A tipple everyday keeps doctor at bay

A new study, published in `The Lancet` journal, has found that people who down a drink or two daily are not only healthier and but they also possess a lower risk of developing heart disease than those who abstain from alcohol.

In fact, for some people this risk could be reduced by as much as a quarter, the study says, boosting that far from damaging health, modest drinking will improve it.

The study also revealed that low alcohol intake can actually improve blood cholesterol levels and reduce other important compounds in the blood linked to inflammation; it is this process that may help protect the heart and blood vessels from clogging up, the `Daily Express` reported.

The study is actually a review of 84 researches into alcohol and deaths from heart disease.

In the study, the researchers at the Calgary Institute for Population and Public Health in Canada showed that a drink a day reduced the risk of heart disease by between 14 and 25 per cent. It also reduced the risk of dying from heart disease by a quarter and of having a stroke by two per cent.

However, the study found that drinking heavily raises the risk of all these health problems.

In a separate study by the same research team, it found that moderate alcohol intake actually boosted levels of "good" cholesterol and other blood biomarkers which might explain its "healthy heart" effect.

The researchers say that messages about the harms of binge drinking need to be balanced with softer cautions.