Alcohol May Keep Bones Strong

Beer, Wine Seem To Have More Benefit Than Liquor

Men who drink a few beers a day and women who have a few glasses of wine seem to have stronger bones, according to a new study.

Researchers studied more than 2,700 people by finding out how much they drink and checking their bone density in the hips and spine.

Men who had one or two beers a day had bones that were about 4 percent more dense than men who did not drink. But bone strength dropped for men who had more than two drinks a day.

Women who had two or more glasses of wine or liquor a day had 5 to 8 percent denser bones than those who did not drink.

The researchers said in their report that because the benefits seemed to be stronger with beer and wine than with other liquor, it could be that substances besides the alcohol provide the benefit.

In a news release, they suggested it could be silicon in beer and resveratrol in wine.

They cautioned that excessive drinking has many negative effects.

The results were published in the April 2009 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.