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Study Finds Drinking Before Age 40 Has No Health Benefits, Only Risks (eurekalert.org) 102

Posted by EditorDavid from the alcohol-vs-abstinence dept.
1.34 billion people consumed harmful amounts of alcohol in 2020, according to estimates from a new study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

It also found that 59.1% of those people consuming unsafe amounts were between the ages of 15 and 39, and that for that group "there are no health benefits to drinking alcohol, only health risks.... 60% of alcohol-related injuries occurring among people in this age group, including motor vehicle accidents, suicides, and homicides."

Of the 15 to 39-year-olds consuming unsafe amounts of alcohol, 76.7% were male. For adults over age 40, health risks from alcohol consumption vary by age and region. Consuming a small amount of alcohol (for example, drinking between one and two 3.4-ounce glasses of red wine) for people in this age group can provide some health benefits, such as reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes...

Authors call for alcohol consumption guidelines to be revised to emphasise consumption levels by age, stressing that the level of alcohol consumption recommended by many existing guidelines is too high for young people in all regions. They also call for policies targeting males under age 40, who are most likely to use alcohol harmfully.
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Study Finds Drinking Before Age 40 Has No Health Benefits, Only Risks More

Study Finds Drinking Before Age 40 Has No Health Benefits, Only Risks

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  • Great study, I'll drink to that! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 ) on Saturday July 16, 2022 @03:38PM (#62708514)

    hic

    • Questionable study (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Roger W Moore ( 538166 ) on Saturday July 16, 2022 @08:02PM (#62708940) Journal

      hic

      The problem with the study is that the article suggests that it includes alcohol-related injuries:

      ...drinking alcohol does not provide any health benefits and presents many health risks, with 60% of alcohol-related injuries occurring among people in this age group, including motor vehicle accidents, suicides, and homicides.

      If that's correct then this is probably why the risks go down for those over 40 and the safe drink limit for men is less that for women despite the larger average body mass. While these sorts of injuries are arguably part of the health risks of drinking alcohol they are highly dependent on the volume consumed at one time not the average consumption over time.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by vivian ( 156520 )

        One of my permanent scars were caused by falling over with a carton of beer while drinking (but the carton of beer survived) , one by stacking my bicycle spectacularly as a kid, one from doing a backflip into the pool badly when I was a kid a couple from kicking steel dockside bollards with my shins when jumping off sailing boats in my 20's and 30's. One from a shoulder reconstruction after dislocating it snowboarding in my 20's.

        So I'd say about sailing's twice as dangerous as drinking, but the dangers of d

  • Thank God I'm 66 (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    These young whippersnappers are fucked!

  • there are no health benefits to drinking alcohol, (Score:5, Funny)

    by Growlley ( 6732614 ) on Saturday July 16, 2022 @03:48PM (#62708540)
    what about it gets loads of people under 40 laid each week?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      what about it gets loads of people under 40 laid each week?

      ...and you just explained a lot of how impaired judgement leads to STDs getting around.

      • So is your hypothesis that STDs weren't a thing before the adoption of alcohol? Or that it doesn't exist in sobe4 populations?

        Regardless, take your moral judgement and bugger off. Alcohol use may be one variable in promiscuity, but it's hardly alone. Better be disdainful of flowers and sports cars too?

    • Re:there are no health benefits to drinking alcoho (Score:5, Insightful)

      by StormReaver ( 59959 ) on Saturday July 16, 2022 @04:12PM (#62708602)

      what about it gets loads of people under 40 laid each week?

      They, and society as a whole, are much better off if reproduction isn't a drunken mistake.

      • well that solves the shortage of children for the pro lifer\ant-contraception families then. Oh wait ...
    • Many of those encounters lead to psychological harm. If I wouldn't want to sleep with somebody sober, why would I want to wake up the next day knowing I slept with them while drunk? Now in many cases, alcohol works as a social lubricant and both people want to be involved in the activity and a little alcohol just makes them braver to express their intent and maybe that's good. But in others, it's nothing more than a regret factory. Hence why there might not be a positive effect. Of course it makes a lo
      • Because one day when you wake up and you're fat, bald, and irrelevant, there will always be the memories of the those instant hook-ups as a reminder you were once cool.
        • There seems to be an underlying premise in this thread that alcohol use is the only path to instant hookups which simply isn't accurate. It might be the cheapest and easiest but other paths certainly exist that are better for health and also tend to delay the fat, bald, and irrelevant stage. (Said by a guy who is at the bald and irrelevant stage)

    • You don't have to drink alcohol to have a good time?

      You don't have to wear shoes to run a marathon, but it fuckin helps!

  • They also call for policies targeting males under age 40, who are most likely to use alcohol harmfully.

    Boy, they're really pulling out all the stops these days to increase youth voting turnout. Threatening to take away the booze is a new one.

    • Life is no fun without 151.

