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If you have a few drinks, does the alcohol in your bloodstream act as medication against any microbes in the body?

• There can be a protective effect, but only if the alcohol concentration is high enough. A is one of the few to confirm the benefits of drinking alcohol with a meal. During an oyster-borne outbreak of hepatitis A, those drinking alcohol of 10 per cent strength or higher experienced a protective effect.

I would argue that for the sake of your health total daily consumption should be moderate, the equivalent of two glasses of table wine.

Lewis Perdue, Sonoma, California, US

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This article appeared in print under the headline “Disease-proof”