Although drinking too much is known to be detrimental to health, studies sometimes disagree about where the line is between safe and permissible alcohol consumption, and whether drinking a small amount may have any benefit for health. health.
In the past few months alone, two large studies have further complicated the picture: A March analysis concluded that moderate drinkers do not have a lower risk of death than lifetime non-drinkers, while a june study discovered that the heart health benefits associated with moderate alcohol consumption may be related to how it can reduce stress activity in the brain.
Meanwhile, a study published last month showed that alcohol-related deaths are on the rise in the United States, especially among women.
To what extent is a weekly or even nightly glass of wine harmful? NBC News spoke to eight nutritionists and doctors about the risks and purported benefits of alcohol. In general, they agreed that abstaining is the healthiest thing to do, but for most people, moderate alcohol consumption does not carry significant risks.
The idea that drinking can somehow improve health is wrong.
“There is no absolute safe level of alcohol consumption,” said Tim Stockwell, former director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research. “We tend to underestimate the risks of alcohol because we are so familiar with it.”
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT THE STUDIES SUGGESTING THAT DRINKING IS BENEFICIAL FOR HEALTH
Perhaps the most common myth about the benefits of alcohol is the idea that an occasional glass of red wine improves heart health.
In recent decades, several studies found a relationship between consumption moderate alcohol and the reduced risk of heart disease. However, experts say this research does not necessarily take into account the possibility that light alcohol consumption may be associated with other healthy lifestyle factors, such as staying active and eating a balanced diet, or that participants who do not drinkers may have experienced the negative health effects of alcohol before deciding to stay sober.
Dr. Krishna Aragam, a cardiologist and researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, noted that some previous research has discovered that light or moderate drinkers may be more likely to have a lower body mass index, eat more vegetables, and be more physically active than people who do not drink at all.
“There’s a general theory that maybe people who are able to enforce moderation in the amount of alcohol they consume are also better able to enforce moderation in other aspects of their lives,” says Aragam.
Aragam co-authored a 2022 study who also found a trend for healthy lifestyle habits among light to moderate drinkers, but nonetheless concluded that any level of alcohol consumption increased the risk of cardiovascular disease. The risk increased exponentially with heavy drinking, defined as more than eight drinks a week.
As for the red wine myth, Dr. Zhaoping Li, division chief of clinical nutrition at UCLA Health, noted that the antioxidant believed to benefit the heart is also found in the skin of red grapes.
“I would never recommend anyone to drink wine, even if they didn’t like it, because they would be less likely to have a heart attack,” Li said.
HOW MUCH ALCOHOL IS UNHEALTHY?
The long-term health risks of consumption of alcohol include liver and heart disease, a weakened immune system, and various types of cancer. Studies have also shown that drinking large amounts of alcohol one sitting or even one only drink a day can raise blood pressure.
The dietary guidelines In the US, moderate and low-risk alcohol consumption is defined as one drink or less per day for women and two or less for men. (That does not apply, however, to people who are pregnant, have medical problems that may be made worse by drinking, or take medications that interact with alcohol.) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also offers a screening tool to help people assess their level of alcohol consumption based on individual health factors.
But the revised guidelines from Canada on alcohol, published in Januaryadvise drinking much less: Two drinks a week is a moderate, low-risk level.
Li says that he generally recommends not drinking more than two to three times a week.
“Let’s say I’m going to drink alcohol, I know it’s going to come with calories and energy,” Li said. “So for dinner, I’m going to drink the wine, I’m going to have vegetables and fish, but I’m not going to have bread and other things that come with energy.”
WHEN SHOULD I STOP DRINKING?
It is estimated that more than 140,000 people die each year. for alcohol-related causes, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol-related deaths have increased nationally in recent years: In the US there was an increase in 25% of deaths during the first year of the pandemic, a trend that especially affected adults in middle age.
Katherine Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, says her research has shown that teens are drinking less than they were a few decades ago, while rates of alcohol use have increased among young adults and middle-aged.
For people who drink several times a week and are not alcohol dependent, even a slight reduction in intake can have significant health benefits, Keyes added.
“It’s not about saying, ‘Okay, you think you’re drinking too much, now you can’t drink anything,’ a lot of people are turned off by that health advice,” Keyes said. “Thinking of drinking as a continuum, not a binary thing, is an approach that we think will be really helpful in improving population health.”
Emma Laing, director of dietetics at the University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences, said she decided to get sober in 2020 after considering the health consequences of alcohol and a history of breast cancer in her life. family.
For people trying to cut back on alcohol, Laing said she recommends balancing alcohol with non-alcoholic beverages, drinking slowly, and eating a meal before drinking. He often brings his own non-alcoholic beer or wine to social gatherings, Laing said, and most bartenders are happy to make a cocktail.
“Sometimes the hardest thing about living sober or taking a break from alcohol is the pressure from those around you, even strangers, wondering why you’re not drinking,” Laing explains. “I’ve found that having a non-alcoholic alternative on hand reduces this kind of peer pressure.
This article It was originally published in English by Maia Pandey for our sister network NBCNews.com. For more from NBC News enter here.
