It comes as studies indicate that it may be beneficial to drink small amounts of alcohol that are low quality and often compare moderate drinkers with those who have had to give up for health reasons, a new study suggests. However, moderate drinking still carries some potential health hazards, including increased risk of certain cancers, experts said. In the study analysed by lead researcher Tim Stockwell, of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria, moderate drinkers were compared with “abstainer” and “occasional drinker” groups.
Dr Stockwell said: “That makes people who continue to drink look much healthier by comparison.” The researchers looked at 107 published studies, and when they combined all the data, it looked like light to moderate drinkers (those who drank between one drink per week and two per day) had a 14% lower risk of dying during the study period compared with abstainers. However, a handful of higher quality studies that included people who were relatively young at the start, and that made sure former and occasional drinkers were not considered “abstainers”, did not link moderate drinking to a longer life.
According to the study, published in the Journal Of Studies On Alcohol and Drugs, it was the lower quality studies – those with older people, and no distinction between former drinkers and lifelong abstainers – that linked moderate drinking to greater longevity. (function (d, s, n) { var js, fjs = d.