DEAR DOCTOR K:

Can you explain why “moderate” drinking is defined differently for men and women? Is it because men tend to be heavier? Or is there more to it?

DEAR READER:

Women are advised to drink less alcohol than men because they are much more vulnerable to alcohol’s harmful effects.

For example, research has found that if a woman has more than one drink a day, she increases her risk of car accidents and other traumatic injuries. Her risk of high blood pressure, stroke, suicide and breast cancer goes up. And drinking more than one drink a day also increases the risk that she will go on to abuse or become dependent on alcohol. MORE