This is Trending in Minnesota, and Might be Great for Your Health

The last few weeks, and maybe even the last couple of months have been filled with a lot of eating, drinking, hanging out with a lot of people, parties, and more.  So when January rolls around, people head to the gym, try to eat better and then there is also this... Dry January.

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This has been a trend that has been more and more popular throughout the last few years.  And I know of quite a few people who are at least making an attempt at doing a dry January.  But now, we find out that there is much more to this than we may have though according to some new findings.

There is now a push to put a warning on alcohol - all alcohol - that state that it can lead to some forms of cancer.  The warning would be much like the warnings that are on a pack of cigarettes.  But, in order to get this warning on alcohol, there would need to be  congressional approval.

Alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the U.S., behind tobacco and obesity, according to the surgeon general’s report. It estimates that alcohol contributes to nearly 100,000 cancer cases and about 20,000 cancer deaths annually.

There are guidelines for drinking too. But they also state that staying within the guidelines may still increase the risk of cancer.  By the way, the guidelines recommend that there should only be one drink per day for women and only two drinks per day for men.

The question of this comes up - what if you only drink one or two days a week?  That's probably better, but not if you binge drink; meaning that you drink as much in those one or two days as they recommend for the week.  That's not good either.

We all know that there have also been health benefits reported with some alcohol such as red wine.

Some studies over the years have pointed to potential health benefits of drinking in moderation. That includes research suggesting that the antioxidants in red wine could improve heart health, and a December report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine that said moderate drinking is linked to a lower risk of death than abstaining from alcohol.

Obviously, some doctors and scientists are not at all convinced of the "health benefits".  This is not surprising that they would say this, and also, it seems like every month there is some new report on either alcohol in moderation being bad or good.  So, just try and live a healthy life and make good decisions.

Happy Dry January!