If your older have a drink or two.

[Mike41]

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/news/20220721/moderate-drinking-may-benefit-over-40-crowd-study
 

according to a massive research study published by lancet drinking may improve your health in older (over 40) and especially over 65 year olds. But has only negative results in younger people

[mccoy]

I read the article (not the original paper), it sounds pretty interesting

 

[Mike41]

On 11/23/2022 at 3:07 PM, mccoy said:

I read the article (not the original paper), it sounds pretty interesting

 

Yeah I thought it was about as good as it gets epidemiologywise. It may not be very relevant for super health conscious seniors, but for the majority it looked like a winner.

[Guest]

This is the underlying study:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9289789/

 

I'm a little confused about the spin. The core message of the report is concerning an urgent need to reduce alcohol consumption in all age groups. There is a J-Curve with a very steep incline and a narrow band of potential benefit. That's not a report that encourages drinking.

 

Also, importantly: potential small benefits are for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. But every amount of alcohol raises the risk of cancer.

 

That is not trivial.

 

With lifestyle intervention and/or drugs like statins or metformin the CVD risk and diabetes can be minimized - possibly close to zero. There is no such intervention for cancer. Sure, not smoking is a great start. But there is a sufficient "background level" of sporadic cancers, that you may not want to contribute to raising it.

 

There are much better ways to reduce CVD or diabetes risk. Alcohol should not be part of that strategy.

[Mike41]

3 hours ago, Guest said:

This is the underlying study:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9289789/

 

I'm a little confused about the spin. The core message of the report is concerning an urgent need to reduce alcohol consumption in all age groups. There is a J-Curve with a very steep incline and a narrow band of potential benefit. That's not a report that encourages drinking.

 

Also, importantly: potential small benefits are for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. But every amount of alcohol raises the risk of cancer.

 

That is not trivial.

 

With lifestyle intervention and/or drugs like statins or metformin the CVD risk and diabetes can be minimized - possibly close to zero. There is no such intervention for cancer. Sure, not smoking is a great start. But there is a sufficient "background level" of sporadic cancers, that you may not want to contribute to raising it.

 

There are much better ways to reduce CVD or diabetes risk. Alcohol should not be part of that strategy.

Findings

The burden-weighted relative risk curves for alcohol use varied by region and age. Among individuals aged 15–39 years in 2020, the TMREL varied between 0 (95% uncertainty interval 0–0) and 0·603 (0·400–1·00) standard drinks per day, and the NDE varied between 0·002 (0–0) and 1·75 (0·698–4·30) standard drinks per day. Among individuals aged 40 years and older, the burden-weighted relative risk curve was J-shaped for all regions, with a 2020 TMREL that ranged from 0·114 (0–0·403) to 1·87 (0·500–3·30) standard drinks per day and an NDE that ranged between 0·193 (0–0·900) and 6·94 (3·40–8·30) standard drinks per day. Among individuals consuming harmful amounts of alcohol in 2020, 59·1% (54·3–65·4) were aged 15–39 years and 76·9% (73·0–81·3) were male

[Saul]

4 hours ago, Guest said:

Also, importantly: potential small benefits are for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. But every amount of alcohol raises the risk of cancer

If you're practicing CR. cardio and diabetes are unlikely to be something to worry about.  Not so clear for most cancerns.

  --  Saul

[Mike41]

Another thing to keep in mind when these studies say even one drink a day is bad is the fact that the evidence is strong that underreporting bias is quite a factor as this recent JAMA article asserts. They suggest that these recent studies that condemn any amount of drinking is harmful are flawed for this reason.

 

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2757309

Edited December 5, 2022 by Mike41

[Sibiriak]

Quote

If 30% of at-risk drinkers underreport their drinking by 1 to 2 drinks per day and if 30% of heavy drinkers try to hide their drinking by saying they only drink 1 to 2 drinks per day, this underreporting could lead to biased study findings that misrepresent a reality in which 1 drink per day reduces the risk of adverse health outcomes by 5% and 2 drinks per day result in no net harm.

Thanks Mike.  Underreporting is  no doubt an important issue.

I personally drink around 100ml of good oak-aged red wine intermittently.  It's quite enjoyable!  Cheers!