Moderate alcohol consumption may not be as beneficial as previously thought.
Researchers from Penn State have examined the drinking habits of middle-aged adults and found that the widely reported benefits of moderate alcohol may be overstated because they appear in a vacuum and did not factor in other health risks.
“Evidence continues to grow that alcohol has many health risks, including for cancer,” Jennifer Maggs, professor of human development and family studies at Penn State and one of the study’s authors, said in a statement. “Therefore, it is dangerous to report only benefits of moderate alcohol consumption.
“Drinking habits are also shaped by our education, health earlier in life and related lifestyle factors including smoking,” she added. “These other influences may be the real factors underlying the connection between drinking and midlife health.”
After analyzing information of about 9,000 people in England, Scotland and Wales born in 1958 the researchers linked changes to mental and physical health to an individual’s drinking and cigarette smoking habits from age 23 to 55.
According to the study, about one-third of participants who reported drinking at the light-to-moderate level—adults who consumed no more than 14 units of alcohol per week—were very unlikely to smoke and enjoyed the best health and quality of life in middle age.
However, those who drank lightly to moderately but also smoked experienced more health problems, as did those who both drank heavily and smoked and those who either refrained from alcohol or reduced their drinking over time.
Moderate drinking has long been considered to have some heart benefits but the researchers believe these reports failed to take into account other risk factors like smoking or a lack of exercise or obesity.
“This study provides yet more evidence that any benefits associated with drinking alcohol are smaller than previously thought,” Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance in the U.K., said in a statement. “The most effective ways to reduce harms associated with alcohol consumption are to introduce pricing measures linked to alcohol sales, and enable more informed choices through public education efforts and mandatory labeling of alcohol products.”
The researchers also explained that adults who abstain from alcohol are not necessarily healthier than light-to-moderate drinkers.
“Alcohol abstainers are a diverse group,” Jeremy Staff, professor of criminology and sociology at Penn State and the study’s lead author, said in a statement. “They include former heavy drinkers who quit due to problems with alcohol, as well as those who quit drinking due to poor health, and not just lifetime abstainers.
“Medical professionals and public health officials should be wary of drawing conclusions about the so-called ‘dangers’ of never drinking without more robust evidence,” he added.