      • Life is no fun without 151.

        Have fond childhood memories of spitting 151 into the campfire. Also really chapped lips.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dddux ( 3656447 )

      What I'm more afraid of is bland life than anything else, so boozus maximus to that! :)

    • Threatening to take away the booze is a new one

      Literally nobody is recommending that. The entire section that talks about policies is titled.

      Age and region should drive alcohol consumption policies

      And then it gets into minutiae about the subject.

      The recommended amount of alcohol for people aged 15-39 before risking health loss was 0.136 standard drinks per day. . .

      And basically puts the onus on governments to take that information and do something, nothing, pretend to care, or whatever they want to do with that information.

      At no point does anyone say they are taking your fucking alcohol and I am done with this bullshit of people inventing things that papers distinctly did not say to wax whatever outrage boner they are wanting

  • From What Perspective? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Arzaboa ( 2804779 ) on Saturday July 16, 2022 @04:06PM (#62708588)

    Life is full of risks and choices.

    I don't believe that the point of life is to try to live as long as absolutely possible.
    I don't believe the point of life is to worry about every perceived threat around every corner.

    This is fodder for the puritan crowd, and those that want to "maximize their ROI".

    For the rest of us, we won't know any better once we're dead.

    --
    Most people of action are inclined to fatalism and most of thought believe in providence. - David Viscott

    • Re:From What Perspective? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Halo1 ( 136547 ) on Saturday July 16, 2022 @04:23PM (#62708614)

      This is fodder for the puritan crowd, and those that want to "maximize their ROI".

      They're not saying that any and all alcohol consumption before the age of 40 is harmful. They merely say it has no health benefits. Additionally:

      The recommended amount of alcohol for people aged 15-39 before risking health loss was 0.136 standard drinks per day (a little more than one-tenth of a standard drink). That amount was slightly higher for females aged 15-39 years at 0.273 drinks (about a quarter of a standard drink per day). One standard drink is defined as 10 grams of pure alcohol, which is equivalent to a small glass of red wine (100ml 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. /quote

    • Bill Maher once joked that he'd rather like 35 Sammy Davis Jr years than 100 Kenneth Star years.
    • Those guys go in for much stronger stuff than this, like bigotry and seizing control of people's private lives. Studies like this are useful because companies that sell alcohol would be happy to tell you that you should be giving it to your 6-year-old if they could.

      One of my favorite videos of all time is a tobacco executive saying that while it's true that babies born to mothers who smoke are smaller there's no evidence those babies aren't healthy (a lie and he knew at the time he was lying) and he chu

      • One of my favorite videos of all time is a tobacco executive saying that while it's true that babies born to mothers who smoke are smaller there's no evidence those babies aren't healthy (a lie and he knew at the time he was lying) and he chuckled and said some mothers my prefer smaller babies...

        I'm assuming that "video" is the movie Thank You for Smoking [imdb.com] - which was surprisingly good.

      • Women who follow a good strength training regime while pregnant will deliver babies who are smaller but better developed than sedentary women. Those who smoke will produce smaller babies who are less developed. Pushing out a smaller baby has it's benefits if that baby isn't harmed. But cigarette smoking is not the path to get there.
    • Ah, you're a hedonist like me. Yes, life is to be enjoyed & a good life is an enjoyable one. Alcohol is a useful social lubricant as are other drugs. We have to pick our appropriate "poison" according to the context & situation for maximum benefit, e.g. Getting together with friends &/or family for a social occasion with a few drinks, or something at the beginning of a night out for social lubrication, something to lift your mood later at the nightclub (no further alcohol after this point - it d
      • BTW, I drink so little, I can get comfortably drunk on one beer.
      • I must have missed the addiction window, I had my first drink at thirty. Nothing, just a feeling of being heavy and sleepy. Tried a second time, nope, just felt like I was wearing three overcoats. No buzz, no good feeling, besides, the stuff tastes nasty. My wife of 13 years? Oh yes, she had the expected result. If you are not drinking drunk people are annoying. She left to find someone she didn't annoy. Oh well.

  • I am not sure who decided that we all drink because it's clearly part of the FDA nutrition pyramid scam, or nutrition totem pole, or nutrition parallelogram... whatever they're using these days.

    Next up! There are no health benefits to consuming lollipops before the age of 40 and, furthermore, it should be illegal to sell candy to people younger than 21.

    • Ahh the good ol food pyramid where we were supposed to eat 11 servings of bread every day.

    • Not health food, but Alcohol has been a dietary staple for many civilizations for thousands of years. Fermenting sugars to Alcohol is a good way to preserve food, from more harmful bacteria and fungi, as well preserve the calorie intake. We don't think of Pickled, Brine, Smoked, Candied foods as health food as well. However we used these processes to allow food to last over the growing seasons, and give us enough nutrients and calories to make it for the next season.

