This would require evidence of many young deaths from alcohol abuse. As far as I know, even heavy drinkers are pretty unlikely to die from their habit before age 50. Moderate drinkers, reflected as the healthiest in the study, are tremendously unlikely to die from alcohol abuse early in their lives.
And again, maybe the reason non-drinkers show as much longevity as they do is because those are the ones who have an increased resistance to the negative effects of abstinence. Maybe most of them die much younger. Since non-drinkers are such a minority in most places, this is actually more likely, since the die-off would be less noticeable than if everybody who drank an occasional beer dropped dead at age 40. (I still don't think this is likely either, incidentally.)
> This would require evidence of many young deaths from alcohol abuse. As far as I know, even heavy drinkers are pretty unlikely to die from their habit before age 50.
Don't forget people who have died as a result of accidents while intoxicated (driving drunk, etc.) or have been incarcerated for drunken infractions. They may be excluded from those statistics, adding a kind of bias. Not sure if the total is high enough to impact the study's results, but it's worth checking.
And again, maybe the reason non-drinkers show as much longevity as they do is because those are the ones who have an increased resistance to the negative effects of abstinence. Maybe most of them die much younger. Since non-drinkers are such a minority in most places, this is actually more likely, since the die-off would be less noticeable than if everybody who drank an occasional beer dropped dead at age 40. (I still don't think this is likely either, incidentally.)