Saturday, 6 April 2019

A Little of What You Fancy?


One can see why the manufacturers of alcohol have always been enthusiastic about apparent claims that 'moderate' drinking of alcohol has a protective effect on the incidence of strokes. A recent study on a Chinese population, who randomly have a gene that makes alcohol consumption uncomfortable (reddening the face and inducing sweats) suggests that the apparent 'protective' effect of booze is due to other factors such as general health of the subjects and their socio-economic status (tps://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/04/even-low-booze-consumption-is-bad-news-for-strokes-study). The study is broadly convincing but there are one or two remaining issues. The population selected may not be entirely reflective of all human societies and alcohol ingestion in the group was largely of spirits (the wine producers are likely to argue that their product is different).

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