--- title: Alcohol Health Benefits: A Drink May Help You Live Longer description: A new study finds that light-to-moderate alcohol use is associated with a reduced risk of death, from heart disease and from all causes. canonical: https://time.com/4899823/moderate-drinker-alcohol-health-benefits/ author: Amanda MacMillan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-14T18:52:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:58:50.534Z article:section: Health og:title: Having a Drink May Help You Live Longer og:description: Happy hour may protect your heart, suggests a new study. og:url: https://time.com/4899823/moderate-drinker-alcohol-health-benefits/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2060c899eea79218/698878c9e20a876519a8f085/red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol-motto-stock og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Having a Drink May Help You Live Longer twitter:description: Happy hour may protect your heart, suggests a new study. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2060c899eea79218/698878c9e20a876519a8f085/red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Having a Drink May Help You Live Longer > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Amanda MacMillan](https://time.com/author/amanda-macmillan/) ## Amanda MacMillan Aug 14, 2017 6:52 PM UTC  Molly Cranna for TIME by [Amanda MacMillan](https://time.com/author/amanda-macmillan/) ## Amanda MacMillan Aug 14, 2017 6:52 PM UTC Heavy drinking can contribute to disease and early death, but the [health effects of alcohol](http://time.com/4876998/drinking-wine-diabetes/) at lower levels are less clear. Now, a new study in the _Journal of the American College of Cardiology_ offers some of the best news yet for people who enjoy a daily drink: Light-to-moderate alcohol use is associated with a [reduced risk of death](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2017.06.054) compared with no alcohol consumption at all. In the analysis, more than 333,000 people were surveyed about their alcohol consumption and lifestyle habits and tracked for an average of eight years. Light and moderate drinkers (14 or fewer drinks per week for men and seven or fewer for women) were about 20% less likely to die from any cause during the study’s follow-up period, compared to those who have never consumed alcohol. They were also about 25% to 30% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease. These protective effects were more pronounced in women, white participants, middle-aged and older people and non-smokers. More drinking was not associated with more benefits, however. People who consumed higher-than-moderate amounts were 11% more likely to die of any cause and 27% more likely to die of cancer, compared to the never-drinkers. (No significant link was found between heavy alcohol use and death from cardiovascular disease.) People who binge drank at least once a week—defined as having five or more drinks in one day—were also at increased risk of dying, especially from cancer. Previous findings on this topic have been inconsistent; it can be hard to separate the effects of alcohol itself from other related factors. For example, people who choose not to drink may do so because of underlying medical reasons that can also affect their risk of getting sick or dying early. **MORE**: [Alcohol Is Good for Your Heart — Most of the Time](http://time.com/4709302/alcohol-heart-disease-risk/) But in this analysis, researchers took “rigorous statistical approaches” to address those issues, said co-author Dr. Sreenivas Veeranki, assistant professor in preventive medicine and community health at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in a [press release](https://www.eurekalert.org/pub%5Freleases/2017-08/acoc-lac081017.php). For one, they compared current drinkers to lifetime abstainers, rather than people who used to imbibe but have since stopped. They also adjusted for many demographic, lifestyle and health variables. Yet the researchers saw a clear J-shaped curve for the association between alcohol consumption and mortality. In an accompanying editorial, researchers from the Mediterranean Neurological Institute in Italy wrote that the new findings “supported the conclusion that the J-shaped relationship between alcohol consumption and mortality risk cannot be dismissed, and should guide the formulation of public policies.” The editorial also addresses the fact that women are sometimes advised to limit alcohol to very low levels because it’s been linked to i[ncreased breast cancer risk](http://time.com/4760290/alcohol-breast-cancer/). While younger adults may not see substantial health benefits from moderate drinking, the editorial argues, “for most older persons, the overall benefit of light drinking, especially the reduced \[cardiovascular disease\] risk, clearly outweigh possible cancer risk.” **MORE**: [Here’s What Happens When You Drink Red Wine Every Night](http://time.com/4070762/red-wine-resveratrol-diabetes/) The study authors point out that self-reported data is not always accurate and that because the study was observational, it only shows an association between mortality and alcohol levels, not a cause-and-effect relationship. But overall, they wrote, their research supports previous findings that light-to-moderate drinking “might be protective, especially for \[cardiovascular disease\], but heavy or binge drinking has serious health consequences, including death.” “A balance between beneficial and detrimental effects of alcohol consumption on health should be considered when making individual or population-wide recommendations,” they added, “but the reduction of harmful or high consumption of alcohol remains necessary and essential.” The editorial authors go a step further, arguing that a long-term randomized controlled trial—in which different groups of people are assigned to drink different amounts of alcohol—might help settle the debate about moderate drinking and health outcomes. Until then, they wrote, lifelong abstainers “should not start drinking for health reasons only, but should be encouraged to adopt healthy lifestyles” like regular exercise, not smoking and maintaining a healthy diet and weight. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4899823/moderate-drinker-alcohol-health-benefits/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4899823/moderate-drinker-alcohol-health-benefits/"},"headline":"Having a Drink May Help You Live Longer","datePublished":"2017-08-14T18:52:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:58:50.534Z","description":"A new study finds that light-to-moderate alcohol use is associated with a reduced risk of death, from heart disease and from all causes.","url":"https://time.com/4899823/moderate-drinker-alcohol-health-benefits/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","Beer","Alcohol","liquor","wine","Heart Disease","drinking","cardiovascular disease"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2060c899eea79218/698878c9e20a876519a8f085/red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Amanda MacMillan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/amanda-macmillan/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2060c899eea79218/698878c9e20a876519a8f085/red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol-motto-stock","caption":"red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol-motto-stock","creditText":"Molly Cranna for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4899823/moderate-drinker-alcohol-health-benefits/","name":"Having a Drink May Help You Live Longer"}}]}] ```