My spouse was a heavy drinker (about 10 beers a day) and had a TIA (a "mini stroke") in the right eye. After alcohol addiction treatment and almost two years of sobriety, there has not been even one more incident of TIA since. Most people who suffer TIAs suffer more than one and it ultimately leads to a significant stroke or death. I absolutely believe there is a connection between alcohol and strokes. We lived it. I wouldn't say we're out of the woods, but it can't be coincidence that the drinking ended and so, too, did the TIAs.

Heavy drinking kills in any number of ways, no doubt about it. But moderate drinking? I doubt it.

Are you willing to take that risk?! I think there are plenty of people out there who are!

This is why physicians will always ask a standard question, "Are you drinker, do you usually have more that 2 standard drinks of alcohol per day?", or some variation thereof. Apparently that number is some kind of a line in the sand that should be well heeded (with occasional exceptions for normal healthy people I would think - though not a medical approach, my MD would say).

My grandfather drank wine every night of his life and lived to be 98 years old. Grandma never drank and died of a stroke...go figure.