It’s a Myth That Alcohol Has Health Benefits: Study

It’s a Myth That Alcohol Has Health Benefits: Study
(Remy Gabalda/AFP/GettyImages)
2/12/2015
Updated:
6/22/2016

A new study from England following 53,000 men and women, age 50 and older, for 6 to 10 years, shows that alcohol has no demonstrable health benefits and does not prolong life. The authors grouped people by age and found no benefits whatever in all age groups except men 50 to 64 and women 65 and older and even in these two groups, the benefits were statistically almost insignificant.

Probable Flaws in Previous Studies

Most of the studies showing that people who take fewer than two drinks a day live longer than non-drinkers and heavier drinkers are flawed because they did not separate former drinkers from people who almost never drank. This new study separated former drinkers from lifetime non-drinkers and found no health benefits from alcohol at all. Former heavy drinkers are likely to be less healthy and die earlier than people who have never drunk alcohol. More than half of the people who call themselves non-drinkers are recovering alcoholics or people who had been told to stop drinking because they had already suffered from diseases caused in part by drinking, such as heart attacks, cancers, strokes, dementia, impotence or liver damage.

The United States Public Health Service says that alcohol kills more than 88,000 people in the United States each year, and has shortened the lives of those who died by an average of 30 years. It also causes 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults aged 20-64 years, and the health damage it causes costs $223.5 billion, or $1.90 a drink.

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Definition of a Drink

In all of the studies and reports, a “drink” contains the amount of alcohol that takes an average person’s liver one hour to clear it from the bloodstream. However, this can vary with body weight, sex, age, metabolic rate, recent food intake, the type and strength of the alcohol, and any medication you take. A “drink” contains 0.6 ounces (14.0 grams or 1.2 tablespoons) of pure alcohol, which means:

* 12-ounces of beer (5 percent alcohol content)
* 8-ounces of malt liquor (7 percent alcohol content)
* 5-ounces of wine (12 percent alcohol content)
* 1.5-ounces of 80-proof (40 percent alcohol content) liquor (e.g., gin, rum, vodka, whiskey)

This article was originally published on www.drmirkin.com. Subscribe to their free weekly Fitness & Health newsletter.

Sports medicine doctor, fitness guru and long-time radio host Gabe Mirkin, M.D. brings you news and tips for your healthful lifestyle. A practicing physician for more than 50 years and a radio talk show host for 25 years, Dr. Mirkin is a graduate of Harvard University and Baylor University College of Medicine. He is one of a very few doctors board-certified in four specialties: Sports Medicine, Allergy and Immunology, Pediatrics and Pediatric Immunology.
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