Study: Even in Moderate Amounts, Alcohol Is Bad for Your Health (Video)

Is alcohol harmful or beneficial in small quantities? Scientists have refuted the results of previous studies.

They claim that Alcohol is harmful to health even in moderate doses. The scientists point to methodological flaws in previous studies that have shown benefits of drinking small amounts of alcohol. They also questioned some of the results because the research was funded by the drinks industry.

A bit of history

Even in ancient China, there was an opinion that alcohol in certain quantities was beneficial, and rice wine was widely used there for medicinal purposes, writes The Guardian. Hippocrates, the ancient Greek “father of medicine,” advocated moderate amounts of alcohol for “health of mind, body, and soul.”

For a long time, the theory that alcohol is good for you had a lot of scientific support. The first such claims came from a 1974 study of 474 people. The authors found that people who drank small amounts of alcohol had a lower risk of heart attack than those who drank a lot of alcohol or didn’t drink at all.

Over the next few decades, researchers found similar results. In one particular research Scientists have constructed a J-shaped curve when analyzing the amount of alcohol consumed and the risks of cardiovascular disease and death. The diagram initially shows a downward line that then goes up again, resembling the letter J in the Latin alphabet, indicating about the greater benefits of drinking small amounts of alcohol compared to abstaining completely. However, the accuracy of these results was questioned by scientists after research methods were improved.

In 2011, a meta-analysis, published in the BMJ, showed that the risk of coronary heart disease can be minimized by drinking one to two alcoholic drinks a day. Two years later, a large study showed that alcohol can benefit people over 40. These findings directly contradict the results of a 2018 study by the same group of scientists, which concluded there is no clear harm from any amount of drinks.

These studies have drawn criticism from scientists who point to methodological flaws, including an increase in the overall risk of death among those who drink alcohol because this lifestyle is often associated with existing health problems.

Scientists thought it was obvious that people who drank alcohol in moderation were more likely to live longer. But the problem is that In many studies, participants self-report the amount of alcohol they consumeScientists believe that such answers may be inaccurate and change over time.

Recalculating the risks to account for these uncertainties turns the J-shaped curve into a simple straight line, which shows that The group of people who never drink has the lowest risk of death. At the same time, as lead study author Tim Stockwell notes, this should not be taken as a definitive answer to the question of the harm of alcohol:

“Ultimately, we don't take our findings at face value, we don't think it's necessarily an accurate picture. It's more of a demonstration of the poor quality of previous research.”

The key problem that prevents a clear answer, scientists say, is the different effects of alcohol on different people and the specific reasons for its use.Oxford University researcher Iona Millwood says:

“Alcohol has many different biological effects. Patterns of alcohol consumption are also determined by many other characteristics that will themselves influence health.”

Industry funding and support for research, similar to the situation with tobacco manufacturers, may help spread the idea that alcohol may be beneficial. Mark Petticrew, a researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, believes:

“One of the reasons the public believes in these positive effects is because industry has funded and facilitated the research.”

As evidence, he points to a 2021 analysis that looked at 60 different studies on alcohol's effects on heart disease risk. The authors found that 14 of them had received funding from the alcohol industry or involved researchers with ties to the industry.

Scientific support for the health benefits of drinking alcohol appears to be fading. In a 2023 study, a team of authors took a new approach. They divided people into groups based on their genetic predisposition to drink alcohol, rather than relying solely on their habits.

Scientists have found that drinking more alcohol increases the risk of 61 adverse health effects, including many types of cancer, liver disease, stroke and overall mortality.

In this regard, it is worth recalling that, according to estimates by the World Health Organization, 3.2 million people die worldwide every year due to causes related to alcohol and drug use.

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