Even little alcohol not healthy

Even low alcohol is unhealthy: Myth a glass of wine is healthy

01/14/2014

Nobody should deny a glass in honor. Several studies have come to this conclusion in the past and even propagated modestly practiced alcohol consumption as protection against cardiovascular diseases.

In contrast, there are a number of diseases, including some cancers, diseases of the liver and digestive tract as well as fatal accidents that have arisen as a result of alcohol consumption. A team of scientists led by Manuela Bergmann and Heiner Boeing of the German Institute for Nutrition Research in Potsdam-Rehbrücke, wanted to know more about this relationship and have the data of Europe-wide „Epic study“ analyzed under other criteria.

This long-term study, begun in Potsdam in 1994, focuses on the question of how far dietary habits are directly or indirectly involved in the development of chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Among other things, data on drinking behavior were collected.

Healthy people cope with moderate consumption
Although the results show that people who did not consume more than the daily recommended amount of alcohol at the age of 20 have a 9 to 14 percent lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease, this does not mean that the scientists, moderate alcohol consumption contributes to the protection of the heart. The fact that this was only observed in participants who did not have high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, myocardial infarction or stroke before the start of the study is often not detailed enough.

„Because we have observed this favorable relationship only in people who were healthy at the beginning of the study and in their past never counted among the drinkers“, explains the epidemiologist. The researchers further explain that healthy people can drink alcohol at a normal level without any adverse consequences. But alcohol is by no means the cause of health and it does not help to prevent illnesses per se.

Small amounts of alcohol are not good for your health
Anyone who has often hit the strings in his youth, whose body will feel the consequences even in old age. „Former drinkers, who only consumed one to two glasses of alcohol a day at the beginning of the study, still had a significantly increased risk of dying compared to people who did not get that amount for life“, explains Bergmann. You have a seven-fold increased risk of dying from an alcohol-related cause of death. For coronary heart disease and cancer, it is still 1.2 to 1.8 times. „You do not necessarily imagine doing something for your health“, she says. „But it does not hurt, if everything else is in order.“, so miner.

Moderate alcohol consumption differs between men and women. The female sex should drink no more than a glass of wine, beer or brandy a day, whereas in men without a guilty conscience it can be two glasses calmly. Nevertheless, Bergmann does not recommend these recommendations as an occasion for daily drinking. The data are the maximum levels at which a healthy body gets no problems. A latent alcohol dependency can arise even with a permanently low alcohol consumption.

Drug report from 2013 delivers frightening numbers
In Germany, about 9.5 million people consume alcohol in a health risky form and about 1.3 million people are considered to be dependent on alcohol, as can be seen from the German Federal Government Drug Report for 2013. In Germany alone, 74,000 people die each year from the direct and indirect consequences of their alcohol abuse. (Fr)