Research published Thursday offers a thought-provoking rebuttal to the idea that drinking alcohol can extend your life. In a new review of the data, scientists failed to find high-quality evidence that people who drink light to moderate amounts may live longer than those who don’t drink. The findings suggest that there is no truly safe level of drinking.
For years, studies have shown that drinking light to moderate amounts of alcohol is good for our longevity and health, especially for our hearts. However, other recent studies have increasingly found conflicting evidence, and some scientists have criticized the methods of these optimistic studies.
pathological abstinence effect
One major criticism is leveled at recovering alcoholics. Some abstainers drink very little alcohol throughout their lives, while others were former alcoholics but stopped drinking because of health problems caused by drinking. By including people who quit drinking because of health problems into the general group, scientists risk biasing comparisons between abstainers and moderate drinkers. Since those with existing health problems may be more severely ill than the general population, this may unfairly favor people who drink moderately.
Scientists at Canada’s University of Victoria sought to correct this and other flaws in a new review of the evidence published Thursday in the journal Current Evidence. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research.
“Unlike past attempts, we focused on identifying and testing study characteristics that may bias estimates of mortality risk,” said study author James Clay, a postdoctoral fellow at the university’s Canadian Institute on Drug Use. data for more reliable analysis.
control deviation
Clay and his team looked at more than 100 studies that tracked people’s health, including information on their reported levels of drinking. When the team analyzed the entire data, they found a small association between longer lifespan and low alcohol consumption (defined as anywhere between one drink per week to up to two drinks per day). They then classified these studies into higher or lower quality studies and analyzed them separately. For example, higher-quality studies include studies that exclude former drinkers from groups of abstainers or start tracking younger groups. A different picture emerged when they looked only at higher-quality data.
“Essentially, when we carefully control for potential biases, the purported health benefits of small amounts of alcohol disappear,” Clay explains.
The team’s findings are not Ask first The concept of healthy drinking, even for us Heart. But researchers say debate over the issue continues. By trying to identify and explain these potentially flawed studies, they hope to promote a more honest assessment of alcohol’s risks, which may also include cancer and liver disease.
“Our findings suggest that the health benefits associated with small amounts of alcohol may be the result of bias in the study design. Therefore, this suggests that there may not be a truly safe level of alcohol consumption,” Clay said. “This challenges the notion that moderate drinking is beneficial and highlights the need for updated guidance to accurately reflect the health risks associated with any level of drinking.”
In early February of this year, a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established The annual number of alcohol-related deaths in the United States has been rising recently, with an average of 178,307 deaths between 2020 and 2021. At least drink less.
