Moderate Wine Consumption Could Help You Live Past 90

Celebrating your 90th birthday is an impressive feat, and a team of researchers from Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands has found a potential secret weapon for reaching that milestone. Their study found that men and women who enjoyed an average of one alcoholic beverage per day had a higher probability of reaching age 90 than abstainers and heavy drinkers.

The study, published in Age and Ageing, analyzed data from the Netherlands Cohort Study (NLCS), which collected health questionnaire data from 1986 to 2007 on thousands of participants, including detailed information on alcohol intake. NLCS participants born between 1916 and 1917 were selected for this analysis because of the group’s potential to reach age 90 by the end of the study. The total group of respondents consisted of 2,591 men and 2,888 women from various Dutch municipalities.

Dr. Piet van den Brendt and his research team utilized dietary assessments and a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) to analyze food and drink consumption, lifestyle factors and medical conditions. Respondents who had less than one drink per month were considered nondrinkers. Ex-drinkers were excluded from the main analysis to avoid confusion with nondrinkers.


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