How can Alcohol be Good for you and How much Alcohol is Good for Health

Drinking Alcohol daily in moderation is beneficial to our circulatory system and to our heart. This fact first came to be noticed by doctors in the early 1900s, when they did autopsies on people who had died of liver cirrhosis due to excessive drinking. These doctors noticed that all these dead victims of alcohol abuse had very clean blood vessels. There were absolutely no signs of Atherosclerosis, the build-up of cholesterol inside their arteries. So the idea was born that alcohol may help in keeping our arteries clean. Even though the health problems associated with alcohol are a well known fact the question 'is Alcohol good for your Heart? was raised. Several research studies have reported the benefits of moderate drinking – up to two standard drinks.

To quote from the New York Times "By now, it is a familiar litany. Study after study suggests that alcohol in moderation may promote heart health and even ward off diabetes and dementia. The evidence is so plentiful that some experts consider moderate drinking — about one drink a day for women, about two for men — a central component of a healthy lifestyle.
But what if it’s all a big mistake?
For some scientists, the question will not go away. No study, these critics say, has ever proved a causal relationship between moderate drinking and lower risk of death — only that the two often go together. It may be that moderate drinking is just something healthy people tend to do, not something that makes people healthy......more"

Moderate drinking: Drinking in moderation is defined as having no more than 2 drinks per day for men if you're a male 65 and younger, or one drink a day if you're a female or a male 66 and older.

Standard drink:

A standard drink is defined as
      »12 oz (355 ml.) normal beer (5% alcohol).
      »5 oz. (150 ml.) glass of wine (12.5% alcohol).
      »1.5 oz. (45 ml.) of 80 proof distilled spirits like gin or whiskey (40% alcohol).

In the United States, the 'Proof scale' of measurement is used, with the proof of a alcohol being double the ABV - Alcohol By Volume. A 40% ABV spirit contains 40% pure Alcohol by Volume. Thus a 40% ABV spirit is 80 proof. Straight whiskey is 40% ABV or 80 proof.