310-275-LIFE

Featured Links

Related Links

Psychology of change

LOCATION: Home > Archives Menu > Moderate Drinking

Moderate drinking can reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

Lancet, 355 (9198):123, 2000. (152787) Previous studies have shown that light to moderate drinking can reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. However, heavy drinking is associated with increased mortality from liver disease, cancers of the oropharynx and esophagus, and non-coronary cardiovascular disease. Because of these mixed effects, Michael Gaziano and colleagues set out to define the range of drinking within which the benefits of alcohol consumption outweigh the risks. In 1983, they collected data on alcohol intake from 89,299 male physicians aged 40-84 years.

There were 3,216 deaths during the mean follow-up period of 5.46 years. Compared with men who never drank, those who consumed one, two to four, or five to six drinks a week, or one a day, had significantly lower risk of death from all causes (multivariate relative risks of 0.74, 0.77, 0.78, and 0.82 respectively). Men who drank two or more drinks per day seemed to have about the same overall risk of dying as those who never drank.

According to Richard Peto, however, the effects seen with such small quantities are unusual. He notes that studies of British doctors suggest that the lowest death rates in middle and old age are associated with about three drinks a day, not three a week. This possible underestimation of the protective range may stem from U.S. physicians' underreporting of their alcohol consumption. Peto finds it peculiar that only 3 percent of the physicals in the study by Gaziano et al. reported consuming more than one drink a day.

© 1996-2003 Addiction Alternatives - All Rights Reserved