We've probably all read studies showing that drinking in moderation is
better for overall health than even abstaining.  Looks like those
studies were biased.

Instead of looking at the health of long-term abstainers, the studies
included lots of people who had recently quit drinking FOR HEALTH
REASONS.  They either had diseases or were at high risk for them.
Including such people in the "abstainers" category seriously skewed
the mortality rates.

The thing that boggles me is that the LARGE MAJORITY of studies on
alcohol consumption were done this way.

Those studies that compared long term abstainers and long term
moderate drinkers found NO DIFFERENCE in overall health.  So while
moderate drinking doesn't help you, it doesn't hurt you either.

From an LA Times article:

"The findings were released online in the journal Addiction Research
and Theory.

Fillmore's team identified 54 papers that examined the health effects
of drinking. They found that the vast majority of the papers included
significant numbers of people who had recently quit drinking with the
group who abstained from alcohol. Many of those people did so because
of advancing age or serious illness, and might have faced a greater
likelihood of disease and death.

Seven of the studies had only long-term abstainers.

All seven of those studies showed no benefit from moderate drinking."