Is Alcohol Harmful?
Posted by Izhar Groner on
According to the World Health Organization, no level of alcohol consumption is safe.
A recent study found that even low-risk drinking was associated with higher mortality.
However, the same study found lower death rates among wine drinkers who drank only during meals.
Light drinking was also associated with healthy aging in 12 out of 22 studies examined in one meta-analysis. In another, this one of 84 studies, alcohol consumption of up to a drink a day was consistently associated with a 14–25% reduction in cardiovascular disease risk (consumption of larger amounts was associated with higher risks of stroke and mortality otherwise).
A similar association between light alcohol consumption and lower risk of coronary heart disease was found in yet another meta-analysis; and in a systematic review, 1–4 drinks a day were associated with a slightly reduced risk of mortality and coronary heart disease.
The evidence is extensive. There is a clear association between light (and at times moderate) consumption of alcohol, and lower cardiovascular mortality.
Why, then, would the UN recommend complete abstinence?
Because an enzyme in our body converts alcohol to acetaldehyde, a known carcinogen. Acetaldehyde reacts with DNA to form cancer-promoting compounds, inducing tumor development. The mechanism is known, and the link between alcohol and cancer is well established.
Even light consumption of alcohol was shown to be linked to the risk of cancer, a risk that rises with the rate of consumption (a dose-dependent effect).
How is it possible that there is such an extensive body of reliable literature about the positive effects of alcohol, when in fact it is a carcinogen?
Well, it is what it is. The same thing may reduce cardiovascular risk while at the same time raise the risk of cancer.
More importantly, note that there is a difference between the two links. The link between alcohol and cancer, and its mechanism, are well established. As for the cardiovascular link, if you notice, I was very careful when I described that link: I used a certain word… “Association” (or “associated with…”). Association is not causation. To the best of my knowledge, nowhere has causation been established, or the mechanism by which alcohol would have such a positive effect.
In fact, alcohol may not have any positive effect whatsoever. A third factor might be driving both alcohol consumption and lower cardiovascular risk.
I postulate that this third factor is social life.
Social life (social support and social cohesion) was shown to lower cardiovascular disease risk, and here the literature about the causal relation is quite extensive.
Since people tend to drink in social settings, the social interaction will lower their cardiovascular risk, as they incidentally consume alcohol. Hence the association between alcohol consumption and lower cardiovascular risk.
Be well,
Izhar.
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