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Researchers Find No Amount of Alcohol is Healthy For You (nytimes.com) 207

The New York Times magazine remembers that once upon a time, in the early 1990s, "some prominent researchers were promoting, and the media helped popularize, the idea that moderate drinking...was linked to greater longevity.

"The cause of that association was not clear, but red wine, researchers theorized, might have anti-inflammatory properties that extended life and protected cardiovascular health..." More recently, though, research has piled up debunking the idea that moderate drinking is good for you. Last year, a major meta-analysis that re-examined 107 studies over 40 years came to the conclusion that no amount of alcohol improves health; and in 2022, a well-designed study found that consuming even a small amount brought some risk to heart health. That same year, Nature published research stating that consuming as little as one or two drinks a day (even less for women) was associated with shrinkage in the brain — a phenomenon normally associated with aging...

[M]ore people are now reporting that they consume cannabis than alcohol on a daily basis. Some governments are responding to the new research by overhauling their messaging. Last year, Ireland became the first country to pass legislation requiring a cancer warning on all alcohol products sold there, similar to those found on cigarettes: "There is a direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers," the language will read. And in Canada, the government has revised its alcohol guidelines, announcing: "We now know that even a small amount of alcohol can be damaging to health." The guidelines characterize one to two drinks a week as carrying "low risk" and three to six drinks as carrying "moderate risk." (Previously the guidelines suggested that women limit themselves to no more than two standard drinks most days, and that men place that limit at three.)

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Researchers Find No Amount of Alcohol is Healthy For You

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  • -_- (Score:3, Insightful)

    by NobleNobbler ( 9626406 ) on Saturday June 15, 2024 @04:38PM (#64551947)

    It's getting to the point that I think the healthiest thing for everyone by modern medicine's standards is joylessness -- WAIT, that's dangerous too.

    Give me a life well lived than one centered around a futile attempt to escape the inevitable.

    • Re:-_- (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Saturday June 15, 2024 @04:42PM (#64551959) Homepage
      That's fine, but why do you equate joy to needing alcohol? That's more a reflection of one's life choices than anything.

      If life is that bad, change it.
      • Re:-_- (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Local ID10T ( 790134 ) <ID10T.L.USER@gmail.com> on Saturday June 15, 2024 @05:31PM (#64552055) Homepage

        That's fine, but why do you equate joy to needing alcohol? That's more a reflection of one's life choices than anything.

        If life is that bad, change it.

        I can enjoy a drink without needing it. There are many joys in life, not all are needs.

        ~Not all of us are alcoholics suffering thru life with booze as our only solace.

        • Exactly, I go months without alcohol, I do not need it. This week is an exception. Got invited to a reception, glass of red wine. Someone gave me a bottle of wine as a gift. Wine every day. I do enjoy it.
          My wife is a doctor, funny, but she told me the summary of this article a while back. I was surprised.
          I do not think I will change my behavior though, maybe I will invite people over to share the bottle though.
        • I agree, and I'm a teetotaler (I love that term). My daily joy is coffee, and I know caffeine isn't "good" for you. I have about 24 ounces over a couple of hours and that's my daily coffee. It's my vice, but I'm okay with it. Freshly roasted coffee ground daily :).

          The culture of drinking isn't as popular as it once was, here in the states. Also, mental health issues are more acceptable, so people can get help and medication, where once they may have done more self medication rather than face the stigma.

          My

      • You're projecting.
        NN never mentioned drinking, the comment was specifically and clearly stated: the healthiest thing for everyone by modern medicine's standards is joylessness
        It is you fly swatter that has an issue, it should be attended to, for your own happiness if nothing else.

      • by sjames ( 1099 )

        If life is that bad, change it.

        But shooting the boss is a crime in at least 48 states. Lynching the landlord is too, in spite of the Dead Kennedys suggestion.

      • That's fine, but why do you equate joy to needing alcohol?

        Who said need? You don't need to eat a perfectly cooked wagyu steak as well. Go to a hospital and get yourself tube fed to get basic nutrition needed to survive. It's not about an alcoholic hit, it's about literal thousands of flavours in life you forgo. I hate being drunk. I *LOVE* drinking. The fine tastes of whiskey aged in different ways in different barrels. The fine brews of a New England IPA, or hell combine the two, make a whiskey then age your beer in the used whiskey barrel.

