Geschatte leestijd: 3 minuten
Even one glass of alcohol per day is bad for your health and reduces average lifespan. With that cheerful news, you can enjoy your terrace this weekend.
Large-scale study on alcohol consumption
Yes, the timing could have been better. However, it doesn’t change the outcome of the large review. 83 different studies on alcohol consumption involving a total of 600,000 people were compared. The focus was mainly on the effect on cardiovascular diseases. Even one glass of alcohol per day appears to be harmful. Earlier studies that did not observe negative or even positive effects of moderate alcohol consumption could be explained by methodological weaknesses.
Women who do not drink alcohol at all live on average 1.3 years longer than women who drink one glass per day. For (40-year-old) men, this difference is one and a half years. Each glass increases the risk of stroke, high blood pressure, and heart failure. Moderate consumption does have a slightly lowering effect on the risk of a non-fatal heart attack. However, this does not outweigh the higher risk of the other investigated complaints and diseases.
So, moderate alcohol consumption is not ‘a little good’ but simply wrong, as the research shows.
“Positive effects of moderate alcohol consumption due to weak studies”
We’ve all heard someone say that a little alcohol can be healthy. Especially red wine has a good reputation in this regard. One reason for this could be the weak design of studies conducted on this. It should be noted, however, that the review did not specifically look at red wine but at alcohol in general.
Co-author Trudy Voortman of the Erasmus MC says that the group of non-drinkers, for example, consisted of former drinkers who had to stop drinking due to their health. It would not be surprising if the former drinkers still suffered from worse health and therefore scored worse than moderate drinkers.
Personally, it seems strange to me if all positive studies would contain such weaknesses. After all, why would you take former drinkers as a test group? There are surely enough abstainers without a history of (heavy) alcohol use?
That studies funded by the alcohol industry paint too positive a picture, I can of course understand.
Alcohol consumption guidelines
Guidelines for alcohol consumption should therefore be revised in many cases. In the Netherlands, the advice from the Health Council since 2015 is to limit consumption to one glass per day if desired. However, abstinence would be better.
These guidelines already seem somewhat lenient, but in other countries, the guidelines may deviate even further from these findings.
Alcohol and muscle mass
As a fitness enthusiast, you should already steer clear of every glass. In the article about alcohol, muscle mass, and fat mass, I showed studies that demonstrate how alcohol fucks up your shape in several ways. More muscle breakdown, for example, due to increased stress hormones and less muscle building due to (among other things) decreased testosterone. You need longer recovery, as shown in research where drinkers need more time to repeat athletic performances. Also, the dehydrating effect has a negative effect on muscle mass. Proper hydration is essential for muscle growth.
Enjoy your summer!
The myth of that one healthy alcoholic drink a day has been debunked. At least, that’s what the researchers hope. Perhaps the publication is happening right now for that reason. At a time when many people, enjoying the sun, want to convince themselves that that one beer is actually healthy. Ultimately, we all choose our poison. Things we eat, drink, or use because we believe it improves the quality of life. If you believe that your life is qualitatively improved by being able to have a drink every day, then by all means continue to do so. It may cost you one or two summers at the end of your life, but quality or quantity is a personal choice. However, you can wonder about this quality if you suffer from, for example, cardiovascular diseases. No one is happy about a stroke. You could say that people should make this choice consciously. The researchers would like you to know that even with that one beer, it’s bad for you. However, if you’re someone who would still choose to enjoy more for a shorter duration, then you actually don’t want to know that. After all, that also takes away the fun on the terrace.
Sources
- volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/gezond-drinken-bestaat-toch-niet-ook-dat-ene-glaasje-per-dag-kunt-u-beter-laten-staan~a4592338/
