Mixed advice on alcoholReport directs drinkers to their
doctors.
17 June 2004
HELEN
PEARSON
 |
| Your very good health...
as long as you are a moderate drinker over the
age of 40. |
| ©
Photodisc | | |
A drink a day keeps the doctor away from some of us,
concludes a review by the National Institute on Alcohol
Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) in the United States. But
you need to ask your doctor if your level of drinking is
healthy, it adds.
Many people assume that a tipple or two a day is a
tonic, but researchers believe this assumption is based
chiefly on misleading media reports and wishful
thinking. The institute reviewed scientific literature
showing the relative risks and benefits of drinking in
moderation1.
Rather than producing an easy rule of thumb, the
review concludes that the healthiest level of
consumption depends on an individual's age, sex, overall
health and lifestyle - a calculation best totted up in
the doctor's office. "We cannot give a blanket statement
that alcohol is good for you so go out and enjoy," says
the institute's Samir Zakhari, one of the authors of the
report.
The case for alcohol is based on findings that
moderate drinkers are at lower risk of heart disease
than either abstainers or heavy imbibers. The review
weighs these benefits against alcohol's myriad
detrimental effects, such as the increased risk of
injury, breast cancer, liver disease and other
conditions.
When both benefits and risks are factored into the
equation, the reviewers conclude, people still seem to
reduce their overall health risks by having one or two
alcoholic drinks a day. But the degree of benefit varies
from person to person, says Zakhari. People aged 40 or
more, who are already under some threat from heart
disease, seem to benefit the most, whereas younger
drinkers may gain very little.
The NIAAA review adds that there is little consensus
among experts about what constitutes 'moderate'
drinking. Some studies consider this to be one drink a
week, others as many as four a day.
The review's contents are likely to provide the basis
for the alcohol section of new dietary advice due to be
released by the US government next year.
Despite its complicated conclusions, experts welcomed
the attempt to weigh up the pros and cons of moderate
drinking. "It's as good as it could have been," says
Kenneth Mukamal, who studies alcohol and health at
Harvard Medical School, Boston.
But some researchers doubt that the report's
contents, and other reliable advice on healthy drinking,
are reaching those already at the bar2.
Rather than disseminating a vague notion of moderation,
drinks labels and trained bar staff should advise people
not to exceed one or two drinks a day, suggests
alcohol-policy expert Thomas Babor at the University of
Connecticut, Farmington. "It's now a question of getting
the message out there," he says. | 
