Drink 'saves more lives than it ends' says report

Alcohol may help you live longer - unless it kills you first.​ Proving once again that the tax-payers' money is being well spent by the seemingly endless legions of white-coated boffins toiling away in laboratories up and down the land, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has decided that the demon drink actually saves more lives than it ends.

By number crunching the mortality statistics, the researchers estimated that 13,000 deaths a year can be blamed on alcohol, balanced against around 15,000 lives a year extended by moderate consumption.

Since, by definition, people who die early don't do as well as people who live longer, the statistics 'prove' that younger people are more at risk.

There are around 5,000 deaths a year among men which can be put down to drinking more than 28 units a week, and around 2,000 female deaths due to consuming more than 21 units a week.

Further up the age scale, for men, the benefits of moderate drinking start to kick in at the age of 35. Women have to wait until they are 55 - statistically, at least - to see any benefit.

Drinking between one and two units a day is thought to help protect against coronary heart disease, among other health benefits.

The report based on the research said: "A balance of 2,030 deaths were prevented by alcohol consumption."