Maybe there is a totally scientific reason why people say, "Salud!" when toasting. Could it be that drinking really is good for your health? Seems like it. A recent study, just in time for the holiday party season, makes the case that moderate drinking is good for your immune system. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University got a bunch of rhesus macaques, a monkey whose immune system closely resembles ours, and did some scientific mumbo jumbo to them and then divided them into two groups: one that was allowed to drink booze and one that wasn't. The results are in and the news is good for moderate drinking monkeys and humans, I'm assuming.
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Basically, what happened to the monkeys is that they got vaccinated for small pox, were then separated into the alcohol drinking and non-alcohol drinking groups, they were observed for 14 months. After 7 months, the monkeys were given another vaccine.
Now, there were monkeys who drank way too much just like some humans do and those monkeys did not produce the antibodies that the body usually makes in response to the vaccine. That leads me to believe that too much booze in monkeys is about as bad as too much booze in humans. Here's the thing though: The monkeys who drank alcohol in moderate amounts had a better immune system response than the monkeys who didn't have any alcohol. That leads me to believe that while you are at parties this holiday season, you should have a couple of drinks to your health!
Salud!! Just don't go gettin' all sloppy drunk 'cause that's no good at all.
Image via Thinkstock
