For decades, scientific studies have suggested that moderate alcohol consumption was better for most people's health than not drinking at all, and might even help them live longer.
A new analysis of more than 40 years of research has concluded that many of those studies were
wrong
and that the
opposite is true.
EFE/EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV
The review found that the risks of dying prematurely increase significantly for women once they drink 25 grams of alcohol a day, which is equivalent to less than two standard cocktails containing 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, two 12-ounce beers, or two 5-ounce wine glasses.
The risks for men increase significantly from 45 grams of alcohol a day, or just over
three drinks.
The new report, which has analyzed more than 100 studies on nearly 5 million adults, is not designed to make recommendations on alcohol consumption, but rather to correct methodological problems that plagued many older observational studies.
Those reports consistently found that moderate drinkers were less likely to die from all causes, including those not related to alcohol use.
Most of those studies were observational, meaning they could identify links or associations, but they could be misleading and didn't prove cause and effect.
The scientists said that older studies failed to recognize that moderate and light drinkers had many other
healthy habits
and advantages, and that teetotalers used as a comparison group often included former drinkers who had given up alcohol after developing health problems.
"When you compare this unhealthy group to those who continue to drink, it makes current drinkers appear healthier and as if they have lower mortality," said Tim Stockwell, a scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research who was one of the authors of the new report, published in
JAMA Network Open
last week.
Stockwell said that comparisons between moderate drinkers and non-drinkers were flawed for a number of reasons.
People who abstain completely from alcohol are in the minority, and those who are not abstainers for religious reasons are more likely to have chronic health problems, be disabled or come from lower-income backgrounds.
Moderate drinkers tend to be moderate in every way.
They tend to be wealthier, are more likely to exercise and eat a healthy diet, and are less likely to be overweight.
According to scientists, they even have better teeth.
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