Is moderate drinking heart-healthy?

Those surveys generally include specific definitions of standard drink sizes for each beverage type assessed. In recent years, the alcoholic beverage market has become even more diversified. For example, beverages such as “ light” beer, “ light” wines, and wine or spirit coolers, which have slightly lower alcohol contents than the corresponding regular beverages, have been introduced. Conversely, both the relatively new “ ice” beers and “dry” beers have higher alcohol contents than do either regular or “ light” beers (Williams et al. 1997). Other beverages with higher alcohol content than the corresponding “regular” beverages, such as premium brand liquors, fortified wines, malt liquors, and locally produced beers and ales (i.e., microbrews), also have become more popular. Thus, a person drinking such a bottle may still report having had just one drink, although the amount consumed is approximately equivalent to the beer in three regular 12 oz bottles.

19 Compared to those who did not change their alcohol intake, those who increased their intake by 2 or more drinks a day gained a little more than a half-pound. It was noted that calorie intake (not from alcohol) tended to increase along with alcohol intake. The active ingredient in alcoholic beverages, a simple molecule called ethanol, affects the body in many different ways. It directly influences the stomach, brain, heart, gallbladder, and liver. It affects levels of lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides) and insulin in the blood, as well as inflammation and coagulation. The JAMA study didn’t go as far as the Lancet article in linking low levels of drinking to mortality risk.

While moderate drinking offers some benefits, heavy drinking carries major risks, and there’s a fine line between the two. Determining whether you should drink should be based on several factors, including your own health and lifestyle, your history with alcohol, and your body’s own limitations. The way to prove the value of any kind of treatment, including nutritional practices like moderate drinking, is to conduct randomized controlled trials. In such trials, the treatment or practice is assigned at random to some people and not to others. That way, there are two groups of people who are very similar in all respects but one — in this case, whether or not they drink in moderation.

Binge Drinking:

A “drink” is defined as a shot (1.5 ounces) of spirits, a 5-ounce glass of wine, or a 12-ounce bottle of beer. Many of these trials have been conducted for weeks, and in a few cases months and even up to 2 years, to look at changes in the blood, but a long-term trial to test experimentally the effects of alcohol on cardiovascular disease has not been done. A recent successful effort in the U.S. to launch an international study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Binge drinking is behavior that raises blood alcohol levels to 0.08%. That usually means four or more drinks within two hours for women and five or more drinks within two hours for men. For example, it may be used to define the risk of illness or injury based on the number of drinks a person has in a week. Compared with drinking excessively, moderate drinking reduces your risk of negative health effects. When it comes to drinking alcohol and expecting a health benefit, moderation is the key.

What are the U.S. Guidelines for Drinking?

1. Alcohol is a small, water-soluble molecule that is distributed throughout the body water.
2. Although the proposal was peer-reviewed and initial participants had been randomized to drink in moderation or to abstain, post hoc the NIH decided to stop the trial due to internal policy concerns.
3. Older adults may also be affected by alcohol differently than younger to middle-aged adults.
4. In the Special Health Report, Controlling Your Blood Pressure, find out how to keep blood pressure in a healthy range simply by making lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, increasing activity, and eating more healthfully.

In 2012, results of a study of swine with high cholesterol levels suggested that moderate consumption of both vodka and wine may reduce cardiovascular risk, with wine offering greater protection. One standard drink in the U.S. contains around 14 grams of pure alcohol. Still, if you don’t currently drink, there’s no need to start now. You can gain similar benefits from increased exercise or healthier eating habits. In addition, some of the health benefits of red wine we often hear about have been called into question by recent research.

Health Conditions

Because each of us has unique personal and family histories, alcohol offers each person a different spectrum of benefits and risks. Whether or not to drink alcohol, especially for “medicinal purposes,” requires careful balancing of these benefits and risks. There is also some evidence that genes influence how alcohol affects the cardiovascular system. One variant of this enzyme, called alcohol dehydrogenase type 1C (ADH1C), comes in two “flavors.” One quickly breaks down alcohol, the other does it more slowly. Moderate drinkers who have two copies of the gene for the slow-acting enzyme are at much lower risk for cardiovascular disease than moderate drinkers who have two genes for the fast-acting enzyme.

While moderate drinking doesn’t equal a health benefit, it also doesn’t seem to raise the risk of death by very much, the authors said. A JAMA review of 107 studies published from 1980 to 2021 found that occasional or low-volume drinkers did not have a lower risk of all-cause mortality than lifetime nondrinkers did. But there was a significantly increased risk of mortality among those who had a few drinks per day or more. One example of how the strength or alcohol content of a beverage can be standardized is the “ proof” measure, which generally is applied to distilled spirits. According to this measure, a 200-proof solution contains 100 percent alcohol by volume; an 80-proof beverage contains 40 percent alcohol by volume (Doernberg and Stinson 1985). The perspective of epidemiological sociology is the synthesis of several epidemiological approaches to the study of alcohol use and abuse and their consequences.

Nevertheless, research to date investigating the association between alcohol consumption levels and various diseases has relied primarily on self-reports of alcohol consumption. Getting extra folate may cancel out this alcohol-related increase. 18 An earlier study suggested that getting 600 micrograms a day of folate could counteract the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on breast cancer risk.

But heavy drinking carries a much higher risk even for those without other health concerns. Be sure to ask your healthcare professional about what’s right for your health and safety. For example, any amount of drinking increases the what is mesculin risk of breast cancer and colorectal cancer. Alcohol misuse refers drinking in a manner, situation, amount, or frequency that could cause harm to the person who drinks or to those around them. It turns out that moderation is possible for many people—even some with chronic, heavy drinking problems. Medication can help people overcome their alcohol cravings and establish new habits.

Researchers have developed several definitions of hazardous drinking, such as consumption of five or more drinks on one drinking occasion or being intoxicated more than a certain number of times in a given time period. Few studies, however, have compared the ability of those various definitions to predict alcohol-related outcomes or their usefulness in shaping public health policy. QF measures query the respondent on both drinking frequency and average quantity consumed per occasion, thereby providing a measure of the total alcohol amount consumed. QF measures currently may be the most widely used instruments with which to measure drinking in most countries, including the United States. Generally, the quantity question asks for the typical number of drinks consumed per occasion, providing the respondent with some definition of a drink (e.g., one 12 oz can or bottle of beer) on which to base his or her answer. A popular variant of the QF methodology is represented by self-administered, semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaires, which assess the consumption of different foods (see, for example, the questionnaire developed by Willett and colleagues 1988).