It's been reported for years that moderate drinking (1 to 3 drinks per day) – especially including red wines – is thought to improve heart circulation in some small way.

But now we learn something new.  Specifically, failure to drink moderately may actually increase your risk of dying:

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.

What?  Really?

Of course, if you dig deeper into the article, you see what's going on.  It's not that alcohol serves as some sort of life-giving tonic or anything like that.  It's because alcohol lubricates your sociability, which causes you to meet people better, and having that support network reduces stress, which causes you to live longer.

Um, okay.  Not really the science I was hoping for.  Theoretically, I suppose, the same logic could be used with marijuana.  Just sayin'.