Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research shows that Ayurveda and Yoga is correct about the Dangers of Alcohol
What is your medication to combat the anxiety around Covid-19?
A couple of glasses or more of Cabernet Sauvignon, a tipple of rum, gin, a couple of tins/bottles of craft beer, etc.?
Alcohol is one of the most popular psychoactive substances in the world. It can have powerful effects on our physical and emotional well being.
Having an occasional beer or wine with dinner, or the occasional drink in the evening is not a health problem for most people. However, when it becomes a daily activity, it increases your health risk.
Ayurveda and Yoga warn about the dangers of the daily tipple
If we recall, several years ago, there was much hype around how a glass of wine every day will promote cardiovascular health. If alcohol is indeed a remedy, then doctors would be prescribing a daily glass of wine for patients with cardiovascular disease.
The daily tipple went against the grain of Traditional medicine systems like Ayurveda and Yoga that always promoted the dangers of the daily tipple.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research
A Complementary and Alternative Medicine research study in 2014 investigated a nine-year follow-up data of 783 men and women aged 65 years and older living in two small towns in the Chianti wine-producing region of Tuscany. The study showed that drinking red wine does not increase longevity or reduce the risk of heart disease or cancer. Resveratrol the antioxidant found in both red wine and dark chocolate was found to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in animals, but this study showed it had no effect in humans.
So why is there a contradiction? The evidence showing the benefits of drinking red wine was mainly observational data, i.e. it cannot prove cause and effect but only association. Furthermore, a lot of these studies are funded by wine companies.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine research studies routinely agree with Ayurveda and Yoga practice of alcohol avoidance. A 2011 paper by Testing stated, ‘Most alcohol-induced diseases increases in a linear fashion as intake increases: oral, esophagus and colon cancer fall into this pattern: very little is known about safe margins of alcohol consumption. Given the linear dose-response relation between alcohol intake and risk of cancer, control of heavy drinking remains the main target for cancer control.’
Currently, as we go through the Covid-19 pandemic, some retailers are promoting alcohol as a solution to isolation boredom and depression, and more people are turning to alcohol in this pandemic. Drinking alcohol does not only makes people more vulnerable to Covid-19, but also increases the risks to further health problems on a global-scale post-Covid 19.
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