23451 - Can beer save lives?

Absolutely!  John Snow, one of the father's of epidemiology discovered that beer was saving the lives of several workers in the Soho neighbourhood in London in 1854.  During that time there was a cholera outbreak (although nobody knew it was cholera at the time).  Dr. Snow discovered that the workers in the Broad Street brewery were not dying when many who were drinking from the Broad Street water pump were getting sick and dying.  The workers were getting a daily portion of beer and did not need to visit the pump to quench their thirst.  Of course, in the brewing process, water is boiled and therefore was able to killed the cholera disease so maybe one might say that it was this process that was saving lives.  Likely the workers enjoyed the beer so much it kept the workers from visiting the pump.  

Learn more about the cholera outbreak and the causes at http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/snowcricketarticle.html