Alcohol

Notes

tl;dr: Research is still quite imperfect. Moderate drinking might be ok. It's likely a J-shaped curve, where consumption slowly but exponentially increases risk. So it's probably fine to have a few drinks per week, but given newer studies (and common sense) ideally you'd consume no alcohol at all.

• I think limited/moderate alcohol would be better advice. But of course if you know yourself and can't moderate it, no alcohol would be better. (source)

• Physiologically there is no amount of alcohol that you can drink without increasing cancer and disease risk (according to WHO). (source)

• It‘s a neurotoxin. Every time you drink you get a bit stupider because neurons die. (source)

• Alcohol consumption, even at moderate levels, is associated with increased risk of adverse brain outcomes and steeper decline in cognitive (mental) skills, according to a study published in The BMJ. (source)

• In a study conducted in China, the researchers found that moderate drinking slightly raised the risk of stroke and high blood pressure. They weren’t able to figure out, though, whether small amounts of alcohol might also increase the chances of a heart attack. (source)

• “The claims that alcohol has some magical, protective fix ... has no particularly serious scientific basis,” (source)

• Drinking more than 100 grams of alcohol — about seven standard glasses of wine or beer — per week was associated with an increased in risk of death for all causes, they concluded. (source)

• They found moderate alcohol consumption — around seven to 14 drinks per week — was associated with a heightened risk of cardiovascular disease according to some of the measures they looked at, including stroke, aortic aneurysm, and heart failure​. (source)

• The exception was non-fatal heart attacks. The more people drank, the more their risk of heart attack went down. (source)

• It’s also possible that just cutting back alcohol, in this context, wouldn’t make much of a difference in life expectancy for some people. (source)

• He suggested people use common sense instead to guide their decisions about how much alcohol is too much (source)

• Research (specifically nutritional research) is still in its infancy. A lot of studies don't adequately take into accounts all of the different factors involved.

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