I am Ten Beers.
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.
“...glass or two of wine, especially with a holday dinner. A celebratory single-malt scotch once in a great while. I’ve even been known to drink a beer every couple of years.”
Says the guy who drinks at his “holday” dinner. CHEERS! :-)
I’m the current President of Alcoholics Unanimous! A 20-year term.
The elites want them all to themselves, just like gasoline, air travel, and guns........................
Saw that and said, whoa...I’m so far behind I’ll drink myself into the grave trying to catch up....
My grandfather passed away at 90. Started smoking cigars when he was about 14 and drank 3 fingers of whiskey every night.
Last I heard, yes,
I think I’m going to wait until Dr. Fauci weighs in before I jump to any conclusions.
Same thing killed my Ggrandfather, he only made it to 98.
Hey, I can only type one-handed now, my laptop’s getting a bit old, and some of my keys stick! ;-)
Being a physician does not mean that these people necessarily thing logically.
I once had a physician tell me that a problem I was experiencing that I had explained had started as a child was due to an event that didnt happen until I was an adult.
Sometimes they seem to get confused about who they are talking to or just make things up out of the blue.
On another occasion I had a physician tell met that the problem I was experiencing was likely related to the extensive number of combat tours I did in Vietnam.
I dont remember doing a number of combat tours in Vietnam.
I dont remember even one.
The way I remember my time in the service is that I was banned from travel to Vietnam.
Im pretty sure Im not even old enough to have served in Vietnam.
Then again, what would I know? I dont have a medical degree.
"50% of practicing doctors graduate in the lower half of their class!"
I like it because it is funny and true, but...just because a doctor graduates in the lower half of their class, it doesn't mean they will be in the lower half performance-wise as a practicing physician.
I have known plenty of extremely diligent and talented physicians who graduated far below the egg-heads, but...I would take them any day over the best in their class.
Did they take into account that most “moderate” drinkers are probably not as moderate as they pretend to be on a written survey?
So you’re a ‘collector’ ;-)
Funny: I try to collect, too, but every time I turn around it’s gone (wife never replaces anything she consumes).
And I’m Whiskey Two Fingers!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.