Does Alcohol Have Any Health Benefits?
We’ve all read promising articles that claim a small amount of alcohol is good for our health. Is that really true? Simply put — no. I’ll explain why.
Whilst alcohol has medical uses, this is for disinfecting wounds and surfaces. And this what we drink — for fun!
Alcohol is referred to as a dirty drug, because it targets so many neurotransmitters. This why being drunk is such a bizarre experience — and why we can have such varied, unpredictable experiences when drinking.
Similarly, alcohol has a widespread impact on our health. There are immediate effects with an increased risk of accident or injury. And there’s the long-term health impacts. Alcohol has been identified as a causal factor in over 60 medical conditions — these include cancers, heart disease, liver disease, stroke, depression and pancreatitis.
The evidence is pretty clear with alcohol have a damaging effect on our health.
Where does this popular, desperate belief that alcohol is good for us in small quantities come from?
Any article stating that alcohol is good in small quantities will display a J-shaped curve and base their argument off it.
What is this, you ask? Please see below.
This graph shows that the more alcohol you drink, the greater your risk of stroke. However, notice how the risk of stroke is slightly higher if you don’t drink at all then if you drink two drinks a day?
You can see the a similar phenomenon for alcohol and all-cause mortality in the graph below.
So, what does this mean? You may think this means a bit of alcohol is actually better for you!?
Well, no. The graph does suggest this though, but there are some other explanations for why we see this trend.
The vast majority of adults drink, at least a little bit. Adults that don’t drink usually have a reason why. This can be for religious reasons. Although a large proportion of teetotaling adults do it for health reasons. These reasons often mean they are at a greater risk of mortality due to underlying health conditions than those adults that drink a little bit.
So, it is not that your alcohol consumption is contributing your enhanced state of health. It is that those that abstain due to health reasons, have a worsened state of health than you due to an underlying condition.
Perhaps adults that drink a little bit are the same adults that eat healthier, exercise regularly and engage in other adaptive health behaviours. As a mentioned, a big chunk of people drink alcohol — so, the ones believing they are doing so responsibly are more likely to be taking care of their health in other ways.
Alcohol is not responsible for your better health state, it is the other lifestyle factors which overlap with it and it make it seem like a little bit of alcohol is beneficial to your health — totally false.
Of course, alcohol is embedded in our culture, it can be hard to avoid — this is why many of us look for ways to justify our consumption (I know I sure have…)
Well, what does all of this mean?
There is no shadow of a doubt that alcohol is damaging to our health — it is a poison for crying out loud…
Does this mean we should all go off and be abstinent? Strictly health-speaking, yes, that would be the best course of action.
Of course, this is unlikely to happen. So what can we do? Why am I bothering to write about this?
It is important that we are informed about the harms of alcohol, in order for us to make more informed decisions. This article may not lead you to stop drinking, maybe you won’t cut back your drinking at all.
However, I think it is essential that the public is more informed about the effects of alcohol and to know that there are no benefits of it health-wise.
If you drink, you probably see some benefit to alcohol in some way and you probably know of some harms.
So, have a think about what those benefits are and how perhaps you can continue to get the most out of alcohol with the lowest risk of harm.
