There have been a number of publicized studies touting the health benefits of light to moderate drinking, including lower risk of certain cancers and lower heart disease risk. However, according to a new research analysis, these claims are shaky at best. The findings, published in the March 2016 issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, took a deeper look at previous studies, 87 in all and found that many studies were flawed.
Tim Stockwell, Ph.D., the lead researcher on the analysis, explains that most often, studies have compared moderate drinkers (people who have up to two drinks per day) with “current” abstainers. The problem is that this abstainer group can include people in poor health who’ve cut out alcohol.
“A fundamental question is, who are these moderate drinkers being compared against?” Stockwell said.
When his team corrected for those abstainer “biases” and certain other study-design issues, moderate drinkers no longer showed a longevity advantage. Further, only 13 of the 87 studies avoided biasing the abstainer comparison group–and these showed no health benefits.
What’s more, Stockwell said, before those corrections were made, it was actually “occasional” drinkers–people who had less than one drink per week–who lived the longest. And it’s unlikely that such an infrequent drinking would be the reason for their longevity.
“Those people would be getting a biologically insignificant dose of alcohol,” Stockwell said.
In addition, he noted, studies have linked moderate drinking to an implausibly wide range of health benefits. Compared with abstainers, for instance, moderate drinkers have shown lower risks of deafness and even liver cirrhosis.
“Either alcohol is a panacea,” Stockwell said, “or moderate drinking is really a marker of something else.”
The study did not look at whether certain types of alcohol, such as red wine, are tied to longer life. But if that were the case, Stockwell said, it would be unlikely that the alcohol content itself deserved the credit.
“There’s a general idea out there that alcohol is good for us, because that’s what you hear reported all the time,” Stockwell said. “But there are many reasons to be skeptical.”
Numerous studies have shown the health benefits of a strong social support network; any health benefits of drinking may have to do more with the social implications of drinking, and not the alcohol itself.
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