Why doubt the connection between alcohol and health?
As the studies linking alcohol began to mount, some researchers and physicians in the field became suspicious about whether alcohol was truly behind many of the benefits it was being linked to. Some of the conditions alcohol supposedly helped included deafness, hip fractures, the common cold, cancers, birth complications, and dementia, many of which didn’t have an obvious reason for being connected. In fact, low-level alcohol consumption even seemed to lower the risk of birth defects and liver cirrhosis even though both are caused by alcohol consumption. The results seemed to indicate that something else might be going on.