I don’t drink any alcohol at all these day, not for at least 15 years. I use to be a limited social drinker and I enjoyed wine, mainly noble reds and s few decent whites and the odd pint. My decision wasn’t because of a problem with alcohol, it was due to me having to take warfrin and statins. Even a half a pint of decent cider or a single glass of a good red would give me a hangover for days, worse than that, I really felt ill. I only had a few sips at social events or celebrations. I steered clear of the stuff.
I was, and am, pretty fit for my age and we live mainly on a mediterranean-style diet, and also have crazy Collie who needs regular walks.
The reason for my first set of blood clots is a mystery as I was a regular gym “goer” and I was training for a London marathon when I had my first.
However, I have recently stopped taking the statins as I firmly believe that this is the reason why I had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (March 2017). Since then I have doing the BSD diet. I didn’t need to loose much weight and as I’m doing well with the diet my doctor has halved my medication and it looks like I’ll be able to stop altogether, if everything goes according to plan.
Since stopping the statins I had the occasion to have a glass of wine on our anniversary. I was surprised that I had no side effects the next day. Another reason to stop taking statins.
Plus a few days ago there was an announcement on Radio 4’s Today programme of some studies into alcohol and type 2 diabetes. Apparently a few drinks spread over a week is beneficial to ones health and actually holds type 2 diabetes at bay. This contradicts the advice that alcohol is not advisable.

Any ideas?

Here are 2 links, there are others if you “google” them:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/28/regular-alcohol-consumption-diabetes-risk-study
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2012-05-31-half-unit-alcohol-day-best-health

That’s a really interesting article however I can’t really believe it. It’s a pity that there are no reasons mentioned why it could lower the risk of diabetes because that would be really interesting I think.
But I have already heard quite often that red wine (in moderation of course) is said to have to positive effects on our health. Would be interested in hearing some thoughts on it.

Whilst looking for something else I trolled through the Health pages of a major UK newspaper and was amazed to find several different articles about alcohol and mainly women. One, alcohol increased the risk of breast cancer, two, alcohol reduces the incidence of heart disease, three alcohol makes women fatter than it does for men, four, alcohol decreases dementia risk, five, alcohol increased risk of dementia, six, oh this is where I get fed up of reading but now know I can eat chocolate 5 times a week to reduce my weight but only if I am really fat and coffee increases / decreases risk of alzheimers. I give up – just eat a variety of healthy foods, drink in moderation and enjoy life.

There must be some truth in this. I only have myself as an example.

Early this October after my last visit to the Doctor regarding my latest blood test results I had the good news that I have managed to reverse my diabetes. I attribute it to following The Blood Sugar Diet. Okay, I did take longer than the 8 weeks. I was advised to stretch the time, but I did it.

I also introduced the odd glass of red wine now and then. Also with not taking the statins, I have no adverse side effects. I do limit myself, only having one or two glasses at a time, but only once or twice a week.

As long as I stick to a healthy weight and a sensible diet suggested by The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet and the accompanying recipe book and let our mad dog take me on walks, I should be okay.

Despite what the puritans out there would have you believe, wine in moderation has a lot of benefits — including helping prevent diabetes.
There was a very interesting article last week in the New York Times (don’t recall which day, maybe Saturday?) about the issue of RISK and how poorly risk is described to the general public.
An example was alcohol consumption which has a 1% correlation to breast cancer (as I recall) and drinking more increases your risk 30%.
30%!! That SOUNDS terrible, a 30% increase in breast cancer risk!!
BUT, the increase is from 1% to 1.3% — yes, an absolute 30% increase but still very small overall.
Meanwhile, there was large reduction in heart attacks, something that kills many more women than breast cancer.
The article pointed out that if we were given the full information, we could make smart choices and understand risk better AND, more importantly, not just write it all off because it seems like EVERYTHING causes cancer (which makes us just give up).
We would make smarter and more informed choices.

@californiagirl, I’m totally with you when you say that it seems like everything causes cancer! I think as long as you eat balanced then everything is fine – also alcohol, sugar, meat and everything else that’s debated all the time. It’s just that some people consume huge amounts of it and don’t include vegetables and fruits in their daily meals.