The delicate balance between alcohol's harms and benefits

On 14 August, American Collage of Cardiologypublished a new study emphasizing that small amounts of alcohol reduced the risk of death, whereas high consumption increased it.

A study conducted in America between 1997-2009 involving 333 thousand people investigated the relationship between alcohol consumption and death risk. Participants' drinking status and patterns were followed in 6 categories. The first 3 comprised people who had never drunk, occasional drinkers and former drinkers. The other 3 comprised current drinkers, who were compared according to their consumption of standard amounts of alcohol . In this latter group, those drinking fewer than 3 drinks weekly were categorized as “light drinkers”; men drinking 3-14 weekly and women drinking fewer than 7 weekly as “moderate drinkers”; and men drinking more than 14 weekly and women drinking more than 7 weekly as “heavy drinkers”.

Researchers found a %25 increase in all-cause mortality risk and a %67 increase in cancer-related mortality risk among men who drank heavily. However, this increase was not observed in women.

Among men and women drinking moderately, all-cause mortality risk fell by %13 and %25, respectively, and cardiovascular mortality risk by %21 and % 34. Similar findings were observed for light drinking in both sexes. Health benefits of moderate drinking were not observed in very young individuals.

In older people, the researchers interpreted “light drinking” as reducing cardiovascular disease risk, with benefits potentially outweighing cancer-related mortality.

Reducing alcohol use is something we can describe as dispensable within a healthy life. Although this was not clearly established in this study, an earlier studyshowed, for example, that even low alcohol consumption increased women's breast cancer risk. Our patients diagnosed with cancer also ask how much alcohol they can consume after treatment ends. Our answer is, “you can consume at most 1 drink of alcohol weekly, but none is better” . For a healthy life, not smoking, exercising, eating healthily and, if possible, not drinking alcohol are ideal. However, those who drink should consume light or moderate amounts and avoid heavy drinking.