It would be a lie to say that an occasional drink with your friends or colleagues is wrong or not fun. Alcohol, whether we like it or not, has been playing a massive role in our society for thousands of years. And it would be very hard to deny that to some extent its role will maintain its relevance for all the years to come. However, as many of you already know, regular consumption can lead to an abusive behavior and in some cases an addiction.

There are many reasons why people could take on drinking to cope with difficult times or emotions they don’t want to deal with, and when that happens, the thin line between your normal average occasional drinker and an alcoholic fades into nothing and can destroy and dismember our life and achievements.

Nevertheless, if we are responsible and careful, moderate consumption, besides giving a little spark to the moment, will also bring some health benefits that along with a healthy lifestyle, including a well-balanced diet and exercise can result in a positive and happy future.

Here are 5 benefits from moderate alcohol consumption:

It reduces the risk of heart problems

When we consume alcohol in a moderated and responsible manner we’re actively helping our blood to avoid clotting issues as a collateral effect on our blood pressure. A higher level of HDL or high-density lipoprotein gives your body much better protection from all sorts of heart diseases.

It can give you a longer life

You might have already heard about how it’s actually recommendable to have one glass of wine a day. Right? Well, this is where that comes into play. According to some studies from the Catholic University of Campobasso, moderate drinking, more specifically during meals, can help to reduce the risk of death by up to 18% which is quite surprising seeming it can do so much harm when it goes from moderate to abusive behavior.

Red wine, as well as beer, has a wide range of health benefits that have only been discovered relatively recently. Having less than four drinks, in the case of males and two for females, has proven to have positive effects especially in regards to blood pressure and heart performance.

It will help you in bed

Contrary to popular belief, moderate and responsible drinking can actually help you in bed. All jokes aside, and leaving out the fact that it indeed helps teenagers to make some bad decisions at parties. Healthy amounts of alcohol can reduce chances of erectile dysfunction by up to 30%. This, of course, means in no way that the more you drink the better you will perform, if anything, the study that obtained such conclusion said that further research was needed and that in no way were they trying to encourage men to drink more.

It is safe to say that regular, moderate alcohol consumption alone is not in any way enough to ensure a healthy lifestyle. And an increase in its intake might actually bring bigger and worse problems when it starts to become difficult to differentiate whether you’re still in control of your drinking or if your drinking controls you. Exercise and a balanced diet, along with good habits make all important pieces of the puzzle.

It might help you to avoid the common cold

Quite surprisingly enough, recent studies done by the Carnegie Mellon University concluded that while people who smoke become more likely to catch a cold, those who have an average moderate consumption level of alcohol, while not being smokers, reduced their chances of getting sick quite noticeably.

Smoking has no benefits whatsoever, which is why it isn’t so hard to imagine that in a way it can contribute to getting a cold much easier. But how moderate drinking actually helps to prevent getting sick is still, for the most part, quite a surprise.

It helps your brain to stay fit

While abusing alcohol can seriously damage your brain, moderate consumption, if it really is indeed moderated, can actually help your brain cells to toughen up.

Moderate drinkers have 23% less chance of suffering from dementia, Alzheimer’s and other brain-related diseases because alcohol in small amounts stresses our brains cells enough to make them work a bit harder and this results in them becoming stronger.

We in no way are encouraging non-drinkers to start drinking to give their brain cells a work out. There are plenty of other ways for you to exercise your brain to decrease the risk of any mental disease. It only goes to show that with a healthy and responsible lifestyle every single little thing that we take on can have a benefit and a role to play.

It reduces chances of gallstones and diabetes

The University of East Anglia found after research that moderate and responsible consumption of alcohol amongst patients reduced chances of getting gallstones by one-third, while having a noticeable effect on lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Further study and research has to be done in order to grant stronger evidence in regards to all these findings. However, it has been proven that moderate consumption of alcohol, along with a healthy lifestyle does have positive effects on our lives in general while increasing the intake and making it a regular habit can have disastrous consequences, which may develop into life changing circumstances that could destroy everything you have and love.

If you’d like to ask a question or would simply like to suggest any other health benefits moderate consumption of alcohol can bring to your life, feel free to leave a comment below.