        That is joy for me. The

      • That's fine, but why does society equate joy to needing alcohol? That's more a reflection of society than anything. If society is that bad, change it.

        FTFY. Next time try and remember things like people earning 18% more on average when they socialize at a bar with co-workers, which equates to “fun” by drinking in order to be respected in your paycheck. Or the time an entire country tried to “change it” by making alcohol illegal (Prohibition) with even more deadly results.

        Society demands alcohol far more than individuals do, including government cheering it on FOR its harmful properties. Anything that meets the golden trifecta of

      • Your reply is a good example of contextomy. GP's referring to the fact that basically everything enjoyable from a grilled hamburger to eggs to ice cream to alcohol has been claimed to be terrible for us.

      • Define "fun". Not "interesting", "fun".
    • by znrt ( 2424692 )

      well, that's an option. i literally grew up with this lie, it was about time it got debunked.

      then again life is a compromise, but it should be an informed one.

  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Saturday June 15, 2024 @04:40PM (#64551951)

    The question is whether it significantly impacts your overall risk profile. For example, "moderate risk" sounds to me with being pretty much in line with just living in a modern society. Leaving out (moderate) drinking is not going to do much there.

    • this is subjective. to me, the scale is low (25%), moderate (50%), high (75%)

      that's why i dislike labels. give me numbers

    • > "moderate risk" sounds to me with being pretty much in line with just living in a modern society. Leaving out (moderate) drinking is not going to do much there.

      I think they mean "moderately" increased risk in comaprison to non-drinkers in the same environment. Now "moderate" is not well defined...

      So all in all the corellation with alcochol consumption and health is negative. Drinkers show "moderatly" decreased health over non-drinking population, there goes my evening ;-(

    • by sierra077 ( 949923 ) on Saturday June 15, 2024 @09:25PM (#64552401)

      The question is whether it significantly impacts your overall risk profile. For example, "moderate risk" sounds to me with being pretty much in line with just living in a modern society. Leaving out (moderate) drinking is not going to do much there.

      It's quantified in the article (that is one of the main points of the article - what is the actual fucking risk).

      • 2 drinks a week will (statistically) take off less than 1 week from your life span.
      • A drink a day will take off 2.5 months.
      • 5 drinks a day is 2 years.

      Writing this while enjoying a good beer!

      • It's quantified in the article (that is one of the main points of the article - what is the actual fucking risk). ... A drink a day will take off 2.5 months.

        A drink a day only cuts 2.5 months from your life? Guess I have some catching up to do!

      • by AvitarX ( 172628 )

        Damn, 2 years isn't bad at all for 5 drinks a day.

        Even if they're good years.

      • The article defines what a "drink" is or lumps together beer, wine, spirits? Anyway, 2.5 months over a like of 80-90 years is statistically nothing, 0.04% and if you reach that age, if you are more likely do die from other causes.

        • A standard "drink" is 0.6 fluid ounces of pure alcohol. That equates to 12oz of 5% beer, a 1.5 oz shot, etc. etc.
        • by pruss ( 246395 )

          But at least it means that there is no clear benefit. I dislike ethanol, plus the stuff is expensive (due to taxes), but there was a time when the research was pointing in the other direction, and I was regretfully thinking I might need to introduce some into my diet, maybe diluted into various things drunk over the course of a day. But the current research makes me able to avoid alcohol without feeling guilty.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's a balance of risks too. If your life is very stressful and a small amount of alcohol takes some of the edge off, overall it might be beneficial.

      Modern life is very a case of picking your poison.

  • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Saturday June 15, 2024 @04:44PM (#64551965)

    This [scitechdaily.com] would be cancelled out by this [sciencedirect.com]

    Alcoholism to cure autism... Genius! And I'm not even a brain specialist, just a very experienced wino.

