No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health

To date, federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health have shown no interest in exclusively funding these studies on alcohol. Binge drinking is behavior that raises blood alcohol levels to 0.08%. That usually means four or more drinks within two hours for women and five or more drinks within two hours for men.

Drinking in moderation

• But that doesn’t mean there’s absolutely no place for the occasional drink in a healthy lifestyle.
• If you’re diabetic or pre-diabetic, you should definitely avoid sugary mixers (and, for that matter, sweet wines or liqueurs).
• One study on men aged found that alcohol-free beer helped to decrease blood pressure, inflammation, and homocysteine levels.
• Things like trouble concentration, slow reflexes and sensitivity to bright lights and loud sounds are standard signs of a hangover, and evidence of alcohol’s effects on your brain.
• Finally, alcohol can absorb toxic chemicals, like tobacco smoke, making it easier for them to enter the body and increase the risk of mouth and throat cancers.
• Non alcoholic beer also contains antioxidants that can help to protect against stroke.

Cirrhosis, on the other hand, is irreversible and can lead to liver failure and liver cancer, even if you abstain from alcohol. Steatotic liver disease used to go by the name fatty liver disease. If alcohol continues to accumulate in your system, it can destroy cells and, eventually, damage your organs. But when you ingest too much alcohol for your liver to process Sober living house in a timely manner, a buildup of toxic substances begins to take a toll on your liver. Your liver detoxifies and removes alcohol from your blood through a process known as oxidation.

Improved Cardiovascular Health

Drinking two units of alcohol per day can reduce the risk of gallstones by one-third, according to researchers at the University of East Anglia. The study found that those who reported consuming two UK units of alcohol per day had a one-third reduction in their risk of developing gallstones. “Researchers emphasized that their findings show the benefits of moderate alcohol intake but stress that excessive alcohol intake can cause health problems,” according to the study. Finally, sources generally agree that, when it comes to assessing the cumulative health effects of occasional or light drinking–whatever benefits or harms may exist are modest. It’s entirely possible that light or moderate alcohol consumption has no meaningful health impact for many people, according to Marcus.

Possible benefits of alcohol

This increases their likelihood of being impaired, and their risk for serious injury and risky behavior. When sustained over a long period of time, alcohol abuse can also worsen Sober living house other health conditions such as mood disorders, osteoporosis and high blood pressure, according to the National Institute on Aging. And, of course, drinking too much can lead to falls and broken bones, which are always a concern for seniors. When alcohol is consumed in excess, however, the list of negatives tends to outweigh any potential health benefits.

Acetaldehyde is “very toxic to a lot of different tissues,” says Dr. Sarah Wakeman, senior medical director for substance-use disorder at Mass General Brigham. It can damage body parts that are directly involved in alcohol metabolism, such as the liver, pancreas, and brain, as well as DNA itself. Exposure to acetaldehyde can result in DNA damage and mutations that lead to cancer, Bernstein explains. It’s worth noting that current guidelines advise against drinking alcohol as a way to improve health.

Loose use of the terms “moderate” and “a drink” has fueled some of the ongoing debate about alcohol’s impact on health. A 2022 review suggests that alcohol consumption may have an association with the immunological risk of alopecia areata. Alopecia areata is a type of hair loss that occurs when the immune system attacks the hair follicles. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classifies this as drinking five or more drinks on one occasion for men and drinking four or more drinks on one occasion for women. According to SAMHSA, in 2019, 25.8% of adults over age 18 reported that they had consumed alcohol excessively in the past month.

Brain

“People can only focus on so much at a time, so if I have a patient who smokes, is overweight, and has one drink per day, I’d prioritize stopping smoking and losing weight over cutting back on alcohol,” he says. “It can lead to tissue changes over time that can increase the risk for cancer” and other health problems, such as liver scarring known as cirrhosis. Among very heavy drinkers, alcohol metabolism and the resulting inflammation may even contribute to serious brain damage, possibly including shrinkage of the brain or alcohol-induced dementia, Wakeman says. On Jan. 3, outgoing Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released an advisory warning that alcohol consumption raises the risk of at least seven types of cancer. Shortly afterward, a second federal report warned that people who consume more than nine drinks per week have a one in 100 chance of dying from their habit, due to alcohol’s links to a range of health problems.

• For many that means resolutions to get healthier and a month long break from booze, in observation of Dry January.
• Examples include 12 fluid ounces of regular beer, five fluid ounces of table wine and 1.5 fluid ounces of spirits.
• A drink consists of 14 grams of pure alcohol, which is found in 12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits.
• His geriatric areas of expertise include managing mild cognitive impairment, dementia, polypharmacy, advanced care planning and other geriatric syndromes.
• The main reason is innovation in the brewing process, which has new techniques in arrested fermentation.

Like other potential health hazards—such as spending time in the sun or eating not-so-nutritious foods—moderate or light drinking can fit into an otherwise healthy lifestyle, Wakeman says. Drinking alcohol seems to change the way the body metabolizes estrogen, leading to higher levels of the hormone. This may translate to an increased risk of estrogen-related breast cancers. Researchers are still learning about exactly how alcohol affects hormones, according to the recent Surgeon General report. Plenty of factors influence how damaging acetaldehyde is to the body, Wakeman says. The most obvious is the amount of alcohol consumed; a heavy drinker will be exposed to more acetaldehyde than a light drinker, leading to more damage.

And it analyzed the overall health impact related to alcohol consumption, including death and disability due to automobile accidents, infectious diseases, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. It concluded that the best option for overall health was no drinking at all. Of note, the definition of “a drink” in this study was 10 grams of alcohol — that’s 30% less than a standard drink in the US, but 25% more than a standard drink in the UK. But over the last few years, mounting evidence has questioned the health benefits of drinking. In 2022, the World Health Organization concluded that no amount of alcohol is safe.