The Benefits of Alcohol

Welcome to the 3rd episode of our alcohol series, this week we discuss the perceived benefits of alcohol for our health. As always, our aim is to provide the evidence for you to decide whether alcohol should be apart of your lifestyle and we do so in an unbiased fashion. Within this episode we assess the evidence relating to cardiovascular health, social implications and current uses in therapeutic medicine. There is a lot to discuss and we are aware that we cannot cover everything in this episode, also, please see our references below for any further reading. If you would like to go to a particular section, please click on the time stamp below: 00:07 - What were our initial instincts surrounding alcohol benefits? 04:15 - What are the uses of alcohol? 05:36 - Social benefits of alcohol, what is the evidence? 11:44 - Is alcohol beneficial for your cardiovascular health? 19:30 - Do we agree to alcohol having any benefit? 23:25 - Alcohol use in medicinal formulations 26:25 - Our final opinion and thoughts on alcohol Sign up to our newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/c15c44eee6a0/thechemistcouplepodcast You can also watch this podcast episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAf1zFQF4_dyVG4z8DD0_3Q  As always, this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be used in substitute to seeing a healthcare professional. Any questions, please reach out to us and thanks for listening! Here is a list of the sources that we used to make this podcast: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40750-016-0058-4 https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-023-02911 w#:~:text=The%20“J%2Dshaped”%20relationship,it%20greatly%20increases%20health%20risks. https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-023-02907-6 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2802963 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556147/ https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/scientific-guideline/information-package-leaflet-regarding-ethanol-used-excipient-medicinal-products-human-use_en.pdf https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4370/rr-2 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378517324001273 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1360-0443.1996.911255.x#:~:text=The%20British%20Medical%20Association%20recently,sensible%20drinking%2C%20obtainable%20from%20British Rang & Dale’s Pharmacology 10th edition - general pharmacological overview https://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/ - Alcoholic anonymous