Drinking even moderate amounts of alcohol may raise your risk for certain health problems. For example, the risk of breast cancer among women increases at less than 1 drink in a day compared to women who don’t drink at all. During pregnancy, drinking alcohol can raise the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, premature (early) birth, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), as well as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). A recent successful effort in the U.S. to launch an international study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. 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. The first report, released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in December, determined that moderate drinking is linked to fewer heart attack and stroke deaths.
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- If drinking causes problems in your life, you may have alcohol use disorder (sometimes called alcoholism).
- Past studies may have masked the health benefits of not drinking at all.
- In the U.S., alcohol is implicated in about half of fatal traffic accidents.
Different drinks have different amounts of calories, too. These calories add up — and getting more calories than you need can make it harder to stay at a healthy weight. For example, a 12-ounce bottle of beer has about 150 calories. Keep in mind that the size of the drink and the percent of alcohol makes a difference. For example, many beers are about 5 percent alcohol, but some facts about moderate drinking have higher percentages of alcohol. And some beers are sold in larger sizes than the standard 12 ounces.
Drink Alcohol Only in Moderation
While alcohol does not pose a risk to health on its own, abusing can lead to liver disease and other fatal conditions. When you stop drinking alcohol entirely, even as a moderate drinker, you allow your body and mind a chance to heal. However, it may take some time before you feel like yourself again. But again, because the research is observational, it’s difficult to know how moderate drinking truly affects heart health. If drinking causes problems in your life, you may have alcohol use disorder (sometimes called alcoholism).
A standard drink is 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits. But experts caution that even within these guidelines, individual risk varies. Factors including age, genetics, body size and existing health conditions all influence how alcohol affects a person.
Is there a ‘safe’ amount of alcohol?
There are many studies that discuss the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines moderate drinking as up to two alcoholic drinks for men and one for women in any single day. Nissen said he’s “willing to accept” that moderate drinking has the “potential for a small benefit for heart health” but that drinking’s potential health risks outweigh any possible good. When taken together, the new reports implicate moderate drinking with a higher risk of breast, esophageal, and oral cancer, but an advisory from the Surgeon General outlines even more dire outcomes. The health risks of alcohol develop because ethanol, the type of alcohol found in beverages, metabolizes into a compound called acetaldehyde, which damages DNA and other cellular components.
Understanding alcohol use
Whether or not to drink alcohol, especially for “medicinal purposes,” requires careful balancing of these benefits and risks. The benefits of moderate drinking aren’t limited to the heart. In the Nurses’ Health Study, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and other studies, gallstones 40, 41 and type 2 diabetes 32, 42, 43 were less likely to occur in moderate drinkers than in non-drinkers.
Researchers from two federal organizations reviewed the science on moderate drinking—and reached some different conclusions about how it affects health. Certain health problems — like depression or anxiety, sleep problems, and chronic pain — can put you at a higher risk for alcohol use disorder. People who have alcohol use disorder are also more likely to experience these health problems.
What is considered moderate drinking? Is it bad for you?
It is also addictive, especially for people with a family history of alcoholism. Links between alcohol and mental health have also become clearer in recent years. Even in people who are not struggling with alcohol use disorder, drinking alcohol can affect other psychiatric conditions. Stafford and his colleagues said the choice to tip back a beer or forgo alcohol — like many lifestyle decisions — should involve weighing the risks and benefits of your behaviors. But they think the public should be made more aware of those risks, which include an increased risk of cancer from drinking moderate amounts of alcohol.
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. Whether it’s a glass of red wine with dinner or a celebratory cocktail on the weekend, drinking in moderation has long been considered not only socially acceptable but also perhaps even healthy. The initial contact points — mouth, throat, esophagus and stomach — are most vulnerable, which is why these areas show some of the strongest links to alcohol-related cancers.
- Scientists know that alcohol is carcinogenic, or cancer-causing.
- Find a health center near you and ask about alcohol misuse screening and counseling.
- 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.
- Researchers from two federal organizations reviewed the science on moderate drinking—and reached some different conclusions about how it affects health.
- Here are some strategies to help you cut back or stop drinking.
Beyond the Heart
It also found a small but significant risk of breast cancer—but said there wasn’t enough evidence to connect moderate drinking with other cancers. It’s possible that the fast-acting enzyme breaks down alcohol before it can have a beneficial effect on HDL and clotting factors. Interestingly, these differences in the ADH1C gene do not influence the risk of heart disease among people who don’t drink alcohol. This adds strong indirect evidence that alcohol itself reduces heart disease risk. Drinking too much alcohol too frequently is unhealthy and can lead to liver disease, weight gain, and alcohol use disorder (AUD).
The studies, however, had some major flaws, including that people’s drinking was generally categorized only by their current behavior. Excessive alcohol use can harm people who drink and those around them. You and your community can take steps to improve everyone’s health and quality of life.
Moderate alcohol use
Loose use of the terms “moderate” and “a drink” has fueled some of the ongoing debate about alcohol’s impact on health. Recent research has also shown that adults over the age of 50 or 60 show signs of impairment at lower blood alcohol concentrations than younger people. They are also more likely to already be living with chronic diseases, and to be taking prescription medications that might interact poorly with alcohol. Because women metabolize alcohol differently than men, and tend to have smaller bodies, the same amount of alcohol can have a stronger effect for them. Alcohol consumption has been linked to cancers of the breast, colon and rectum, liver, esophagus, voice box, throat, mouth, and probably the pancreas, according to the American Cancer Society.
