Moderate drinkers may live longer than teetotalers, claims a study

This could be good news for occasional drinkers. A major report on alcohol’s health effects suggests that moderate drinkers might live longer and have healthier hearts than teetotalers. This is the first of the two major reports on alcohol drinking which will be used to craft the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The second panel in the Department of Health and Human Services will release its report in the coming weeks.
As per the findings of the report, moderate drinkers were found to have lower all-cause mortality, and a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, compared to those who never drank.
According to the meta-analysis, the committee found those who consumed moderate levels of alcohol had a 16% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who never drank.

The findings are bound to spark some debate as they are in contradiction with studies and a World Health Organization position that “no amount of alcohol” appears to be safe, based on an increased cancer risk that is posed by alcohol. The 230-page report was released on Tuesday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Alcohol is linked to a range of health disorders including cancer, and liver disease. The head of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, George Koob, has said there are “no health benefits to alcohol.” However, the new report doesn’t seem to be in line with these guidelines.

The findings titled “Review of Evidence on Alcohol and Health” from NASEM do not offer guidelines but summarises the available evidence published in the past 5-15 years on how moderate alcohol consumption is linked to lactation, weight, cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurocognition and all-cause mortality.

What is moderate drinking?

Moderate drinking is defined as having one drink or fewer per day for women and two drinks or fewer per day for men. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 suggest that adults of legal drinking age do not exceed these levels. The guidelines are developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

What are the risks of alcohol

Alcohol is low in nutritional value and high in calories. Adding mixers like soft drinks or tonic water can add to the calories.
Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance and has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Alcohol causes at least seven types of cancer, including the most common cancer types, such as bowel cancer and female breast cancer.
Drinking a lot over a long time or too much on a single occasion can damage the heart. Heavy drinking can lead to liver disease, including fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis, and cirrhosis.
Alcohol can also lead to mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.

Is there any safe level of alcohol?

“We cannot talk about a so-called safe level of alcohol use. It doesn’t matter how much you drink – the risk to the drinker’s health starts from the first drop of any alcoholic beverage. The only thing that we can say for sure is that the more you drink, the more harmful it is – or, in other words, the less you drink, the safer it is,” explains Dr Carina Ferreira-Borges, acting Unit Lead for Noncommunicable Disease Management and Regional Advisor for Alcohol and Illicit Drugs in the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
The 14-member NASEM committee analyzed recent research on the links between moderate drinking and factors like weight, cancer, cardiovascular health, neurocognition, and overall mortality. Their focus was on studies that avoided bias by keeping never-drinkers and former drinkers in separate comparison groups.
The committee found that the association of moderate alcohol consumption with all-cause mortality is less clear and cited evidence from eight eligible studies. Meta-analyses the committee analysed found moderate drinking was associated with a lower risk of heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular disease mortality as compared to never drinking. The conclusions regarding nonfatal heart attacks and strokes were classified as having low certainty, while the findings on cardiovascular disease mortality were deemed moderately certain.
The committee reviewed seven studies on alcohol and weight changes but found there wasn’t enough evidence to make conclusions about the impact of moderate drinking compared to not drinking at all. They also couldn’t determine how different levels of moderate drinking affect weight or waist size.
The report did not reach a conclusion on the link between moderate drinking and risk of colorectal cancer, or oral cavity, pharyngeal, esophageal or laryngeal cancers. The available research was mixed on the link between moderate drinking and the risk of neurocognitive issues, like dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease.
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