      The legal issues around Alcohol isn't

  • Grape (Score:5, Interesting)

    by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Saturday July 16, 2022 @04:47PM (#62708652)

    >"Consuming a small amount of alcohol (for example, drinking between one and two 3.4-ounce glasses of red wine) for people in this age group can provide some health benefits, such as reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes..."

    I am so tired of hearing the above being used as a "benefit" of drinking alcohol. What is beneficial in red wine is grape, not alcohol. You can get the same benefits by drinking red grape juice. Personally, I take grape extract supplement, since I am not fond of grape juice.

    • Re: Grape (Score:4, Funny)

      by ToasterMonkey ( 467067 ) on Saturday July 16, 2022 @06:28PM (#62708806) Homepage

      TL;DR grape juice makes vodka good for you

    • Yeah .. but you know the best exercise bike is the one that you will use. Same thing with drinks. If you aren't going to drink grape juice regularly then red wine is an alternative.

    • Alcohol tends to clear out plaque. You want to see some clear veins? Look at an alcoholic.

    • Re: Grape (Score:2)

      by jd ( 1658 )

      Except you don't.

      • >"Except you don't."

        Don't what, take grape extract?? Um, yes I do. And, in fact, I took one just minutes ago. Along with a multi, D, and Niacin. I have taken grape extract daily for 20+ years.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jd ( 1658 )

          Grape extract and grape juice have been shown in multiple studies to NOT provide the same benefit as red wine. What you take is your own damn problem.

    • There are also risks with unfermented grapes however. Higher sugar content, and a smooth taste that doesn't encourage slow consumption isn't exactly good for blood sugar.

      It's probably not the alcohol that makes grapes healthy, or the sugar but the phyto-nutrients in the skins.

  • Similar to tobacco (Score:4, Informative)

    by schwit1 ( 797399 ) on Saturday July 16, 2022 @04:59PM (#62708664)

    Alcohol is poison.

  • Well, there are plenty of social benefits to drinking alcohol...including Beer Goggles.

  • What about psychological health? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fleeped ( 1945926 ) on Saturday July 16, 2022 @05:10PM (#62708688)
    Drinking allows introverts to better deal with extremely social situations that would otherwise put a lot of stress and cause feelings of alienation, and in some cases, they might lead to traumatic memories. Did they measure the total, cumulative distress (over decades) caused by having to handle such situations with and without alcohol consumption. In lots of cultures, drinking is part of the social ritual. Abstain, and you mark yourself as an outsider (disclaimer: I generally don't like drinking and I'm not a huge fan of forced social rituals)

    • Without alcohol they might have learned better coping skills. I say this as a drunk (only alcoholics go to meetings) who sucks at social situations.

    • Alcohol is not a good treatment for anxiety. When the effects of the alcohol wear off the anxiety returns more strongly. Of course you can drink again and again - constantly increasing the dose to counter the effects of tolerance - but you risk becoming addicted.

      • In moderation (key word) it works fine and I don't think it works like other drugs, "having to increase the dose", at least not for me. Anecdote: last few times I drank wine quickly in stressful social circumstances resulted in nausea (all of the times), resulting in a permanent dent on my enjoyment of wine, so overall I drink less of it.
  • Young people do not drink because it is good for their health, you insensitive clod.
  • I will happily subtract 5 years from my drooling ages to getting laid 10-20 times while I could still get it up.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Anonymous Coward

      This casual discussion of "alcohol gets you laid lol" is uncomfortable and creepy.
      Consent under the influence is not clear consent at all.

  • Who needed a study to come with with tiny bit of unbrilliance?
  • Darwin might disagree.
  • Did they contact all 1.34 billion people as part of their analysis ? Get medical background/life style info ? I figured part of their analysis is the anal part !! I'm 65 and going to have drink to de-stress and not give a shit. Part of their COI statement was this : O M Adebayo reports grants or contracts from Merck Foundation and Servier Nigeria; payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers bureaus, manuscript writing, or educational events from Merck Foundation; support for attending meeti
  • No one will live forever and if a person likes alcohol they should have some regardless of what one more study says. Honestly, who cares about any of this? The only people who really care are those who want others not to drink and they should mind their own business.

  • Want to bet they are middle aged women? Surprise, research shows younger males are "the problem" and a little red wine is ok. Yep, I can picture who wrote this article.
    From what I read on the message boards, the older one gets, the harsher drinking any amount is. This study is likely flawed mainly due to bias.

  • There has never been any real evidence of any benefit from alcohol. See Dr. Greger's video about the studies and why they were misinterpreted: https://nutritionfacts.org/202... [nutritionfacts.org]

    • In my country most of the studies linking alcohol consumption to health benefits have been funded by the wine industry.

  • https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com] is immune to this study

  • The study may show that. The empirical experiment that was prohibition showed that the effects on society at large were overwhelmingly negative.

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