Author: Maryam Ayres
Time for reading: ~1
minutes
Last Updated:
August 08, 2022
They established the optimal amount of alcohol consumption, after which it predisposes to the development of a fatal disease ...
When we read some health news, we get conflicting opinions about our drinking habits.
One study will say that moderate drinking can shorten life, while another will point to its benefits - such as improving memory. The truth is that both statements may be true, because alcohol has different effects on different parts of the body, so what is good for the mind can be bad for the body.
When it comes to life-threatening conditions such as cancer , science is adamant that consuming too much alcohol can significantly increase the risk.
New research shows that small amounts of alcohol, however, can have positive sides.
In a report published in the journal PLOS Medicine , a team of researchers found that people who drank moderate amounts of alcohol were less likely to develop cancer than regular drinkers. This finding is not surprising.
But the following argues that those who rarely drink alcohol have a lower risk than those who do not drink alcohol at all.
This leads to the conclusion that a moderate amount of alcohol can actually have a protective effect on long-term health.
To be clear, when researchers talk about moderate amounts of alcohol, it means really moderate - between one and three drinks a week.
In this study, it followed 99,654 people between the ages of 55 and 74, averaging 8 years.
For the study, people who drank less than one drink a week were considered "never or rarely" drinkers, and those who drank two or three a day were considered "heavy drinkers." While those with more than three drinks a day, there is talk of very heavy drinking.
The study, led by Andrew Kunzman, a researcher in medicine, dentistry and biomedical sciences at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, found that those who drank between one and three drinks a week had a lower risk of developing cancer than less than one drink a week or more than three.