Moderate Drinking Has No Health Benefits, Analysis of Decades of Research Finds, NYT

[Jaybee00]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/...m57wBMcciT5cDh76K4Tc8_TA9P0o6y&smid=url-share

 

[Hutan]

Most of those studies were observational, meaning they could identify links or associations but they could be misleading and did not prove cause and effect. Scientists said that the older studies failed to recognize that light and moderate drinkers had myriad other healthy habits and advantages, and that the abstainers used as a comparison group often included former drinkers who had given up alcohol after developing health problems.

Once Dr. Stockwell and his colleagues corrected for these errors and others, he said, “Lo and behold, the supposed health benefits of drinking shrink dramatically, and become non-statistically significant.”

Dr. Stockwell said that the comparisons of moderate drinkers with non-drinkers were flawed for numerous reasons. People who abstain completely from alcohol are a minority, and those who aren’t teetotalers for religious reasons are more likely to have chronic health problems, to have a disability or to be from lower income backgrounds.

Moderate drinkers tend to be moderate in all ways. They tend to be wealthier, are more likely to exercise and to eat a healthy diet, and are less likely to be overweight. They even have better teeth, scientists say.

But the moderate alcohol hypothesis has come under increasing criticism over the years as the alcohol industry’s role in funding research has come to light, and newer studies have found that even moderate consumption of alcohol — including red wine — may contribute to cancers of the breast, esophagus and head and neck, high blood pressure and a serious heart arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation.