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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/26/the-guardian-view-on-alcohol-drinking-less-is-good-for-you

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The Guardian view on alcohol: drinking less is good for you The Guardian view on alcohol: drinking less is good for you
(5 months later)
Alcohol is physically bad for you in any quantity; and the more you drink, the worse its health effects. The gigantic report on the subject published last week is unequivocal and authoritative. It makes depressing reading – “sobering” would be the wrong word here, not least because few people are likely to change their behaviour as a result. But it is difficult to argue with the conclusions. The report was based on enormous amounts of data: 28 million people around the world were examined in 592 studies to estimate the health risks, while the prevalence of drinking was estimated using a further 694 studies. Some of the effects of large-scale drinking are really shocking. In Russia, after the failure of Gorbachev’s attempt to curtail the country’s vodka habit, alcohol caused 75% of the deaths of men under 55, at a time when life expectancy was actually falling. Around the world today, alcohol is responsible for 20% of the deaths in the 15 to 49 age group (the researchers include in this an estimate for the proportion of road traffic fatalities cause by drunk driving, though this is extrapolated from US data).Alcohol is physically bad for you in any quantity; and the more you drink, the worse its health effects. The gigantic report on the subject published last week is unequivocal and authoritative. It makes depressing reading – “sobering” would be the wrong word here, not least because few people are likely to change their behaviour as a result. But it is difficult to argue with the conclusions. The report was based on enormous amounts of data: 28 million people around the world were examined in 592 studies to estimate the health risks, while the prevalence of drinking was estimated using a further 694 studies. Some of the effects of large-scale drinking are really shocking. In Russia, after the failure of Gorbachev’s attempt to curtail the country’s vodka habit, alcohol caused 75% of the deaths of men under 55, at a time when life expectancy was actually falling. Around the world today, alcohol is responsible for 20% of the deaths in the 15 to 49 age group (the researchers include in this an estimate for the proportion of road traffic fatalities cause by drunk driving, though this is extrapolated from US data).
The variety of ways in which alcohol can kill or damage people comes as a shock. In the poorest countries, its primary means of damage is through TB; as countries grow more developed (and drink, on average, more) the damage shifts to cancer and heart disease. It is the trade-off between cancer and heart disease which leads the researchers to reject the notion that moderate drinking has health benefits compared with abstinence: they find that the increased risk of cancers outweighs the diminished risk of heart disease among middle-aged moderate drinkers.The variety of ways in which alcohol can kill or damage people comes as a shock. In the poorest countries, its primary means of damage is through TB; as countries grow more developed (and drink, on average, more) the damage shifts to cancer and heart disease. It is the trade-off between cancer and heart disease which leads the researchers to reject the notion that moderate drinking has health benefits compared with abstinence: they find that the increased risk of cancers outweighs the diminished risk of heart disease among middle-aged moderate drinkers.
Perhaps the most startling single finding is that two-thirds of the world’s population don’t drink at all. They manage without a drug apparently essential to civilised life in the west. The question is whether those of us in the other third should try to emulate them. The researchers are unequivocal. They want concerted government action to deliver lower alcohol consumption, using many of the same mechanisms that have been successfully deployed against tobacco: price rises, restrictions on advertising; limiting the availability of the drug. Some of these look like common sense: the Blair government’s relaxation of the licensing laws has not had the good effects hoped for at the time.Perhaps the most startling single finding is that two-thirds of the world’s population don’t drink at all. They manage without a drug apparently essential to civilised life in the west. The question is whether those of us in the other third should try to emulate them. The researchers are unequivocal. They want concerted government action to deliver lower alcohol consumption, using many of the same mechanisms that have been successfully deployed against tobacco: price rises, restrictions on advertising; limiting the availability of the drug. Some of these look like common sense: the Blair government’s relaxation of the licensing laws has not had the good effects hoped for at the time.
But the report’s concentration on the physical ill effects of alcohol consumption leaves two important questions unanswered. The direct physical effects of the drug are not the reasons for its popularity or use. It is the effect on mood and even intellect that many people take it for. This isn’t an entirely benevolent one. Drunken drivers, and drunken physical violence, cause immense suffering. The emotional damage that even high-functioning alcoholics do to their families is profound and lasting. Alcohol is bad for judgment and can promote a destructive solipsism. But it can also stimulate imagination, courage and friendship in a way that is hard to achieve otherwise. These are gifts that make life worth living. There is a reason why wine is tightly linked to paradise in religious poetry. Almost all human societies have used drugs for social purposes as well as individual pleasure. A world without drink might find itself poorer as well as richer.But the report’s concentration on the physical ill effects of alcohol consumption leaves two important questions unanswered. The direct physical effects of the drug are not the reasons for its popularity or use. It is the effect on mood and even intellect that many people take it for. This isn’t an entirely benevolent one. Drunken drivers, and drunken physical violence, cause immense suffering. The emotional damage that even high-functioning alcoholics do to their families is profound and lasting. Alcohol is bad for judgment and can promote a destructive solipsism. But it can also stimulate imagination, courage and friendship in a way that is hard to achieve otherwise. These are gifts that make life worth living. There is a reason why wine is tightly linked to paradise in religious poetry. Almost all human societies have used drugs for social purposes as well as individual pleasure. A world without drink might find itself poorer as well as richer.
The report is right that many people should drink less than they do. Almost everyone should drink less than they want to. Perhaps the real benefit of moderate drinking is not that it protects the heart, but that it requires a little self-discipline.The report is right that many people should drink less than they do. Almost everyone should drink less than they want to. Perhaps the real benefit of moderate drinking is not that it protects the heart, but that it requires a little self-discipline.
AlcoholAlcohol
OpinionOpinion
HealthHealth
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