Is It Time to Give up That Nightly Cocktail?
The advice on drinking and health seems to be constantly in flux. You may have heard a glass of wine a day keeps the doctor away. But is this information still valid? The most recent research has us asking, “Is it time to give up that nightly cocktail?” A recent study out of the University of Washington indicates that drinking any amount of alcohol may be harmful to our health. This advice is contradictory to previous studies that indicate moderate drinking provides some health benefits. Let's look a little deeper.
New Study Says Alcohol’s Risks Outweigh Benefits
While previous studies have shown that alcohol has a moderately favorable effect on heart health, a new study out of the University of Washington, published in the highly regarded Lancet journal, indicates that nightly alcohol consumption increases so many risks in other areas that they outweigh the benefits.
For example, a few glasses of wine per week may provide small cardiac benefits for women, but they also greatly increase the risk of breast cancer. Alcohol is also a factor in many other causes of death, including obvious ones like road accidents but there are others you may not know about like tuberculosis. And these risks are all too real. Do we want to take them on for a small benefit when there are other things that can give us the heart benefit without the risks?
Experts Disagree On Conclusions
This study is persuasive, but some are continuing the debate. The World Cancer Fund states that eliminating alcohol from your diet may greatly reduce your risk of cancer. Recent research out of King’s College London suggests that wine reduces cholesterol and promotes good gut health, however.
Harvard expert Walter Willett says that you should consider your personal risk factors and consult with your own doctor before deciding whether to drink in moderation or not. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and Willett feels that moderate drinking may be beneficial to some Americans.
Potentially Skewed Results
There’s another factor you may not be aware of that could affect the studies in favor of drinking moderate alcohol: the demographics of teetotalers. People in the non-drinking categories in these studies included people who avoided alcohol because they were in addiction recovery and people who avoided it because of other health problems. In other words, these were not mainly people who were healthy and chose not to drink and that may have caused the non-drinking population of the study to show even lower results than they would have if they'd quit drinking without additional health problems.
Both of these issues lead to a higher rate of mortality, so a more fair comparison might be between moderate drinkers and people who avoid all alcohol for personal reasons that don’t include substance issues or illness.
Well then, what’s a person to do with all this information? It may be worth considering personal risk factors. If there is another way to get the studied benefits in a way that isn't alcohol, such as a drastic improvement in diet, then it may be a better choice than relying on alcohol's small amount of protection. As with all things, we recommend you see a doctor before making big changes.
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