Are You Making This Alcohol Mistake?

The famous “small glass of red per day” is, as is quite well-established now in science, but not so much in popular culture, known to be not a good idea.

What most people don’t know

Rethinking “One Drink a Day”:

• Outdated beliefs and flawed studies:
  • The idea that “one drink a day is healthy” stems from flawed associative studies that included…
    • unhealthy former heavy drinkers in the zero-drinks category, and
    • healthy older individuals who continued light drinking due to good health, not because alcohol contributed to it, in the drinkers category
  • In other words, they looked at former alcoholics whose health was ruined by drinking and said “aha, non-drinkers have bad health”, and looked at the survivors of survivorship bias and said “aha, light drinking is the key to good health”. Which of course is terrible science propped up by terrible abuse of statistics propped up by shoddy methodology.
• New research findings:
  • A 2022 UK Biobank Study showed that even one drink a day leads to brain shrinkage, neuron death, and cognitive decline.
  • Another study on CVD disproved the notion that light drinking benefits heart health once confounding variables were removed.
  • There are plenty more, and at 10almonds we’ve done a main feature about it, but for now, you get the idea.

Some other things you should know:

Ethanol and acetaldehyde damage neurons responsible for impulse control, judgment, motor coordination, and memory formation, leading to cognitive decline. The feeling of being drunk results from the suppression and damage of these neurons. But while the drunk feeling wears off, the damage to neurons does not.

Alcohol causes cumulative DNA damage in neurons, accelerates brain aging, and prevents the formation of new neurons, similar to a slow, gradual stroke.

Broader Health Impacts of Alcohol

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: alcohol is bad for pretty much everything.

Here are some examples mentioned in the video:

• Neurodegenerative diseases: heavy drinking increases the risk of Alzheimer’s, particularly in those genetically predisposed.
• Sleep disruption: alcohol reduces deep, restful sleep and hampers the brain’s natural detox process overnight, contributing to morning grogginess.
• Inflammation and immune suppression: alcohol increases inflammation, exacerbates autoimmune diseases (like psoriasis and arthritis), and weakens immune function.
• Cancer risk: alcohol is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, linked to various cancers, especially breast cancer. Even light drinking increases breast cancer risk.
• Hormonal imbalances: in women, alcohol heightens PMS symptoms, reduces fertility, and increases testosterone. In men, it lowers sperm quality and disrupts hormones.

For more on all of these and more, enjoy:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Want to learn more?

You might also like to read:

• Can We Drink To Good Health? ← this is mostly about red wine and heart health
• How To Reduce Or Quit Alcohol ← this is about the more general reasons to quit, and how to do so
• What Happens To Your Body When You Stop Drinking Alcohol ← a realistic timeline of recovery

Take care!