Flutterby™! : Heavy Drinkers live longer than Abstainers

Heavy drinkers outlive non-drinkers.

But a new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that — for reasons that aren't entirely clear — abstaining from alcohol does actually tend to increase one's risk of dying even when you exclude former drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers' mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers.

As a current non-drinker, I hope there's some prophylactic effect from my youthful overindulgences...