Study: ‘Healthy’ moderate drinking a myth
06 April, 2019
Blood pressure and stroke risk rise steadily the more alcohol people drink, and previous claims that one or two drinks a day might protect against stroke are not true, according to the results of a major genetic study.
The research, which used data from a 160,000-strong cohort of Chinese adults, many of whom are unable to drink alcohol due to genetic intolerance, found that people who drink moderately — consuming 10 to 20 grams of alcohol a day — raise their risk of stroke by 10 to 15 percent.
For heavy drinkers, consuming four or more drinks a day, blood pressure rises significantly and the risk of stroke increases by around 35 percent, the study found.
“The key message here is that, at least for stroke, there is no protective effect of moderate drinking,” said Zhengming Chen, a professor at Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Population Health who co-led the research. “The genetic evidence shows the protective effect is not real.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 2.3 billion people worldwide drink alcohol, with average per-person daily consumption at 33 grams of pure alcohol a day. That is roughly equivalent to two 150 milliliter glasses of wine, a large (750 milliliter) bottle of beer or two 40 milliliter shots of spirits.
This latest study, published in The Lancet medical journal, focused on people of East Asian descent, many of whom have genetic variants that limit alcohol tolerance.
Because the variants have specific and large effects on alcohol, but do not effect other lifestyle factors such as diet, smoking, economic status or education, they can be used by scientists to nail down causal effects of alcohol intake.