It's wine time. 30 beers. Happy hour. 5 o'clock somewhere.
Maybe it's time to reconsider the way you drink alcohol?
Moderate drinking was once thought to be good for the heart, but better research methods have put a damper on that idea.
“Reducing the amount you drink is a great way to become healthier,” says Dr. Timothy Naimi, director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
Will drinking guidelines change?
Guidelines vary widely from country to country, but the overall trend is to drink less.
The UK, France, Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia recently lowered their recommended drinking limits after considering new evidence. Ireland will require cancer warning labels on alcohol from 2026.
Carina Ferreira Borges, Regional Advisor on Alcohol at the World Health Organization's Regional Office for Europe, said: “With overwhelming evidence linking alcohol to more than 200 health conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and injury, the scientific consensus is It has changed,” he said.
From Dry January to Sober October to bartenders getting creative with non-alcoholic cocktails, there's a cultural vibe that helps you save money.
“People my age are more accepting of this,” said Tessa Weber, 28, of Austin, Texas. She stopped drinking for this year's Dry January because she realized alcohol was increasing her anxiety. She continues to do it because she loves the results: better sleep and more energy.
“It's good to reevaluate your relationship with alcohol,” Weber says.
Wait a minute, isn't drinking alcohol in moderation good for your health?
The idea came from an incomplete study comparing groups of people by how much they drank. Consumption is usually measured at a point in time. And because none of the studies randomly assigned people to drink or not, they couldn't prove cause and effect.
Naimi said people who report drinking alcohol in moderation tend to be better educated, have higher incomes and have better access to health care.
“We find that when you adjust those things, the benefits tend to disappear,” he said.
Another problem: Most studies didn't include young people. Almost half of people who die from alcohol-related causes die before age 50.
“If you're studying people who survived into middle age and didn't stop drinking because of problems and didn't become heavy drinkers, that's a very select group,” Naimi says. “It makes it seem like there are benefits for moderate drinkers, but it’s actually a statistical illusion.”
Some research challenges the idea that alcohol has benefits. These studies compare people with a genetic mutation that makes drinking unpleasant to people without the genetic mutation. People with this mutation tend to drink very little or not at all. One of these studies found that people with the gene mutation had a lower risk of heart disease. This dealt another blow to the idea that alcohol protects people from heart disease.
How many cups can you drink in a day?
it depends.
Alcohol consumption increases the risk of several types of cancer, including those of the colon, liver, breast, mouth and throat. Alcohol is broken down in the body into a substance called acetaldehyde, which can damage cells and prevent cell repair. This creates the conditions for cancer to grow.
Naimi said thousands of American deaths could be prevented each year if people followed government dietary guidelines, recommending no more than two drinks per day for men and no more than one drink per day for women. said.
One drink is approximately the equivalent of a 12-ounce can of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, or a shot of liqueur.
Naimi served on an advisory committee that called for lowering the recommendation for men to one drink a day. When a federal advisory was issued in 2020, this advice was ignored.
“The simple message, best supported by scientific evidence, is that when it comes to your health, the less you drink, the better,” Naimi says.
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