Well, the news we’ve all been dreading has finally hit. But are any of us actually surprised? Honestly, I’m not shocked at all. But a large and thorough new report shows that no amount of alcohol is safe for consumption. I know, I know, it hurts. But if you think about it, is anything that can leave you feeling so bad for so many hours actually good?
Myth Of The Healthy Amount Of Alcohol
We’ve all heard the old results far and wide. Thanks to some questionable science and massive media attention, of course. But we used to think that there was a protective effect of alcohol on some conditions. What actually happens is any health risk associated with booze increases with any amount consumed.
Dr. Max Griswold, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said in a statement. “In particular, the strong association between alcohol consumption and the risk of cancer, injuries, and infectious diseases offset the protective effects for ischemic heart disease in women in our study.”
He added, “Although the health risks associated with alcohol starts off being small with one drink a day, they then rise rapidly as people drink more.”
The Study
For this study, the authors took a look at data from over six hundred studies to see how common alcohol drinking is. They also took a look at nearly six hundred studies with data on almost thirty million people. They did this to study the health risks associated with drinking.
None of the findings bode well for boozing. The research showed that drinking is the seventh leading risk factor for premature death in 2016. That year in people aged fifteen to fifty, alcohol was the LEADING factor.
Below fifty, the leading causes of alcohol related deaths included tuberculosis, accidents on the road, and self harm. Over fifty, cancers were a leading cause of booze related deaths.
The new study also corrected your run of the mill errors for most others. The old studies often relied on self reported data, and you know you don’t remember exactly how much you’ve had to drink in the past, say, two months. At least not down to the number, you don’t. This new study went deeper, and combined alcohol sales data with the prevalence of drinking, as well as self reported and tourism data. The only proactive benefit of drinking was a tiny reduction in your risk of heart disease.
It’s not signifigant enough to outweigh the negatives, though.
The Conclusion
“Policies focusing on reducing alcohol consumption to the lowest levels will be important to improve health. The widely held view of the health benefits of alcohol needs revising, particularly as improved methods and analyses continue to shed light on how much alcohol contributes to global death and disability,” Griswold said.
And honestly, I assume most people reading this are adults. If you are, I and any number of studies can’t stop you from drinking. But don’t try to fool yourself, you’re not keeping the doctor away with that glass of one. Sure, life is short and all, but you’re certainly making it shorter. Why?
