No amount of drinking alcohol is safe: Study debunks previous research

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The conventional wisdom that a daily glass of wine is beneficial for health is based on years of flawed scientific research, revealed a study on Thursday.

"There is simply no completely 'safe' level of drinking," said lead researcher Tim Stockwell from the University of Victoria in Canada.

The study, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, debunks the previous studies, which stated that moderate drinkers live longer and have lower risks of heart disease than abstainers.

The main issue is that these studies often include older adults without accounting for their lifetime drinking habits,

Consequently, moderate drinkers are compared to "abstainer" groups, which may include individuals who quit drinking due to health issues, making the moderate drinkers appear healthier by comparison.

Stockwell and his team reviewed 107 studies that examined the relationship between drinking habits and longevity. Initially, the data suggested that light to moderate drinkers had a 14 per cent lower risk of dying during the study period compared to abstainers.

However, this changed upon closer inspection. Higher quality studies, which involved younger participants (under 55) and excluded former and occasional drinkers from the abstainer category, found no link between moderate drinking and longer life.

It was the lower-quality studies that showed a positive correlation between moderate drinking and longevity.

Stockwell highlighted the long-standing belief in the health benefits of moderate drinking, exemplified by the "French paradox" theory from the 1990s, which credited red wine for the low heart disease rates in France despite a high-fat diet.

This perception remains popular, though the reality is that moderate drinking likely does not extend life and may increase the risk of certain cancers. No major health organisation endorses a risk-free level of alcohol consumption.

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