A little alcohol every day may increase life expectancy and drinking small amounts of wine (about a half a glass a day) was linked to the lowest levels of cardiovascular death and death from all causes. Long-term, light alcohol intake compared to no alcohol intake was associated with a 36 percent lower relative risk of all-cause death and a 34 lower relative risk of cardiovascular death.

Dutch researchers presented these findings of a study into the effects of alcohol consumption and death risk at the American Heart Association’s 47th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Diseae Epidemiology and Prevention.

“Our study showed that long-term, light alcohol intake among middle-aged men was associated not only with lower cardiovascular and all-cause death risk, but also with longer life expectancy at age 50,” said Martinette T. Streppel, lead author of the study and a Ph.D. student in the Division of Human Nutrition at Wageningen University and National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in Bilthoven, The Netherlands. “Furthermore, long-term light wine consumption is associated with a further protective effect when compared to that of light-to-moderate alcohol intake of other types.”

The study followed 1,373 men born between 1900 and 1920 over a period of 40 years.

Light wine intake associated with longer life expectancy in men