Posted on 01/31/2022 10:27:20 AM PST by Red Badger
We all know that drinking too much is bad for us. But what about just a few glasses a week?
Red wine has antioxidants, we've been told, so a few glasses are apparently 'good for you'. Other studies have suggested that low-to-moderate drinkers are less likely to have a heart attack than those who avoid drinking altogether. Wine is even included (in moderation) in the Mediterranean diet, one of the healthiest food plans on the planet!
But a new study based on a huge data set from the United Kingdom now suggests that the J- or U- shaped curve of drinking is based on bad science; even having less than the currently recommended number of drinks per week in the UK is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular issues.
"The so-called J-shaped curve of the cardiovascular disease-alcohol consumption relationship suggesting health benefits from low to moderate alcohol consumption is the biggest myth since we were told smoking was good for us," says cardiovascular physiologist Rudolph Schutte from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU).
The problem, the team of researchers from ARU and University College London suggest, is that many non-drinkers are not drinking because of current ill health, and so when they have heart attacks or other coronary issues, this is unrelated to them not drinking – and not suggestive that drinking a low or moderate amount of alcohol is protective.
The researchers looked at data from the UK Biobank covering a staggering 333,259 alcohol consumers and 21,710 people who had never drunk alcohol. They analyzed almost seven years of data, noting whenever one of the participants had a cardiovascular event, heart disease, or cerebrovascular disease.
The team specifically excluded former drinkers to try and limit data from people who may have stopped drinking due to their current health. Despite this, the never-drinkers were still older, had a higher BMI, higher blood pressure, and were less physically active than the cohort that drank.
"Using never drinkers as reference consistently drove the inverse protective relationship with all outcome measures and overrode more subtle associations with different drink types. Using this overriding analytical strategy enables authors to report overall cardiovascular protection from alcohol," the team writes in their study.
"In our cohort, never drinkers were older, less physically active, had a higher body mass index and socioeconomically less affluent. Even after adjusting for these cardiovascular risk factors, never drinkers had a 31, 51 and 46 percent higher risk of suffering an overall cardiovascular-, ischemic heart disease- or cerebrovascular disease event, respectively."
So, to remove these confounding factors, the team then compared the lightest drinkers to those that drank more, and found that wine was minimally protective from ischemic heart disease, but was not associated with other cardiovascular issues.
For other alcoholic drinks like beer and spirits, even for people consuming fewer than 14 units per week, which is the current recommended number of weekly drinks in UK's health guidelines (and the equivalent of 8 standard US drinks), the outcome looks much worse.
"Among drinkers of beer, cider, and spirits in particular, even those consuming under 14 units a week had an increased risk of ending up in hospital through a cardiovascular event involving the heart or the blood vessels," says Schutte.
"While we hear much about wine drinkers having lower risk of coronary artery disease, our data shows their risk of other cardiovascular events is not reduced."
With other studies finding that alcohol is one of the leading contributors of death and disease worldwide, now might be a good time to renew those new year's resolutions and cut back on drinking.
In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that adults can choose not to consume alcohol, or stick to two standard drinks per day for males, or one drink for women if it's a day when you choose to drink.
"Biases embedded in epidemiological evidence mask or underestimate the hazards associated with alcohol consumption. When these biases are accounted for, the adverse effects of even low-level alcohol consumption are revealed," says Schutte.
"Avoiding these biases in future research would mitigate current confusion and hopefully lead to a strengthening of the guidelines, seeing the current alcohol guidance reduced."
The research was published in the paper Clinical Nutrition.
“...Even Velho Barreiro, which can be used to remove enamel paint.” Lol!
That sounds like OUZO with a dew drop of Schnapps.
It’s “science”, don’tcha know.
When it comes to drinking, its all or f all. And I am speaking from experience.
My great-Grandpa home brewed wine in his basement. There was a bottle on the dinner table every day. He lived to be 98.
My Grandpa and everyone in his village did the same. I loved visiting, everywhere in the village you walked, people would drag you in and pour wine and get out sweets. Grandpa lived to 96. He was a dessert chef at the Ritz Carlton in Boston after emigrating and had a sweet tooth too.
No one is going to decide to drink or not drink based on these sorts of articles. About 11 years ago I went from 1 to 2 beers a night to zero zilch nada and never looked back. But if you like a glass of wine or two then go for it.
My father in law died back in October at the ripe old age of 87. He drank only a little when he was a young man, but never as an adult with a family. He smoked practically his whole life..............
A friend of mine shared a photo of a questionnaire from a doctors office in New York city.
Do you smoke? No
Do you drink alcohol? Yes
If so how many drinks per week? Prefer not to say.
Do you own a gun? [blank]
If so do you store it unloaded in a locked container separate from the ammunition?
Over which he scrawls: Please refer all further questions to my lawyer.
Funny you would say that...I just had a physical a couple of weeks ago, and when my wife was going through the visit notes they sent us, it said had admitted to several drinks a week. I distinctly remember saying it was one or two a month...if that!
So my doctor was saying I drank four times as much as I admit to!
I don’t miss drinking much, but...I do miss drinking with friends!
My dad always had at *least* two drinks, and smoked right up until he died in my arms. He was 80, I was 20. He had three purple hearts from both world wars and never left the house unarmed.
“Don’t drink and drive; you might hit a bump and spill it”
-Dean Martin
This is a lightweight existence for a Catholic. I'm disappointed.
You need a few remedial Long Island Iced Teas.
I’m on vacation. Am working on my next book... I’m all alone in the middle of the North woods with plans to go no further than the kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom...
I have a tall rum and diet coke in a glass at my elbow.
I’ll live as long as I live and I will make no apologies for anything I do between now and the end.
Sounds like the opening of a Twilight Zone episode..........
Sorry. I’ll say an extra Rosary.
I didn’t drink much when I was young because I was always broke, and after my father moved out of state, I couldn’t go drink his beer or scotch (he may have moved out of state because I drank a lot of his beer and scotch, and then nagged him to buy better beer and scotch).
When I became somewhat more prosperous, I tried to drink a little more, but I’d forget to get to the liquor store.
As I’ve gotten even older, half the time I’m on temporary “no-alcohol” restriction for medical reasons.
;-)
Blah, blah, blah. After sifting through all the blather, the bottom line is moderate drinking is unhealthy...got to drink more heavily.😎
I’m 67....Perhaps I should start drinking.......................
I noticed the same thing. I told my new doctor, a couple of glasses of wine a month, occasional shot of scotch.
This turned into 4 - 7 glasses of wine per WEEK, several shots of scotch per month.
I’ll see her next week and will correct her bad misimpression.
Uncle Joe had 2 glasses of red wine every day for many years, but always added a pinch of gunpowder based on advice of his drill sergeant in WW2. He lived to 92. However, he blew a 15 ft wide hole in the crematorium!
Johnny Carson
First it was like: good, then bad, then good, then, well, we dunno.
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