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It was in the early 1990s that researchers and scientists reported that moderate drinking — for women, one drink a day, for men, two drinks a day — was associated with a longer life. The reason for the greater longevity was unknown. Researchers proposed that red wine might have anti-inflammatory properties that protected cardiovascular health. Although major health organizations and some doctors always warned that alcohol consumption had a link to higher cancer risk, moderate drinkers heard the recommendation as encouragement.
In 2023, however, JAMA Network published a report in which scientists reviewed 107 studies conducted across 40 years. They concluded that consuming even a small amount of alcohol can increase risk to heart health.
So, no amount of alcohol is safe for your health, but just how bad is it?
If you consider a cocktail with dinner, how great a risk are you taking? How much do you need to change your behavior? We were once told that drinking coffee was bad; now that has been reversed. We were also told that eating mostly protein and fat could be dangerous, but now studies find that ketogenic diets may be the advisable way to lose weight because they provide better protection against heart disease than other weight loss diets. We used to hear that moderate drinking was safe. Now should you order a “mocktail” because it’s safer for your health than a cocktail?
In 2022, 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 — normally associated with aging.
Drinking increased substantially during the pandemic, grabbing the attention of the public, scientists, and the medical community. Nonalcoholic drinks – so-called “mocktails” have gained such popularity that there are now no-alcohol drinking establishments. Some former alcohol drinkers are reporting daily cannabis consumption rather than alcohol.
Some governments are revising their messaging. In 2023, Ireland became the first country to pass legislation requiring a cancer warning label on alcoholic products sold there, like those found on cigarettes. Containers will read, “There is a direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers.”
In Canada, a government-funded organization recently revised alcohol guidelines, calling one to two drinks a week “low risk” and three to six drinks as “moderate risk.” The previous guidelines suggested that women have no more than two standard drinks most days, and that men limit themselves to no more than three drinks per day. The current guidelines are:
- 0 standard drinks a week – not using alcohol has benefits, including better health and better sleep.
- 1 to 2 standard drinks a week – you are likely to avoid alcohol-related consequences at this level.
- 3 to 6 standard drinks a week – your risk of developing several types of cancer, including breast and colon cancer, increases at this level.
- 7 or more standard drinks a week – your risk of heart disease and stroke increases significantly at this level. At this use level, each additional standard drink radically increases the risk of alcohol-related consequences.
The guidelines also recommend that if you drink more than two drinks a week, make sure you don’t exceed two drinks on any single day — to reduce the risk of injuries or violence.
In Thailand, the government is in the final stages of drafting a regulation requiring that alcohol products carry graphic images accompanied by text warnings such as “alcoholic beverages can cause cancer,” according to The Bangkok Post.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that alcohol-related deaths in the United States each year have increased. They compared data from 2020-21 with data from 2016-17 and found a rise of 29.3%, which they largely attribute to the pandemic and the greater availability of alcohol with its recently dropping cost when adjusted for inflation: The last time a federal tax increase was placed on alcohol was 1991, and taxes on some alcoholic products were cut in late 2020.
It will be mocktails for me.
I am really skeptical of these alcohol warnings.
I’ve never been much of a drinker, but lately in the summer heat I could only drink so much water so I started to drink cold beers on a very hot day.
Sapporo or Coor’s Light are my favorites … and they are both fantastic thirst quenchers on a hot day. I will drink at most 2, and at most once or twice a week.
My dad is 95 and in very good health, and i think he has drunk alcohol every day of his life since he was an adult and it was so cool in past. He has beer with lunch, maybe a beer in the afternoon, a glass of wine with dinner, and usually a cocktail at night. I could never drink tha much, and often don’t drink any alcohol in an entire year, but my dad is in very good health with no cognititive impairment.
Besides the drinking he takes very good care of himself, keeps his weight down, probabl too low, has high blood pressure and eats very well and gets appropriate exercise every day. I’ve never been a fan of his drinking, but he is not a drunk, or sloppy, or violent or abusive, and now I don’t think he drinks any more in his mid 90’s, not sure, but I know every day of his life for almost 80 years.
I would suspect that a lot of this is inferential or an exaggeration to scare people away from alcohol, which I don’t know if it is right or not, but I suspect it may be other behaviors aside from just drinking that cause many of these problems? In any case, I don’t drink much if at all except for a few beers on hot summer say. Good luck all.