What Can Moderate Drinking Mean For Healthy Longevity?

Alcohol is, of course, unhealthy. Not even the famous “small glass of red” is recommended:

Can We Drink To Good Health? ← this was mostly about the purported heart health benefits, and the answer to the question is: no, we cannot, and as WHO has declared, “the only safe amount of alcohol is zero”)

See also: How Much Alcohol Does It Take To Increase Cancer Risk? ← the answer is “any” (although, the risk is dose-dependent, so if not abstaining completely, less is still better than more)

A lot of why people think that moderate drinking is healthy, that widespread popular belief stems from flawed associative studies that compared the following two categories of people:

• non-drinkers, including many former heavy drinkers who stopped because they realized the harm they were doing to themselves
• light drinkers, who have been able to continue drinking because of their otherwise good health

In other words, they looked at now-teetotal former alcoholics whose health was ruined by drinking and concluded “aha, non-drinkers have bad health; clearly some drinking is best”.

You can read more about this and how that flawed research was later disproven once the confounding variables were removed, here: Are You Making This Alcohol Mistake?

But that’s background history. Now here’s for…

The latest evidence that makes things clearer

Researchers (Dr. Sinead George et al.) wanted to know the lifetime risk of alcohol-attributable death and illness in the US based on average weekly alcohol consumption, using evidence from more than 7,200 pre-existing research papers as well as national survey, census, mortality, and morbidity data.

So, can there be any benefit from moderate drinking?

In few words: no overall protective health effect was found at low levels of alcohol consumption, and even what is commonly considered moderate drinking was associated with increased risks of premature death and chronic disease.

In numbers: estimated lifetime alcohol-attributable mortality risk exceeded 1 in 1,000 at more than 6.5 drinks per week for men and more than 7.0 drinks per week for women, rose above 1 in 100 at more than 8.5 drinks per week for everyone and reached 1 in 25 (4%) at 14 drinks per week for men.

As for disease risk:

• Chronic disease in general: alcohol consumption increased the risk of multiple conditions, including cancers of the esophagus, mouth, and breast, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, and alcohol-related injuries.
• Heart disease in particular: although low alcohol intake was associated with a lower risk of ischemic heart disease and stroke, these potential benefits were outweighed by increased risks of cancer and other alcohol-related diseases when all health outcomes were considered together.

If you’d like to read the paper in full, here it is: Moderate alcohol consumption linked to premature death and chronic illness

If you’d like to rethink drinking for yourself, then feel free to check out: Rethinking Drinking: How To Reduce Or Quit Alcohol

Worried you’ve already done too much harm?

It’s never too early to quit drinking, but it’s also never too late:

What Happens To Your Body When You Stop Drinking Alcohol ← for a detailed timeline which parts of your body recover when

Take care!