Moderate Drinking
March 31st, 2006Google news has three articles this morning saying that of the 54 current studies on the health effects of varying levels of alcohol consumption, only 7 properly classified their user groups of “moderate”, “heavy” and “abstainers”. 47 of the 54 studies, the ones that showed that alcohol did provide health benefits, clumped recent quitters and people who quit drinking because of failing health into the “abstainers” group. Basically it put the sick and recent addicts into the “abstainers” group. The remaining 7 studies who only included life-long non-drinkers in their “abstainers” group showed that the abstainers had equal or better health than moderate drinkers.
“Too few studies have been done without the “abstainer error” to conclude that drinking has health benefits, the researchers said. “
“Our research suggests light drinking is a sign of good health, not necessarily its cause.”
“In the seven studies that counted only long-term teetotalers as abstainers, the results showed they were not more likely to die than moderate drinkers, according to researchers. “
“Specifically, 47 of the 54 studies included in the abstainer category not long-term teetotallers, but people who had recently cut down or stopped drinking. Since many people quit drinking because of declining health, disability, frailty or medication use, there’s a good chance these people were less healthy to begin with.”
“Initially it appeared the abstainers were at higher risk for heart disease because they refrained from drinking alcohol, and so did not get its protective benefit, when in fact Fillmore says those in the abstainer category were often already frail and predisposed to death.”