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Americans, and especially those under 35, are changing their tune on alcohol use, with more and more of them supporting the view that moderate drinking is harmful to health — and a new study supports that.
According to Gallup Poll Released Tuesday, nearly half of Americans, 45%, say one or two drinks of alcohol a day is bad for a person's health. The survey, which has been conducted 10 times since 2001, is the highest percentage ever recorded.
About 65% of the group of young adults who say drinking is bad for their health are in that camp, compared with 37% of adults ages 35 to 54 and 39% of adults 55 and older.
Only 8% of adults reported that they thought moderate drinking had a positive effect on health.
Many young adults are also choosing to abstain, as non-alcoholic “teasers” become more common and people feel social pressure to drink. Different Gallup Poll Published last year, 62% of adults under the age of 35 said they drink alcohol, which is down 10% from 20 years ago.
However, the study found that among adults 55 and older, drinking increased by 10 percent, and new research suggests that it may be affecting their overall health.
Separately, a new study He joins a growing body of research challenging the belief that moderate drinking doesn't seem to benefit older adults' health, a glass or two a day of alcohol, especially wine. Instead, recent studies have shown that alcohol can be a potent carcinogen and can contribute to other diseases, such as depression and liver and kidney problems.
“Alcohol is a carcinogen and contributes to nearly 50 different causes of death,” said Dr. Timothy Naimi, director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria. Not involved in the study.
Nimmy says this fact tends to disappear when people start talking about moderate drinking or how much alcohol can be harmful.
As for alcohol, he said less.
“The most consistent finding across all of science is, in general, the more you drink in moderation, the better off you are health-wise,” Niemi said.
of ResearchA study published Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open reached largely the same conclusion. It looked at the health outcomes of more than 135,000 adults aged 60 and over tracked by the UK Biobank Registry. In the year At the first study visit between 2006 and 2010, participants were asked detailed questions about their alcohol use, and the researchers used their responses to classify them as occasional or low-, moderate-, or high-risk drinkers.
Such studies, which look retrospectively to find patterns and relationships between people's habits and their health, are prone to biases that can distort their results. The researchers tried to avoid one of the biggest pitfalls in studies of alcohol use by eliminating comparisons with people who said they never drank any alcohol.
Non-drinkers often do not drink because they cannot, perhaps due to health conditions or drug use. Some older studies have shown that comparing drinkers to nondrinkers can make drinking seem less harmful or beneficial.
For the new study, occasional drinkers – those who drink less than 20 grams of alcohol per week – served as a reference group. A standard drink in the United States contains 14 grams of alcohol. basis National Institutes of Health.
The study also had some limitations. For example, most data are self-reported and people do not always accurately remember what and how much they drink. The study population was not very diverse. More than 94% of study participants were white, so the findings may not reflect the experiences of people of other races or ethnicities.
The study defined high-risk drinkers as consuming up to 10 grams of alcohol per day for women and 20 grams per day for men. Those who were classified as moderate said they consumed 20 to 40 grams of alcohol per day for men and 10 to 20 grams for women. High-risk drinkers are those who report consuming more than 40 grams of alcohol per day for men and 20 grams of alcohol per day for women.
When people report that they consume more than 80% of their alcohol from beverages such as beer or, in some cases, as food, they are classified as having a specific preference.
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The study found risks at every level of regular drinking. People who fell into the low-risk category were about 10 percent more likely to die from cancer than those who reported drinking only occasionally. Moderate drinkers were 10 to 15 percent more likely to die from any cause and die from cancer, and heavy drinkers were 33 percent more likely to die from cancer, heart disease, and other causes than occasional drinkers. Cause than those who drink only occasionally.
The researchers scored participants on any of 49 health conditions based on where they lived, a proxy for income level, and their health.
The increased risks associated with drinking were most pronounced among people with low incomes and those who reported having multiple health conditions.
“So that's very important because it should also be considered for public health interventions in these people,” said Dr. Rosario Ortola, assistant professor of preventive medicine and public health at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. In Spain.
However, people who said they drank wine most often or drank it with food had a slightly lower risk of cancer and death, despite socioeconomic and health risks.
“So we think that maybe it's not the wine itself or the consumption of the food itself that's causing this beneficial effect, but other factors that we can't control,” Ortola said.
For example, people who drink wine or drink only with food may appreciate moderation in other areas of their lives, or perhaps engage in other healthy behaviors, such as physical activity.
In other words, Niemi said, “Moderate drinking is probably a reflection of a healthy lifestyle, but not the cause, and that's an important distinction to make.”
The researchers concluded that exceptions like these may point to benefits other than alcohol, such as the antioxidants in wine or perhaps spacing drinks between meals. More research is needed to understand these differences.