New Study: People Under 40 Shouldn’t Drink Alcohol
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This first figure shows the percentage of people binge drinking in each part of the world. It's group by gender and age.
The theoretical minimum risk exposure level is the amount of alcohol that minimizes health loss from a population. This study found it to be 0.6 standard drinks per day. After that, you are increasing your risk of developing health problems from alcohol, which doesn't mean you are doomed to have health problems btw. Just that the risk is starting to increase
The non-drinker equivalent is around 2 standard drinks per day, and this is one of the main criticisms of the study: that they said small amounts of alcohol can be beneficial for people over 40. Here are the major criticisms:
Any suggested benefits of alcohol on the heart are balanced out by the increased risk of developing other conditions like cancer, liver disease, and dementia
Studies have found that women are more sensitive to the effects of alcohol and the NIAAA found that alcohol related problems in women appear sooner and at lower levels of alcohol than they do for men
This is stealth prohibition: reducing the guidelines to zero is the long-term aim of the anti-alcohol lobby and they are prioritizing policies that may lead to reducing the guidelines
Learn more about this study in episode 109
A study published this week in The Lancet found that people under 40 shouldn’t drink alcohol at all. This was a big study that looked at a lot of data, so in this episode Gill explains where the data came from, what they focused their analysis on, and the outcomes. Since this study is calling for the guidelines to be revisited, she also explains how the guidelines are even determined in the first place. You’ll learn about the limits of this study, some criticisms about its conclusions, and how studies on alcohol and health are normally performed.
What to listen to next:
E85: Biased Alcohol Studies vs Reality
E90: New Study Finds Just One Drink Shrinks Your Brain, or Does it?
E95: Surprise, Moderate Drinking Isn’t Good for Your Heart (New Study)
E63: Why Alcohol Causes Depression and Suicidal Thoughts
E65: What Happens to the Body When You Binge Drink
Sources
GBD 2020 Alcohol Collaborators. Population-level risks of alcohol consumption by amount, geography, age, sex, and year: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2020. The Lancet. 2022
Micallef, J. New guidelines recommend one alcoholic drink a day. Is this stealth prohibition? Forbes. 2020.
LaMotte, S. Global study finds surprising results for alcohol consumption. CNN. 2022
World Health Organization. Alcohol. 2022
Cite this episode
Tietz, G. Episode 109: New Study: People Under 40 Shouldn’t Drink Alcohol. Sober Powered. 2022.
