Study Looks At The Health Effects Of Alcohol On The Over 50 Crowd
By Dr. Brian McDonough
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- An interesting study has looked at alcohol intake and the health effects in people over the age of 50.
The information was gained from the Health Survey For England, which looked at 53,000 participants and followed them for six to ten years. What the researchers found? There's not much of an advantage to drinking alcohol over the age of 50.
The survey found that people often don't metabolize alcohol as well at that age, and people in that age range often may take medications which interact with alcohol.
The exception to those findings? One group did have some benefit: women over the age of 65.
If women 65 and older drank 5 alcoholic beverages per week, they were 27% less likely to die during the study, compared to women who didn't drink at all.
Researchers are not sure why, but they do know that those who drank very little in the years leading up to the age of 50 tended to fare better.
