine may help you reach an older age, but that doesn’t mean you should drink a whole bottle of wine every day! Excessive alcohol consumption is harmful.
If you’re not sure how much is still healthy and how much is not, the well-known American Mayo Clinic has the answer. It states that for a person over 65 years it is one standard drink. For people under 65 years it is 2 standard alcoholic drinks per day.
A standard drink is considered a small beer with a volume of 0.33 dcl or 0.4 dcl of 40% spirits or 1.5 dcl of wine.
As it turned out, such moderate alcohol drinking brings the following health benefits:
- reduces the risk of developing and dying from heart disease
- reduces the risk of ischemic events (heart attack and stroke)
- reduces the risk of diabetes
So once in a while with dinner or after work, feel free to treat yourself to a glass of beer or wine. Just make sure that it is one, at most two glasses, no more, because excessive alcohol consumption can cause a number of serious health problems.
Unfortunately, excessive drinking is fairly common these days, even though it is known to be highly risky.
How alcohol and exercise help longevity
The key here is the aforementioned moderation, but we must not forget exercise either.
A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine focused on how exercise can negate the consequences of excessive alcohol consumption.
Researchers studied 36,370 participants over 40 years old, whom they divided into 3 groups.
The first group was not very active, the second performed moderate-intensity physical activities and the third exercised the most. They then investigated the effect of alcohol on these 3 groups.
They found that excessive drinking increased the risk of death from all causes. They also found that the more alcoholic drinks a person drinks per week, the greater the risk of cancer.
However, when the recommended amount of physical activity was taken into account (150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise per week), it was able to completely erase the increased risk of cancer.
Exercise also erased the risk of death from all other causes.
Conclusion
These connections between longevity, alcohol and exercise are indeed interesting.
So next time you decide to have a glass of beer or wine, consider going for a short run or otherwise exercising beforehand. That way you’re almost guaranteed to reach your 90s!
