How much alcohol is safe? One beer a day linked to increased risk of death – Brinkwire

Drinking what is officially considered a healthy amount of alcohol could increase the risk of death by 20%, the scientists warned.

Researchers who have studied the potential harms of drinking have found that eating at least one or two drinks four times a week can increase the risk of death earlier than those who drank three times a week or less. .

This contrasts with the official guidelines on alcohol consumption. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020, published by the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture, indicate that women can safely consume one drink a day and men drink it two.

A drink is 12 ounces of alcohol at 5% by volume of beer, 8 ounces of malt liquor at 7% ABV, 5 ounces of wine at 12% ABV and 1.5 ounces of spirits or alcohol distilled at 40%. Those who do not drink alcohol should not start thinking that it will improve their health, warned officials.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, excessive alcohol consumption resulted in approximately 88,000 deaths a year between 2006 and 2010, shortening the lives of patients by an average of three decades.

The paper was published in the newspaper Alcoholism: clinical and experimental research months after the scientists warned in a separate study The lancet that there is no level of safety when it comes to drinking alcohol. This conclusion is the result of an analysis of nearly 700 studies.

Sarah Hartz, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington School of Medicine and first author of the study, told Newsweek, "This study is the first to show that daily consumption of alcohol is dangerous."

She noted that the increase in mortality rates associated with alcohol consumption appeared to be mainly due to cancer.

The team at the University of Washington School of Medicine concluded the National Health Survey's survey of 340,668 people aged 18 to 85 and 93,653 people aged 40 to 60 years in Veterans' clinics.

Related: How to drink a little alcohol protects the heart discovered in a new study

"It was very surprising to us that we found the same result in two very different sets of data," Hartz said. One was a large national survey representing the general population, while the other provided information on older veterans. "Finding the same thing in both groups makes us think that the result is robust and generalizable," said Hartz.

Although the jury questions whether drinking is beneficial to heart health, there is strong evidence that alcohol increases the risk of cancer, the authors wrote.

In June, for example, scientists from Stanford University and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, published a study, conducted from mice, showing why moderate consumption could protect the heart.

In her comments on the limitations of the study of which she is the author, Hartz stated that even though variables such as age, race, sex and smoking were taken into account, the relationship between alcohol consumption and death was difficult to study because many factors could skew the results.

"The other problem is that our drinking measures are asking people how much they drink, which is not always accurate. Despite these limitations, because of the large samples and the fact that the same result has been observed in such different groups, we are fairly confident that the results are correct, "she said.

Hartz suggested in a statement that as personalized medicine becomes more widespread and more advanced, doctors may be able to test patients' disease risks and adjust their consumption levels accordingly. People with heart problems may be advised to drink small amounts, while people who are prone to cancer may be asked to reduce the total amount of alcohol in their diet.

She stressed, "We should no longer tell ourselves that a glass of wine a day is good for us. We have chosen to do a lot of unhealthy things and alcohol consumption should be considered as one of them. "

Dr. Max Griswold, Principal Investigator at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and lead author of The lancet, who did not participate in the new study, said Newsweek the work is important because it analyzes the frequency with which a person drinks and its impact on the risk of death. "Other research generally focuses on quantity rather than frequency on health conditions."

However, he also pointed to a potential fall. "When looking at all-cause mortality, given the large differences in mortality outcomes by age, it is important to measure age groups by risk," he said. "This study did not do this, which greatly limits the applicability of the results to other uses."

Dr. James Nicholls, Director of Research and Policy Development at Alcohol Research UK, said Newsweek The research revealed what is called a J-shaped graphical curve, similar to other large-scale studies on the effects of alcohol consumption.

"Light drinkers seem to be less risky than abstainers and heavy drinkers. Regarding cancer, any consumption increases the risk, even if the level of absolute risk is very low at low levels, "he said.

Regarding the take-home message to the public, Griswold said, "People should drink at most one to two glasses per occasion, no more than three days a week."

This piece has been updated with comments from Doctors Max Griswold and James Nicholls.