No ‘safe’ level to drink alcohol, study reveals

Previously, research has suggested that moderate drinkers enjoy longer lives with lower risks of heart disease and other chronic illnesses than those who do not drink. This has encouraged a widespread belief that alcohol, in moderation, can be healthy.

Tim Stockwell, a scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria, said, studies that have previously linked moderate drinking to health benefits have design flaws.

Previous studies have focused on older adults and have not accounted for people’s lifetime drinking habits. Moderate drinkers have been compared with “abstainer” and “occasional drinker” groups that included some older adults who had quit or cut down on drinking because they had developed some form of health condition.