British researchers say that the health benefits of an alcoholic drink a day may be a wee bit exaggerated. The only people, maybe, who get a protective effect from light drinking when compared to people who never drink are women over age 65.
Previous studies have found that people who drink a low to moderate amount of alcohol, which translates to one drink a day, do better than either people who drink heavily or those who don't drink at all. But researchers at University College in London say that using non-drinkers as a comparison group may be throwing off the results.
They used data from surveys done in 1994 to 2008 of more than 45,000 English adults aged 50 or older. The surveys asked participants how often they drink alcohol during an average week and how much they drink on the heaviest drinking day of the week.
When the data were analyzed, the researchers found that drinking alcohol was associated with a lower risk of death in almost all age groups and levels of drinking when compared to people who were not currently drinking. But when they excluded those who used to drink, the apparent benefit remained only minimally for men aged 50 to 65 and only a bit stronger in women over age 65. When the researchers left out former drinkers and compared light, moderate and heavy drinkers to those who only occasionally drank, the apparent benefits of drinking disappeared almost entirely.
It appears that people who used to drink tend to be less healthy and more likely to die, or may have stopped drinking for other health reasons, which is why they skew the results.
"On this basis, it seems sensible for current drinkers to consider moderating the amount of alcohol they consume, and for non-drinkers to remain abstinent," said Craig S. Knott of the department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London and a lead author of the study.
