Alcohol and longevity: Moderate drinking brings no benefits
It was noted that calorie intake (not from alcohol) tended to increase along with alcohol intake. The active ingredient in alcoholic beverages, a simple molecule called ethanol, affects the body in many different ways. It directly influences the stomach, brain, heart, gallbladder, and liver.
Grape Juice vs. Wine: Differences + Health Benefits
Study participants were recruited within the geographic catchment area of an integrated health system serving more than 700,000 patients each year in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest. Individuals interested in the study used a QR code or a link from the study website to complete a secure, web-based screening survey. IP addresses and location verification were used to confirm that research participants lived within the health system’s catchment moderate drinking area. Scheller noted that this aligns with recent changes in alcohol consumption guidelines, such as Canada’s revised recommendations in 2022 and updates from the WHO. Another study, published in JAMA Network Open, looked at data on a cohort of 135,103 adults aged 60 years and older. By Buddy TBuddy T is a writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism.
People Who Shouldn’t Drink At All
It affects levels of lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides) and insulin in the blood, as well as inflammation and coagulation. When it comes to drinking alcohol and expecting a health benefit, moderation is the key. If you currently drink no alcohol at all, do not start because of the health benefits. Has a shareholder interest in CHESS Health, a company that disseminates software technology to the addiction treatment field (CHESS Health did not develop the app tested in the manuscript). Also consults on the implementation of evidence-based healthcare interventions for the non-profit NIATx Foundation. These relationships are managed by the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Conflict of Interest Committee.
It is the alcohol that causes harm, not the beverage
One variant of this enzyme, called alcohol dehydrogenase type 1C (ADH1C), comes in two “flavors.” One quickly breaks down alcohol, the other does it more slowly. Moderate drinkers who have two copies of the gene for the slow-acting enzyme are at much lower risk for cardiovascular disease than moderate drinkers who have two genes for the fast-acting enzyme. [44] Those with one gene for the slow-acting enzyme and one for the faster enzyme fall in between. The benefits of moderate drinking aren’t limited to the heart. In the Nurses’ Health Study, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and other studies, gallstones [40, 41] and type 2 diabetes [32, 42, 43] were less likely to occur in moderate drinkers than in non-drinkers. The emphasis here, as elsewhere, is on moderate drinking.
The benefits and risks of moderate drinking change over a lifetime. In general, risks exceed benefits until middle age, when cardiovascular disease begins to account for an increasingly large share of the burden of disease and death. One reason that might explain the link between moderate drinking and lower mortality risk seen in some studies, the authors said, is that light and moderate drinkers tend to be healthier than abstainers.
- Using mixed linear regression models, the researchers evaluated mortality risks linked to the quality of the studies, aiming to clarify the health effects of moderate alcohol use.
- Department of Agriculture’s dietary guidelines all agree that minimal drinking is better than even a moderate alcohol intake.
- Loose use of the terms “moderate” and “a drink” has fueled some of the ongoing debate about alcohol’s impact on health.
- However, communication was limited to questions about the study and receiving tech support.
- What, if any, health benefits are there to drinking alcohol?
Nutrition and healthy eating
A 2018 review paper in The Lancet, including more than 1,200 studies worldwide, found that while light drinking offers some protection from heart disease, the harmful effects of alcohol on health start with even low-volume drinking. For example, alcohol use had a significant link to cancer in people over 50, especially women. Twenty-seven percent of cancer deaths in women and 19% of those in men were linked to their drinking habits. Some studies have found a protective effect with low to moderate levels of alcohol on overall health.
We constructed a longitudinal model of the outcome measures at months 3, 6, 9, and 12 after randomization using the GLMM with a random intercept and an auto-regression covariance structure for repeated measures. The stratification variables and the baseline values of the outcomes were included as covariates, https://ecosoberhouse.com/ with a separate model for each primary outcome. The primary analysis is the group fixed effects and pair-wise comparisons between study arms. Other significant fixed effects and pair-wise comparisons were reported. The Sidak method was used to adjust p-values in pair-wise comparisons37.
- He also explains that the potential benefits are poorly studied and that the possible long-term benefits are outweighed by the more immediate health problems caused by binge drinking.
- The benefits of moderate drinking aren’t limited to the heart.
- The definition of moderate drinking is something of a balancing act.
- While moderate drinking doesn’t equal a health benefit, it also doesn’t seem to raise the risk of death by very much, the authors said.
If your pattern of drinking results in repeated significant distress and problems functioning in your daily life, you likely have alcohol use disorder. However, even a mild disorder can escalate and lead to serious problems, so early treatment is important. Keep in mind, too, that alcoholic drinks contribute little to no other nutritional value.
Do Moderation Management programs work? Benefits & Risks
Binge drinking is behavior that raises blood alcohol levels to 0.08%. That usually means four or more drinks within two hours for women and five or more drinks within two hours for men. Originally, in-person health coaching was available, but due to COVID-19, coaching was only offered via telephone. We also added QOL as a co-primary outcome26 to provide a more holistic evaluation for individuals with mild-to-moderate AUD and performed a square-root transformation on PHDD to be consistent with prior analyses16. Patient-reported QOL was measured using the four global physical health and four global mental health items in the Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) global health short form (SF10 ver.1.2)36. The raw scores for physical and mental health were converted to T-scores using the PROMIS scoring manual (p.16)36.
The less alcohol you drink, the lower your risk for these health effects, including several types of cancer. When trying to moderate alcohol intake over the course of an evening or a week, it helps to know how much alcohol is in each drink you consume. Hormonal factors may also play a role in making women more susceptible to the effects of alcohol. Studies have found that with the same amount of drink, blood alcohol concentrations are at their highest just before menstruation and at their lowest on the first day after menstruation. The definition of heavy drinking is based on a person’s sex.
