Alcohol – New study shows that we need to drop the drop
8692 Mins Read
New research, which covers almost 600,000 participants indicates that possibly, the acceptable health-related drinking threshold is lower than we think and we were told. A new scientific research examined a combined analysis of individual-participant data for 599 912 current drinkers in 83 prospective studies.
Alcohol consumption guidelines vary substantially across the globe. In the USA, for example, an upper limit of 196 g per week (about 11 standard UK glasses of wine or pints of beer per week) is recommended for men, and an upper limit of 98 g per week is recommended for women. Similar recommendations apply in Canada and Sweden.
By contrast, guidelines in Italy, Portugal, and Spain recommend low-risk limits almost 50% higher than these. At the other extreme, UK guidelines recommend low-risk limits for men almost half that recommended by US guidelines. Such variation in policy might reflect ambiguity about drinking risk thresholds associated with the lowest risk of mortality.
The study suggests that levels of alcohol previously thought to be relatively harmless are linked with an earlier death. What’s more, drinking small amounts of alcohol may not carry all the long-touted protective effects on the cardiovascular system. “For years, there was a sense that there was an optimal level which was not drinking no alcohol but drinking moderately that led to the best health outcomes,” said Duke University’s Dan Blazer, an author of the paper. “I think we’re going to have to rethink that a bit.”
The study shows that drinking more than 100 grams of alcohol — about seven standard glasses of wine or beer — per week was associated with an increased in risk of death for all causes, they concluded.In the US, the government suggests men can drink double that amount — up to two drinks per day — but advise women who are not pregnant to drink up to one drink per day.
A person’s risk of death shot up as they drank more. The researchers used a mathematical model to estimate that people who consumed between seven and 14 drinks per week had a lower life expectancy at age 40 of about six months; people who drank between 14 and 24 drinks per week had one to two years shaved off their lives; and people who imbibed more than 24 drinks a week had a lower life expectancy of four to five years.
