No amount of alcohol is healthy if you’re under 40, primarily due to alcohol-related deaths from car accidents, injuries and homicides, according to a new global study.
However, if you’re 40 or older with no underlying health problems, the new research found that small amounts of alcohol could lower your risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes.
“These diseases happen to be the leading causes of death in a good part of the world,” said lead author Emmanuela Gakidou, a professor of health metrics sciences at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of New York School of Medicine. the University of Washington.
“So when you look at the cumulative impact on health, particularly among older adults, it shows that a small amount is actually better for you than not drinking. For all other causes, it’s harmful at all levels of consumption.”
In fact, the study found no protective effect for diseases such as tuberculosis, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, liver disease, epilepsy, pancreatitis, and many types of cancer.
“Guidelines on alcohol, both global and national, have generally emphasized the difference between the level of consumption of men compared to women,” Gakidou said. “What our work suggests is that global guidelines, national guidelines and local guidelines would be more effective if they emphasized age rather than gender.”
The findings underscore “the importance of alcohol recommendations that are tailored to specific regions and populations,” Amanda Berger, vice president of science and health for the US trade group Distilled Spirits Council, told CNN in an email.
“Importantly, no one should drink alcohol for potential health benefits, and some people should not drink at all.”
UNDER 40 YEARS OLD FOUND AT HIGHER RISK
The report, published Thursday in the Lancetis the first to report alcohol risk by global geographic region, age, sex and year, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which prepared the study.
The analysis looked at 30 years of data on people aged 15 to 95 from 204 countries and territories collected by the institute Global Burden of Disease, Injury, and Risk Factor Studywhich tracks premature death and disability from more than 300 diseases.
The analysis estimated that 1.34 billion people worldwide consumed harmful amounts of alcohol in 2020. More than 59% of people who drank harmful amounts of alcohol were between the ages of 15 and 39. More than two-thirds were men.
Across all geographic regions, the study found that drinking alcohol provides no health benefits for people under 40, but increases the risk of injuries, such as car accidents, suicides and homicides.
The study defined a standard drink as 10 grams of pure alcohol, which could be a small 3.4-fluid-ounce (100-milliliter) glass of red wine, a standard 12-fluid-ounce (355-milliliter) can or bottle of beer (3 .5% alcohol) or one shot of 1 fluid ounce (30 milliliters) of liquor that is 40% alcohol by volume.
CRITICAL CONCLUSIONS
While they praised the analysis as well done, some experts not involved in the research raised concerns about the study’s conclusions.
Statistics show there are “more than 14 times as many alcohol-attributable deaths in the UK among 70-74-year-olds than 20-24-year-olds,” said Colin Angus, senior researcher with the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group at the UK University. of Sheffield, in a statement. The data “contradicts this new study’s claim that we should focus on alcohol consumption in younger age groups,” Angus said.
“The elephant in the room with this study is the outcome-based interpretation of risk for cardiovascular disease, particularly in older people,” said Tony Rao, MD, a visiting clinical research fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at King’s College. London.
“We know that the purported health benefits of alcohol on the heart and circulation are balanced by the increased risk of other conditions such as cancer, liver disease, and mental disorders such as depression and dementia,” Rao said in a statement. .
A study published in March found that just one pint of beer or one glass of wine a day can reduce overall brain volume, with the damage increasing as the number of daily drinks increases. On average, people in their 50s who drank a pint of beer or a 6-ounce glass of wine a day in the last month had brains that looked two years older than those who only drank half a beer.
Research in the US has shown that alcohol consumption among adults increased during the pandemic, particularly among women, with “a 41% increase in days of heavy drinking,” said Dr. Sarah Wakeman, medical director of the Substance Use Disorders Initiative at Massachusetts General Hospital, in a previous CNN interview.
A study published in June found that many moderate drinkers over the age of 30 binge on weekends, defined as five or more drinks in a row or in a short period of time. Drinking an average of more than one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men, or five or more drinks on the same occasion, was linked to alcohol problems nine years later.
Women are especially sensitive to the effects of alcohol, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholismor NIAA. Alcohol-related problems show up earlier and at lower levels of drinking than in men, she said.
Women are more susceptible than men to alcohol-related brain damage and heart disease, and studies show women who have one drink a day increase their breast cancer risk by 5% to 9% compared to abstainers.
“The recommendation that those under 40 drink nothing is totally unrealistic,” Matt Lambert, chief executive of the Portman Group, an industry-funded group that regulates the marketing of alcohol in the United Kingdom, said in an email.
Gakidou, the lead author of the study, admitted that “it is unrealistic to think that young adults will stop drinking. Still, we believe it is important to communicate the latest evidence so that everyone can make informed decisions about their health.”
For those over 65, any increase in alcohol use is of concern because many older adults “use medications that can interact with alcohol, have health problems that can be made worse by alcohol, and may be more susceptible to alcohol-related falls.” alcohol and other accidental injuries. “, the NIAA said.
“There’s a high threshold for being able to say that alcohol is an effective prevention therapy, and the studies so far don’t meet that threshold. If they did, then you can be sure the beverage industry would be petitioning the FDA for a license,” said Dr. Nick Sheron, a professor in the department of hepatology at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.
‘A MORE DETAILED AND MATICATED ANALYSIS’
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation last published a report on alcohol four years ago when it analyzed 2016 Global Burden of Disease data on people ages 15 to 49. finding that no amount of liquor, wine, or beer was safe for general health.
“What we have done in this new study is a more detailed and nuanced analysis of 21 different regions of the world,” Gakidou said. “What we’ve been able to do now is break it down: Who is alcohol harmful for? Who is alcohol beneficial for? That’s why the message seems different, but it’s actually consistent with what we said before.
“If you ask me, ‘Will the message be different in 10 years?’ Maybe. New evidence is likely to come out,” she said. “That may change our thinking.”