Anyone who enjoys a tipple, the fruit of the vine, a pint of hop-derived beverage, or a peaty distillate from the Scottish isles can no longer kid themselves that they were imbibing for the sake of their health. Previously, research had suggested that “moderate” drinking (of alcohol) might help prevent heart disease, but a new study published today demonstrates that this argument is intrinsically flawed.
Researchers from Australia, Canada, and the US have analyzed 54 studies that linked how much people drink with risk of premature death from all causes, including heart disease. Their findings suggest that many of the studies conducted on drinking and premature death made a consistent and serious error by including as “abstainers” people who had cut down or quit drinking due to declining health, frailty, medication use or disability. When such studies show a higher death rate for abstainers than for moderate drinkers, this result may reflect the poor health of some abstainers who recently quit drinking rather than indicating a protective effect for alcohol.
The team found only seven studies that included only long-term non-drinkers in the “abstainers” group. The results of the seven studies showed no reduction in risk of death among the moderate drinkers compared with abstainers. When the researchers combined the data from these studies, they showed that it was possible to perform new analyses that appeared to show a protective effect of moderate drinking–but only when they deliberately included the error of combining long-term abstainers with people who had cut down or quit drinking more recently.
The researchers publish the details in the May issue of Addiction Research and Theory, and concede that they have not disproved the notion that light drinking is good for health, because too few error-free studies have been performed. They suggest, however, that the extent to which these benefits actually translate into longer life may have been exaggerated.
“We know that older people who are light drinkers are usually healthier than their non-drinking peers,” explains team member Kaye Fillmore of the UCSF School of Nursing, “Our research suggests light drinking is a sign of good health, not necessarily its cause. Many people reduce their drinking as they get older for a variety of health reasons.”
So….it’s not good news for drinkers, but it’s not all bad. Let’s assume that the follow-up grant applications are already being written and in the meantime, mine’s a pint!