No safe level of alcohol
The study, published today in the international medical journal The Lancet, shows that in 2016, nearly 3 million deaths globally were attributed to alcohol use, including 12 percent of deaths in males between the ages of 15 and 49.
Bottles of assorted alcoholic beverages (stock image).
Credit: © monticellllo / Fotolia
"The health risks associated with alcohol are massive," said Dr. Emmanuela Gakidou of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and the senior author of the study. "Our findings are consistent with other recent research, which found clear and convincing correlations between drinking and premature death, cancer, and cardiovascular problems. Zero alcohol consumption minimizes the overall risk of health loss." Gakidou is a professor of health metrics sciences at the UW School of Medicine, and of global health at the UW School of Public Health.
The study does not distinguish between beer, wine, and liquor due to a lack of evidence when estimating the disease burden, Gakidou said. However, researchers used data on all alcohol-related deaths generally and related health outcomes to determine their conclusions.
Alcohol use patterns vary widely by country and by sex, the average consumption per drinker, and the attributable disease burden. Globally, more than 2 billion people were current drinkers in 2016; 63% were male.
"Average consumption" refers to a standard drink, defined in the study as 10 grams of pure alcohol, consumed by a person daily, about the equivalent of:
A small glass of red wine (100 ml or 3.4 fluid ounces) at 13% alcohol by volume;
A can or bottle of beer (375 ml or 12 fluid ounces) at 3.5% alcohol by volume; or
A shot of whiskey or other spirits (30 ml or 1.0 fluid ounces) at 40% alcohol by volume.
"Standard drinks" are different by country. For example, in the United Kingdom a standard drink is 8 grams of alcohol, whereas in Australia, the United States, and Japan, it is 10 grams, 14 grams, and 20 grams, respectively.
The study, part of the annual Global Burden of Disease, assesses alcohol-related health outcomes and patterns between 1990 and 2016 for 195 countries and territories and by age and sex.
It provides findings on prevalence of current drinking, prevalence of abstention, alcohol consumption among current drinkers, and deaths and overall poor health attributable to alcohol for 23 health outcomes, such as communicable and non-communicable diseases and injuries, including:
Cardiovascular diseases: atrial fibrillation and flutter, hemorrhagic stroke, ischemic stroke, hypertensive heart disease, ischemic heart disease, and alcoholic cardiomyopathy;
Cancers: breast, colorectal, liver, esophageal, larynx, lip and oral cavity, and nasal;
Other non-communicable diseases: cirrhosis of the liver due to alcohol use, diabetes, epilepsy, pancreatitis, and alcohol use disorders;
Communicable diseases: lower respiratory infections and tuberculosis;
Intentional injuries: interpersonal violence and self-harm;
Unintentional injuries: exposure to mechanical forces; poisonings; fire, heat, and hot substances; drowning; and other unintentional injuries; and
Transportation-related injuries.
"We now understand that alcohol is one of the major causes of death in the world today," said Lancet Editor Richard Horton. "We need to act now. We need to act urgently to prevent these millions of deaths. And we can."
This study used 694 data sources on individual and population-level alcohol consumption, along with 592 prospective and retrospective studies on the risk of alcohol use. More than 500 GBD collaborators, such as researchers, academics, and others from more than 40 nations contributed to the study, according to Max Griswold, senior researcher and lead author.
"With the largest collected evidence base to date, our study makes the relationship between health and alcohol clear -- drinking causes substantial health loss, in myriad ways, all over the world," Griswold said.
In 2016, eight of the leading 10 countries with lowest death rates attributable to alcohol use among 15- to 49-year-olds were in the Middle East: Kuwait, Iran, Palestine, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, and Syria. The other two were Maldives and Singapore.
Conversely, seven of the leading 10 countries with highest death rates were in the Baltic, Eastern European, or Central Asian regions, specifically Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, Mongolia, Latvia, and Kazakhstan. The other three were Lesotho, Burundi, and Central African Republic.
Health officials in those nations, Gakidou said, would be well served by examining the study's findings to inform their policies and programs to improve the health and well-being of their constituents.
"There is a compelling and urgent need to overhaul policies to encourage either lowering people's levels of alcohol consumption or abstaining entirely," she said. "The myth that one or two drinks a day are good for you is just that -- a myth. This study shatters that myth."
Journal Reference:
GBD 2016 Alcohol Collaborators. Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. The Lancet, 2018; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31310-2
I would have to argue that although it’s an extensive and it depth study, it’s misleading. To say that just consuming alcohol is bad is nonsense when there have been mounds of studies that prove alcohol in “moderation” is good for you. That is the key, moderation. Let’s dig into this a bit.
This study uses the measure meant of about one drink a day. Let’s hold right there. If your having one drink a day, that’s not moderation. That means probably the person has other problems. If one drink a day is a minimum, that means the extreme is dangerous levels of consumption. “Yes but it’s an average amount of people in the study.” You say. Well that’s an erroneous outcome to say conclude alcohol consumption in general is bad. Now the study concludes that ‘zero alcohol consumption minimizes the risk’. So that means if alcohol was the complete problem, eliminating it would be a cure for those problems. But of course it doesn’t because lifestyle matters.
Drinking a drink a day or maybe a “social” drinker means that person probably has a lot of other problems. Stress, smoking lack of exercise etc etc. I’m not saying that’s the case but people who drink heavily are known to have other serious problems. If you smoke and also drink an “average” amount then die of cancer, is alcohol to blame?
The study also says, “ 3 million deaths globally by males between the age of 15 and 49”. This kinda shows how flawed this study is. If your say 16 years old and you die of drinking, that’s not alcohol that’s a serious lifestyle problem. To suggest long term effects on alcohol of a teenager is silly. If the teenager is a long term drinker well then they have problems beyond alchol. Even if you say 21, drinking every day means you have a lifestyle that is not in moderation. All those other choice go hand in hand with causing sickness. The study is skewed, yes it shows achohol causes long term effects but that’s picking one thing and not looking at over lifestyle.
The medical study should have looked at the age group of drinkers and non-drinkers. This way you have a comparison, it should also include lifestyles and other factors like pollution, like if you live in an arrea that has a high cancer rate. It’s should be presented in 3 tiers, Little no consumption, moderate (1-2 drinks per week), heavy consumption(daily).
The key is moderation, not everything can be in moderation. A Little bit mercury can kill you but alchol is safe. It’s not dangerous and in proper amounts is actually beneficial to a healthy lifestyle. But that’s the problem, people don’t live healthy lifestyles. The study, for all its data and research, all the time and money, just fails when you actually look at it. Alchol is not dangerous, being stupid is.
-M
Surely the moderation is the best but it is a new study and people should know it and decide by themselves.