London – For those who swear by the medicinal properties of their favourite tipple, here’s a sobering thought.
A new study claims that the benefits of moderate drinking have been overstated.
Only women over 65 who have a small glass of wine a day make gains – and even these may have been exaggerated by existing studies, scientists say.
Researchers from Britain and Australia looked at data on more than 50,000 people aged 50 or over who were asked about their drinking and checked up on for around ten years after that.
The study suggests that most people get little or no protection against disease from alcohol, even at moderate drinking levels.
The exception was older women who consume around a small glass of wine a day and men aged 50-64 who have five pints of beer a week.
Previous studies have suggested that, compared with non-drinkers, small amounts of alcohol may protect the heart, in contrast with heavy drinking which carries risks such as heart failure and stroke.
But the latest study published in medical journal The BMJ claims the protective effects of light drinking have been skewed by the selection available for comparison.
For example, non-drinkers may include people who had been forced to stop drinking because of ill-health. Using the Health Survey for England 1998-2008, researchers analysed samples of 52,891 adults by sex and age group (50-64 years of age and 65 years and over) and their average weekly alcohol consumption.
Compared with teetotallers, protective associations were ‘minimal’ in men aged 50-64 who drank 15-20 units on average per week.
The study found women aged 65 and over who drank ten units or less on average per week – which is seven small glasses of wine – had a ‘significant reduction’ in risk of death.
However, the findings have been criticised by British statisticians.
Sir David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor of the public understanding of risk at University of Cambridge, said the conclusions were not backed up by the data.
He said: ‘All groups consuming less than 20 units a week experienced lower mortality rates than the lifelong teetotallers. But since there are not many teetotallers, there is large uncertainty about what the true underlying relative risks are.
‘All the observed data are compatible with the kind of 15 to 20 per cent protection that has been previously suggested, and the authors are not justified in claiming there is no protection apart from some specific groups.’
Timothy Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, said: ‘The study sadly lacked clear heart risk data, which alcohol is said to benefit.’
Paul Pharoah, professor of cancer epidemiology at University of Cambridge, said: ‘I do not think these results provide any major new insights into the complex relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of death and they provide no evidence that current guidelines on reasonable alcohol intake are inappropriate.’
Government guidelines recommend men should not regularly drink more than three to four units of alcohol a day, with a maximum for women of two to three units a day.
THE CONTRADICTORY MESSAGES
There are more than 50 studies suggesting alcohol in moderation benefits heart health and may protect against cancer. Recent examples include:
* In the New England Journal of Medicine 1997, a study of half a million middle-aged and elderly people found moderate alcohol consumption slightly reduced overall death rates.
* A 2010 study of 16,000 US patients with cardiovascular disease found light to moderate alcohol consumption – one drink a day for women, two for men – was strongly linked with a lower chance of death.
* A paper in the Annals of Oncology in May 2013 based on almost 50,000 deaths from 18 studies found that four or more drinks a day was associated with a 32 per cent increased risk of dying from cancer. But light drinkers – up to two drinks a day – showed a 9 per cent lower risk of death from cancer, while for moderate drinkers, there was no effect.
Daily Mail