  • by Retired Chemist ( 5039029 ) on Saturday June 15, 2024 @04:46PM (#64551975)
    That said, ethanol is a mild poison, and it is quite reasonable that it should correlate with various medical conditions. Getting out of bed in the morning is a risk, it is a matter of risk versus reward. I think that cancer warnings are a joke. They are so common that they have become meaningless. California should be required by its own laws to place cancer warnings on its beaches for sun exposure and the presence of silica which are both known cancer risks.
    • by Random361 ( 6742804 ) on Saturday June 15, 2024 @05:17PM (#64552039)

      That said, ethanol is a mild poison, and it is quite reasonable that it should correlate with various medical conditions. Getting out of bed in the morning is a risk, it is a matter of risk versus reward. I think that cancer warnings are a joke. They are so common that they have become meaningless. California should be required by its own laws to place cancer warnings on its beaches for sun exposure and the presence of silica which are both known cancer risks.

      I deal with that by staying in bed and making sure that my whiskey is nearby. Of course, I have to occasionally get up to get water or Gatorade, but I have a plan to solve that by winding a hose and drink dispenser right up to my nightstand. Going to the toilet is more of a problem. Then of course I have to be careful not to roll off the bed and hit my head on said nightstand, but just staying in bed does minimize many of my risks. Now I'm just trying to arrange a work from home plan so I can afford all this, my rent, basic other things, and my cheap-ass whiskey. I'm currently trying to get a job at Google.

      /s for the criminally stupid

      • Was Gatorade actually named after the FL Gators?
        If so then why was there never a Heatade from Miami!
        It's full of Caribean water and of course electrolytes.

      • I deal with that by staying in bed and making sure that my whiskey is nearby. Of course, I have to occasionally get up to get water or Gatorade, but I have a plan to solve that by winding a hose and drink dispenser right up to my nightstand. Going to the toilet is more of a problem. Then of course I have to be careful not to roll off the bed and hit my head on said nightstand, but just staying in bed does minimize many of my risks. Now I'm just trying to arrange a work from home plan so I can afford all this, my rent, basic other things, and my cheap-ass whiskey. I'm currently trying to get a job at Google.

        This entertaining music video documents a solution to help you meet your requirements. [youtube.com]

      • by etash ( 1907284 )
        what makes you think the criminally stupid understand "/s" ?
    • Nope, staying in bed is a health risk. Inactivity is a health risk, including some cancers.

      https://www.bmj.com/content/37... [bmj.com]

      “The benefits of physical activity are broad and include better mental health, a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, improved sleep, and a lower risk of some cancers.10 Benefits are dose dependent and nonlinear, with no lower threshold. The biggest benefits occur when moving from no activity to some activity; even small changes are clinically significant.451112 Increasing d

  • Ahead of my time (Score:2, Informative)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 )

    I never have been able to drink much because to me anything that contains alcohol tastes like poison.

    Guess I was not wrong.

    The good thing is that these days most places that serve drinks have at least a few interesting non-alcoholic drinks.

    • Why was this down moderated? It might not have been what you wanted to read, but it is still a valid opinion. 'Informative' would have been better.

      • Maybe because alcohol is in a lot more things then OP realizes, and if it were true, they would taste "poison" in so many things.

        Ripe fruit can have alcohol content (it's how you can find drunk moose, which are dangerous). Non-alocholic drinks contain alcohol, just in low enough levels in the serving that it can be called "non-alocholic" (its the same issue you get with "calorie free" tic tacs which have the first ingredient of sugar, and trans-fat free foods which still have trans-fats). Cooking with alcoh
  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday June 15, 2024 @05:36PM (#64552059)

    Most evenings, I'll sit in a comfortable chair and read a book - sometimes with some alcohol at hand, sometimes tea or another beverage. Over the course of several hours, I'll read. If I'm having alcohol that night, while reading I'll consume the equivalent of 1-2 standard drinks.

    So I'm drinking - that's bad. I'm mostly sitting in one spot for 2 hours or more - also bad. And I sometimes get so engrossed in the book, I end up getting less sleep than I should - which is bad too.

    The takeaway here is - READING IS BAD FOR YOU!

  • Next, they'll be saying that smoking is bad for you as well!

    Junk Science!

