http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18856658

This one's about moderate drinking. There is also a story about sedentary lifestyles. What gives ? Why so many, often conflicting, health stories in the press ?

Because there's no blanket policy for some substances - some things giveth and they taketh away.
So, yes, moderate drinking might give a slight increase of risk of dementia, but then at the same time, it might be beneficial for blood pressure (for instance).
Swings and roundabouts. You just need to pay attention to what each thing's saying. Or don't, and just enjoy yourself.

This is science at its best (and perhaps worse). There's always conflicting advice. The shortest answer is "we don't know but this is the best evidence". Sometimes the evidence for certain things is very tenuous but it sells papers and so hits the headlines.

Anecdotally, it's been said for decades that drinking kills brain cells. A bit like cigarettes were known as "coffin nails" even before the war, well before the public information campaigns. These are the things that people observed in society, without needing a man in a white coat to point it out. Maybe not medically accurate as a mechanism, but folks know what the effects look like.

The fact that a glass or two of red wine a day was then said to keep your heart healthy was jumped upon as a fantastic justification making us feel better about drinking a little, but everyone knows that drinking too much is bad for you. People love to justify their indulgences.

Although alcohol has featured heavily in British history (largely as a safe source of drinking water) it's probably best kept for celebrations, rather than a regular part of the diet. Same goes for fatty and sugary treats such as crisps, cake, fizzy pop and chocolate. Even something like tobacco is going to have a minimal health impact if it's smoked once or twice a year in a peace-pipe, as it was before we turned it into a high-profit drug industry.

I find it sad that the biggest health problem in the west is self indulgence. Gluttony is killing us, but we try to confuse the simplest issues with smoke and mirrors. We place the blame else where, when the truth is we're all responsible for our own lives. The vast majority of the world population can't even afford to be fat and alcoholic.

I don't know how many times I've seen Guinness and wine go from being fantastic in moderation, to giving you cancer if you so much as sniff it.

Since I'm inevitably going to die anyway, I think I will continue to enjoy my drinking habits and my sedentary lifestyle, ta.

I think the biggest issue is the matter of piss poor reporting on scientific matters by pretty much every single news outlet going. There's a complete abscence of rigour and very selective quoting in order to give a sensational headline and the full reports are generally far less grandiosing in their conclusions.

+1