Alcohol Abandonment Could Improve Women's Mental Well-Being, Study Says | Life

HONG KONG, July 9 – New research has revealed that quitting drinking alcohol can not only improve a woman's physical health, but also her mental well-being.

Conducted by researchers from the University of Hong Kong (HKU), the new study involved 10,386 adults, an average age of 49.3, of whom 56 percent were women.

Participants were a mix of non-drinkers or moderate drinkers – 14 drinks or less a week for men and 7 drinks or less a week for women – followed for a period of up to four years between 2009 and 2013.

The physical and mental well-being of the participants was measured using a survey that ranged from 0 to 100, with the highest scores indicating better health. To validate the findings, the researchers compared these data to responses from a representative survey of 31,079 US adults by the National Institute for Combating Alcohol Abuse and HIV / AIDS. Alcoholism in the United States.

The results, published in the CMAJ (Journal of the Canadian Medical Association), showed that men and women who abstained all their lives from consuming alcohol presented the level of well-being. to be mental highest at the beginning of the study.

They also found that among women who drank moderately and who stopped drinking during the study, quitting was related to improved mental well-being of Chinese and American participants, with mental well-being close to those of non-voters over the next four years. years of abandonment.

However, starting to drink and drink moderately persistently over the course of four years was not badociated with better mental or physical well-being.

Although moderate consumption of alcohol has already been badociated with poor physical health and diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, so far, evidence of how consumption Alcohol could affect the mental well-being were less obvious.

"More and more evidence suggests that it's prudent to recommend moderate consumption as part of a healthy diet," commented Dr. Michael Ni, author of the study, adding that " Global alcohol consumption is expected to continue to increase if effective strategies are not used.Our results suggest caution in recommending that moderate alcohol consumption could improve the quality of life badociated with alcohol use. Stop drinking can be badociated with a more favorable change in mental well-being, close to the level of abstention during life. "- AFP-Relaxnews