It’s Official, Moderate Drinking Has No Health Benefits

In 2021, the average person living in Ohio drank 689 alcoholic beverages. 

Everyone knows that drinking too much alcohol damages your health. However, some people claim that moderate amounts of alcohol, such as one glass of wine per day, can make you healthier. A new research study shows this claim is false. 

What Is Moderate Drinking? 

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines moderate drinking as having up to one drink per day for females and up to two drinks per day for males. 

A standard drink is any beverage that contains about 14 grams of alcohol. This amount of alcohol appears in 12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine, and 1.5 ounces of liquor. 

Study Finds That Moderate Drinking Has No Health Benefits

Some studies claim that moderate alcohol consumption helps you live longer. They also suggest that wine, especially red wine, may lower your risk of dying from heart disease. 

However, all of these studies have been observational. That means they did not consider other factors that may have affected the health of the people they studied, such as lifestyle behaviors.

Challenging Observational Studies

To test the findings of these observational studies, a new meta-analysis published in JAMA Network Open examined 107 cohort studies involving over 4.8 million participants. Cohort studies follow participants over a long period of time. 

They also look at other factors that may affect the participants’ health. 

The new analysis found that moderate drinking does not produce any health benefits.

The study also found that consuming more than one or two drinks per day increases the risk of early death. 

More specifically, females face a higher risk of early death when drinking more than one drink per day, while males face a higher risk of early death when drinking more than two drinks per day. 

The Fallacy Of Moderate Drinking For Health Benefits

The researchers found that moderate drinkers generally lead healthier lifestyles than people who never drink (also known as “abstainers). In particular, they are more likely to exercise and eat a healthy diet. 

Moderate drinkers are also less likely to have preexisting health conditions. 

Indeed, many abstainers avoid alcohol because they have chronic health problems that make drinking alcohol especially dangerous. Others are in recovery from alcohol use disorder (alcohol addiction), a condition that often causes other chronic health issues, such as liver disease. 

In other words, abstainers are often less healthy than moderate drinkers, but it has nothing to do with their lack of alcohol consumption. Instead, it’s because they are more likely to have unhealthy lifestyles and pre-existing health problems. 

This helps explain why previous research incorrectly concluded that moderate drinking improves your health.

Risks Of Excessive Drinking

As mentioned above, the new study found that people who have more than one or two drinks a day face a higher risk of early death. That’s because excessive drinking poses short-term and long-term health risks. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), short-term risks of excessive drinking include:

• alcohol poisoning (also called alcohol overdose)
• injuries, including motor vehicle crashes, drownings, and falls
• violent behaviors, including suicide and homicide

Long-term risks of excessive drinking include:

• high blood pressure
• cardiovascular disease (heart disease)
• depression and other mental health problems
• liver disease
• certain types of cancer, including breast cancer, colon cancer, and liver cancer

To avoid these risks, it’s important to drink in moderation or not at all. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025, even moderate drinking may increase your risk of death from issues like cancer and heart disease. Thus, the healthiest option is to avoid alcohol entirely.

Alcohol Use Disorder

If you feel unable to control your alcohol consumption, you may have alcohol use disorder. Common symptoms of this disease include:

• frequent cravings for alcohol
• tolerance (needing increasingly larger or more frequent drinks to feel the desired effects)
• physical dependence (experiencing withdrawal symptoms, such as anxiety and nausea, when you don’t drink)
• loss of interest in activities once enjoyed
• loss of motivation

Like other diseases, alcohol use disorder requires treatment. To learn about treatment options, please reach out to Ohio Recovery Center. Our inpatient treatment programs offer medical detox, behavioral therapy, and other evidence-based services to help you or your loved one thrive.