The dangers of “demon rum”

 I like having an alcoholic drink every evening—either wine or a cocktail. For some reason, I am unable to consume more than one drink. It just doesn’t appeal. For this reason, I’ve never been concerned about my alcohol consumption. But lately, new reports are emerging about alcohol’s deleterious effects—even the small amounts I drink.

 In the past, researchers have argued that modest drinking (up to 14 drinks a week) protects the heart. This conclusion was based on the fact that moderate drinkers have less heart disease than those who drink heavily or those who abstain. Now, however, they conclude that light to moderate drinkers tend to have characteristics that decrease their risk, such as smoking less, exercising more, and weighing less.

 The latest research, as reported in the JAMA Network Open, says all drinking confers the risk of heart disease. This conclusion comes from the analysis of data collected in the U.K. Biobank, a repository that holds genetic and medical data of nearly 400,000 people. According to this research, the health risk is small if you have an average of seven drinks a week. (Whew! That’s my average.) Actual risk depends on whether you have other conditions, such as diabetes or obesity. In general, however, their data showed that a typical middle-aged person who did not drink had an estimated 9 percent chance of having coronary heart disease, while a person who had one drink a day had an estimated 10.5 percent chance—a small increase. However, after that amount, the risk increases quickly. In Canada, new guidelines conclude that you shouldn’t drink more than two drinks a week. Every drink over six a week, they say, causes a dramatic escalation in disease risk.

 Other studies report that alcohol consumption increases the risk of atrial fibrillation, brain shrinkage, breast cancer, liver disease, and mental disorders. As to brain shrinkage, one journal concludes: "The brain tends to shrink physiologically with age. Heavy alcohol consumption seems to exaggerate this shrinkage...Fortunately, alcoholic brain damage is known to be, at least in part, reversible." Death is not. In the U.S., deaths caused by drinking exceeds 140,000 a year.

 In these studies, researchers consider a standard drink to be 3.4 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer (3.5% alcohol), or one ounce of spirits that is 40% alcohol by volume. Based on these rather miniscule amounts, my weekly average is probably more than one drink a day. Four ounces of wine is only half a cup! I’m going to have to think about this, although, for me, it’s rather late in the game.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.