Drinking small amounts of alcohol may not convey much-touted health benefits, it is claimed today.
British researchers say their new analysis disproves much of the research that has linked alcohol to improved health.
A high alcohol intake is strongly linked to negative health effects, with over 200 acute and chronic conditions associated with heavy drinking.
Many studies have found evidence for a small protective effect of low alcohol intake, as compared with none. This protective effect is often thought to be due to benefits for the heart and circulation.
But some experts argue that the non-drinking group includes both healthy people and those whose health has been compromised by, for example, previous alcoholism or health conditions that preclude drinking alcohol.
"When former drinkers are excluded from meta-analysis, the protective effect between alcohol consumption and total mortality disappeared," say Craig Knott and colleagues from University College London, UK.
They examined the issue further using figures from Health Survey for England 1998-2008 on 52,891 adults aged 50 and older.
At first there appeared to be a protective effect of drinking alcohol for adults aged both 50 to 64 and 65 years and over. But the apparent benefit reduced once several personal, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors were taken into account, and further reduced when former drinkers were excluded from the abstinent group.
After this a small benefit remained only for women aged 65 or above.
The study appears in The BMJ.
Commenting in the same journal, Professor Mike Daube of Curtin University in Australia, says: "Health professionals should discourage suggestions that even low level alcohol use protects against cardiovascular disease and brings mortality benefits."
He calls for the alcohol industry to "remove misleading references to health benefits from their information materials".
Knott, C. S. et al. All cause mortality and the case for age specific alcohol consumption guidelines: pooled analyses of up to 10 population based cohorts. BMJ 11 February 2015 doi: 10.1136/bmj.h384 [abstract]
Leave a Reply