In a dry January of 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an alcohol statement pouring warm, stale lager, based on the idea that no matter how much alcohol you drink, it’s good for your health. There is no such thing as a safe drinkit was written.
Publication year lancet public healthThe statement states: “Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and addictive substance; [was] It was classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer several decades ago.” It’s a sobering thought, and a surprise to those of us who celebrate our health with the occasional drink.
We all know that excessive drinking is associated with a variety of health problems, including damage to the liver, heart, mental health, and even increased risk of cancer. But most drinkers have also likely heard that small amounts of alcohol can have certain protective effects, such as reducing the risk of arteriosclerosis and lowering insulin resistance.
Of course, “moderate drinking” is a subjective measure. In the UK, this means between 7 and 14 units of alcohol per week (14 units is the equivalent of six pints of beer or one and a half bottles of wine). Belgian guidelines state that drinking 21 drinks a week for men and 14 drinks a week for women is “low risk”. So why did the WHO decide that consuming alcohol in any amount is bad?
Well, the WHO statement was not issued in a vacuum. It explains that it partially arose from the debate over whether there is a “threshold” at which alcohol becomes carcinogenic. Dr. Jurgen Rehma PhD from the University of Toronto, researching the harms of alcohol and other drugs to public health.
“While being even, [the alcohol] “While the industry does not deny that alcohol is a carcinogen, there has been debate about potential thresholds,” he says.
“This led to a reassessment of the evidence and reiterated the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s statement that there is no lower limit.”
In other words, drinking just one drink a week increases your risk of cancer. This is consistent with what other researchers have found in recent years. “There’s a lot of research on breast cancer that shows that even drinking less than one drink a day can pose a risk,” Rehm says.
And it’s not just cancer. In 2021, scientists at the University of Oxford discovered that: No amount of alcohol is safe for brain functiontracks the loss of gray and white matter in the brain as alcohol intake increases.
In 2022, researchers also rejected the idea that light drinking is good for the heart. Using data from over 300,000 people in the UK Biobank, they found that: Even just a few drinks can increase your risk of high blood pressure and coronary artery disease..
They also found that while light drinkers appear to have a lower risk of heart disease than abstainers, it’s not vice that helps. Instead, the study found that light drinkers were more likely to engage in other healthy behaviors, such as exercising and quitting smoking. It was those, not the occasional shiraz, that were the beneficiary.
There is another interesting point that emerges from these and other studies. In most cases, the health risks from alcohol increase the more you drink.
“Many of the risk curves for alcohol are exponential,” Rehm says. “This means that the health benefits of reducing your daily drinks from four to two are much greater than reducing your daily drinks from two to zero.”
Nothing in life is without risk. So if you enjoy drinking occasionally, you may be able to tolerate the risk. “Personally, I don’t care about the risk of three glasses.” [a week]”Unless you’re genetically predisposed to cancer,” Rehm says.
For anyone cutting back after a very enjoyable Christmas, it’s natural to wonder whether Dry January should be a more permanent change. The evidence continues to mount and it is clear that less is more.
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About our experts
Dr. Jurgen Rehm She studies addiction at the University of Toronto, focusing on how social factors and policies influence drug use. His work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Jelinek Memorial Award and the European Addiction Research Award.
Source: www.sciencefocus.com
