Moderate alcohol consumption and health risks, Digi Mart USA News: Even at an average consumption equivalent to one beer a day, the risk of alcohol-related disease and death increases, according to a large American study. An article in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs states that drinking alcohol, even at levels described as moderate, carries increased health risks, and that there is no overall positive health effect from alcohol.
The article is based on research originally conducted to guide the development of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines.
It confirms that even low alcohol consumption can be linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease and premature death. Katherine M.
Keyes, professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, said in a press release that the study provides the most comprehensive picture to date of how alcohol affects the risk of alcohol-related disease and death over a lifetime in the United States.
Keyes said the results show that even moderate alcohol consumption increases the risk of premature death and reduced functional capacity. According to the study, the risk of dying from alcohol-related causes is about 1 in 25 for people who average 14 U.S.
standard drinks per week. For those who drink up to seven standard drinks per week, the increased risk for most disease conditions was relatively small, but at 8.5 standard drinks per week the risk reached 1 in 100.
Lead author Kevin Shield, associate professor at the University of Toronto and senior researcher at the WHO and PAHO Collaborating Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said that even low consumption carries health risks and that the risk increases the more a person drinks.
The report was originally commissioned to inform the 2025–2030 U.S. Dietary Guidelines, but its conclusions had limited impact on the final guidance.
According to the researchers, the study offers more concrete conclusions than the new guidelines, which recommend that people “limit alcohol consumption” without specifying a level considered low risk. Previously, the guidance recommended no more than two alcoholic drinks per day for men and one for women.
The study’s results show that average consumption at that level, which is often perceived as moderate drinking in social settings, is associated with a substantially elevated risk of premature alcohol-related death.
The researchers argue that the message of the new guidelines, that “less is better,” is useful but lacks a quantitative benchmark. The study aimed to fill that gap.
What counts as a standard drink varies by beverage. In the United States, it typically equals about 35 cl of beer, 15 cl of wine or 4.5 cl of spirits, containing 14 grams of alcohol.
In Sweden, the standard drink is somewhat smaller, 33 cl of beer or 4 cl of spirits, containing 12 grams of alcohol.
The study reviewed more than 7,200 scientific articles on alcohol-related diseases and injuries and calculated risk levels for individual health conditions. These risks were then applied to large national health databases, and statistical models were used to estimate how different consumption levels affect long-term health outcomes.
