<p>A study touts the benefits of moderate drinking
</p>
<p> Does a drink a day keep heart attacks away? Over the past 20
years, numerous studies have found that moderate alcohol consumption--say, one or two beers, glasses of wine or cocktails daily--helps to prevent coronary heart disease. Last week a report
in the New England Journal of Medicine added strong new evidence
in support of that theory. More important, the work provided
the first solid indication of how alcohol works to protect the
heart.
</p>
<p> In the study, researchers from Boston's Brigham and Women's
Hospital and Harvard Medical School compared the drinking habits
of 340 men and women who had suffered recent heart attacks with
those of healthy people of the same age and sex. The scientists
found that people who sip one to three drinks a day are about
half as likely to suffer heart attacks as nondrinkers are. The
apparent source of the protection: those who drank alcohol had
higher blood levels of high-density lipoproteins, or HDLs, the
so-called good cholesterol, which is known to ward off heart
disease.
</p>
<p> As evidence has mounted, some doctors have begun recommending
a daily drink for cardiac patients. But most physicians are
not ready to recommend a ritual happy hour for everyone. The
risks of teetotaling are nothing compared with the dangers of
too much alcohol, including high blood pressure, strokes and
cirrhosis of the liver--not to mention violent behavior and
traffic accidents. Moreover, some studies suggest that even
moderate drinking may increase the incidence of breast and colon
cancer. Until there is evidence that the benefits of a daily
dose of alcohol outweigh the risks, most people won't be able
to take a doctor's prescription to the neighborhood bar or liquor
