Thanks, this was very informative and a good contrast to other articles about the supposed ‘health benefits’ of alcohol. I get a bit fed up with those types of articles when the truth is that alcohol is a drug, it’s not healthy. Most drugs have positive and negative effects but alcohol is the only drug where some people have this false perception that it is healthy in some way, which can be a dangerous belief in my opinion. We don’t claim that any other drug is healthy, why alcohol?

My ex used to drink a small glass of red wine every day because she had read that it was good for your health — she rarely drank alcohol at any other time and for any other reason (not for pleasure, socialising etc). But when a person takes a drug every day, in whatever small amounts each time (and for whatever reason), there’s always the risk that the drug use can escalate. Better not to use drugs at all unless the benefits of taking a drug outweigh the negatives.