GET ready for a tipple of your favourite medicine. One of the biggest studies into drinking has found that wine, beer and even a daily tot of whisky can lengthen your life and protect the body against the diseases of ageing.

Scientists have found that regular but moderate consumption of alcohol by the middle-aged can protect against some of Britain’s biggest killers, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s disease.

The effect of up to two drinks a day for women and three for men is so marked that some researchers believe that middle-aged people should treat alcohol like a dietary supplement.

“The results show that alcohol can be good for your health provided you adopt a careful drinking style,” said Professor Morten Gronbaek from the Centre for Alcohol Research in Denmark.

“Age-related diseases like thrombosis take a long time to develop but alcohol seems able to delay it by years.”

In his study, to be published in the British Medical Journal, Gronbaek monitored 57,000 Danes, aged 55-65, to find links between their drinking habits and death rates. He found that people who drank little and often had a significant reduction in mortality.

The study is still following the Danes but early signs are that such drinkers will live up to several years longer than heavy drinkers or teetotallers.

Gronbaek also suggests a likely mechanism for the effect. Blood tests showed that the alcohol was reducing the blood levels of harmful cholesterols — fats that can clog arteries — and increasing the levels of beneficial high-density lipids.

Alcohol also reduced blood’s tendency to form clots, a crucial factor in strokes and heart attacks. However, both benefits disappeared in heavy or binge drinkers.

His results are supported by a second study by Alun Evans, professor of epidemiology at Queen’s University Belfast, who believes he has solved the so-called “French paradox” — the ability of the French to thrive on relatively large amounts of red wine and other drinks at levels known to increase heart disease elsewhere.

Evans’s study, comparing British drinkers with their French counterparts, found that the latter tended to drink a little every day and confirmed Gronbaek’s finding that this was associated with lower cholesterol and reduced blood pressure.

The British tended to binge-drink at the end of the week — resulting in higher blood pressure as they recover from Sunday to Tuesday. High blood pressure is strongly linked to increased risk of heart attack.

Older research had suggested that it is only red wine that has health benefits but the new studies indicate that the effect can be seen with any alcohol.One, led by Professor Eric Rimm of Harvard medical school, shows that for middle-aged men up to two drinks a day could halve the risk of heart attack — and that whisky and beer are just as effective as wine. The risk of diabetes is also reduced, by 36%.

The apparent benefits of alcohol are wide-ranging. Unpublished research by David Reid, professor of rheumatology at the University of Aberdeen, showed that it could help to ward off osteoporosis, or age- related thinning of the bones.

His study into 3,000 menopausal and post-menopausal women shows that those who drank a little each day had higher bone density, especially in their hips and spines, than teetotallers or heavier drinkers. The effect was the same for wine, beer or spirits.

Oliver James, professor of medicine at the University of Newcastle, said the benefits of alcohol for older people were becoming clear. “Moderate alcohol intake does appear to reduce the risk of degenerative or age-related diseases including diabetes, stroke and heart disease,” he said.

He warned, however, that for the under-25s the opposite was true, with no apparent benefits to health. James added that excessive drinking has become the single biggest cause of premature death in young adults through road accidents, violence and inhalation of vomit.

The Portman Group, which represents drinks manufacturers, emphasised that binge drinking was damaging but added: “It is good news that it’s any kind of alcohol, not just red wine, that can have a significant protective effect on your heart and health.”

Additional reporting: Michael Fox

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