- An increasing amount of evidence consistently suggests that there is no safe amount of alcohol a person can consume and that any alcohol consumption negatively affects health in the long run.
- One recent study has found that having two or more alcoholic drinks per day is linked to a 91% higher risk of colorectal cancer.
- Another found that even moderate alcohol consumption could impair brain health.
- Finally, the most recent review suggests that even moderate and low alcohol consumption could lead to cancer and hasten death.
Alcoholic beverages form a casual part of many people’s lives. Whether as a way of relaxing, a habit indulged in socially, a way of complementing a meal, or a treat to celebrate a special occasion, many people all over the world like to enjoy a drink or two, at least occasionally.
However, an increasing amount of scientific evidence is pointing to the conclusion that there is no minimum amount of alcohol a person can safely consume without risking an array of health problems in the long run.
Here is what the most recent evidence reported in Medical News Today shows, and why it may be best to steer clear of alcohol and opt for a soft beverage instead.
Recent data suggest that colorectal and other gastrointestinal cancer cases are on the rise in ever-younger populations, and at least one of the factors that increases the risk is alcohol consumption.
It assessed how lifetime drinking habits potentially related to colorectal cancer risk, in general, and the incidence of colorectal adenomas — noncancerous tumors that often precede the development of colorectal cancer — in particular.
The research found that people who were still drinking alcohol and had the highest average lifetime alcohol intake faced a higher risk of colorectal cancer than current drinkers with the lowest average lifetime alcohol intake.
People who continued to engage in heavy drinking — defined as 2 or more alcoholic drinks per day — had a 91% higher risk of colorectal cancer compared with light drinkers.
The silver lining highlighted in the study was that quitting makes a difference: People who had given up alcohol had a lower risk of developing early-stage adenomas than current drinkers with the lowest average lifetime alcohol intake.
Study author Erikka Loftfield, PhD, MPH, Stadtman Investigator in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), summarized the findings thus:
“We found that compared to drinking [less than] 1 drink per week (‘light’), drinking 14 or more drinks per week (2 [or more] drinks per day), on average throughout adulthood was associated with a higher risk of colorectal, namely rectal, cancer. In contrast, we observed no difference in colorectal cancer risk between average light drinkers and former drinkers, suggesting that risk may return to that of light drinkers even among former moderate to heavy drinkers.”
For this study, the researchers worked with a small cohort of 45 healthy adults ages 22 to 70 who did not have a history of alcohol use disorder.
Via questionnaires, they asked the participants about their lifetime alcohol use and any health factors that could place brain health at risk, such as neurological disorders or substance use.
The researchers found that even low levels of alcohol consumption — 1 standard drink or less per day for females, and 2 standard drinks or less per day for males — were associated with reduced brain blood flow, and that this impact was amplified in older participants.
Dung Trinh, MD, an internist at the MemorialCare Medical Group and Chief Medical Officer of Healthy Brain Clinic, who was not involved in this study, commented that, “for many years, the public message was that light or moderate drinking may be harmless, or even beneficial in some cases.”
“This study challenges that older idea by suggesting that even alcohol intake within traditional ‘low-risk’ ranges may be associated with measurable brain changes,” Trinh noted.
While cautioning that the study sample size was too small to draw decisive conclusions, and that these findings ought to be replicated in larger cohorts, he nevertheless pointed out that:
“[The findings] should be viewed as a credible warning signal rather than proof that low-level alcohol directly causes brain damage. The main takeaway is that ‘low risk’ does not mean ‘no risk’.”
The latest review to look at how alcohol may impact the brain and other aspects of health has drawn even starker conclusions.
For this review, the researchers analyzed the evidence provided by 16 studies looking at how alcohol consumption relates to different forms of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and liver disease.
The review authors further analyzed data on alcohol-related health risks and national health statistics to figure out the mortality risk associated with different levels of alcohol consumption.
They found that, for people who consumed 14 alcoholic drinks per week, an estimated one in 25 early deaths was attributable to alcohol use.
Furthermore, even having a single drink per day was linked to a higher risk of death due to cirrhosis, esophageal cancer, and oral cancer, the authors concluded. In women, breast cancer rates also increased with the number of alcoholic drinks consumed per week.
Reflecting on the review findings, Cheng-Han Chen, MD, a board-certified interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at Saddleback Medical Center, who was not involved in this research, emphasized: “I will still be advising my patients to drink as little as possible, and preferably not at all.”