  • by HotNeedleOfInquiry ( 598897 ) on Saturday June 15, 2024 @06:11PM (#64552125)
    I can authoritatively say that alcohol definitely improves my quality of life.

    I will happily exchange that for a little brain shrinkage.
  • I have "essential tremor" and the main way to treat the symptoms is with a blood thinner that made me feel like butt. The #2 treatment is booze. My doctor said that I could just take a little nip every now and then when needed. He'd be so proud; I'm posting this from a tiki bar XD

  • The amount is out there, and I will find it.

  • by Somervillain ( 4719341 ) on Saturday June 15, 2024 @06:55PM (#64552177)
    I remember all those news stories. People couldn't get enough of hearing that some amount of wine is good for you. Once I became 21, it was obvious to me that it's not. I never drank booze and felt healthier, especially the next morning. Even just having a half a glass of wine in the evening....something my wife and I used to do when we first got married to celebrate being adults out of school, just made me feel like crap...I felt a lot better once I stopped. For awhile, they wondered if it was antioxidants or something in the fruit...but nope...the cause was actually quite obvious. Wine drinkers in the USA, and most of the world, are more likely to be affluent.

    Don't get me wrong, I know why people drink and I drink socially...I just know that drinking is like ice cream...it's a treat...not something you endure to be healthier. No one pretends that they're eating Ben and Jerry's "for health."

    Regarding class, yeah yeah yeah, you know some lady who lives in a trailer and likes wine and some billionaire that never drinks or only drinks beer....but on average, in the USA, especially in the 80s and 90s, poor people didn't drink a lot of wine...mostly people who were middle class or higher. Poor people drank beer or hard liquor or nothing at all.

    So yeah, you're less likely to have a heart attack if you're middle class or above, can afford to see a doctor when you should, and have less stress in life. Wine is not the most convenient beverage in most of the country, especially in the 80s and 90s, so if you frequently drank wine, you probably had a greater chance of being organized and having your act together in life...the type of person who saw the doctor on time, gets their oil changed regularly, knows when their kids' school events are, etc. In fact, I'd wager people who schedule routine maintenance on their vehicle are, on average, even healthier than those who don't...we know you'd didn't have that heart attack because you went 2 years without changing your oil...you're just under a lot of stress and/or disorganized in many facets of life.

    I'm sure you can find similar correlations between iPhone and Android users...or people who own Macbook Pros vs cheap Acer Laptops from WalMart, etc....people who drink Starbucks, etc.
    • There's cheap wine that isn't terrible now, so does that still hold?

      Used to be that beer was crazy cheap and wine wasn't, but now you can get a decent wine at grocery outlet. It's cheaper than microbrews.

  • ... and people will learn to ignore them. Even the important ones.

    Maybe the warnings should have a number, showing expected reduction in years of life expectancy. I suspect in many cases the number is statistically zero.

  • by peterww ( 6558522 ) on Saturday June 15, 2024 @10:41PM (#64552489)

    It's literally used to disinfect or clean surfaces, it's flammable, and it's a toxin that will kill you if you take too much of it. I don't know of anybody who thinks their booze is making them healthier

    • Fiddlesticks!!

      Next you're going to suggest inhaling smoke is bad for our lungs.

    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

      It was very common wisdom in the 90's that a glass of wine a night improves cardiovascular health to the point that it was recommended by doctors. I know because my dad drank a single glass of wine a night on his doctor's advice while he had only drank very rarely prior to that.

  • Wine (Score:4, Informative)

    by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Sunday June 16, 2024 @09:13AM (#64553111)

    >"The cause of that association was not clear, but red wine, researchers theorized, might have anti-inflammatory properties that extended life and protected cardiovascular health..."

    Yeah, and I have been telling people forever that this was bogus from the start. It isn't about wine. Any health benefits are actually from GRAPE, it doesn't need to be as wine. And you can get that by drinking real grape juice or eating grapes or taking grape supplements like grape seed/skin extracts.

    * antioxidants
    * phenolic acids
    * anthocyanins
    * flavonoids
    * proanthocyanidins
    * procyanidins

    Try this: https://www.healthline.com/nut... [healthline.com] and https://www.healthline.com/hea... [healthline.com]

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