It is when a glass or two of wine turns into a bottle that problems can arise. And they can be serious. There are a lot of horrible sounding possibilities including an enlarged liver, yellow jaundice, cirrhosis, hepatitis, emphysema, arthritis, osteoporosis, stomach ulcers, gastritis, epilepsy, angina pectoris and cerebrovascular accidents. Most of these ailments, however, are the result of years of heavy drinking. And it promotes conviviality.
Postmenopausal women can also benefit from an increased level of estrogen stimulated by the alcohol.
Whereas it can reduce the risk of strokes caused by blocked blood vessels, it can increase the risk of other kinds of strokes. There may also be risks to fetuses. The effects of even lower levels of alcohol are still debated in the medical community, but offspring of lab animals given low levels of alcohol during pregnancy resulted in nervous system abnormalities in monkeys and brain damage in rats. When you have younger people dying, it's usually a violet death. Alcohol-induced liver disease remains a major cause of illness and death to older Americans.