No amount of alcohol is healthy for you. Zero. Zilch. Nada. This according to a new study published Thursday in the scientific journal The Lancet and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
You may have heard that a glass or two of red wine per day is good for your heart. Not so, according to The Lancet.
Throughout the globe, 2.4 billion people consume alcohol. Researchers in this latest study analyzed drinkers in 195 countries throughout the world from 1990 through 2016, with subjects ranging from 15 to 95 years old.
The study finds that alcohol was the worldwide leading risk factor for death and disease for men and women between the ages of 15 and 49 in 2016 — resulting in one in ten deaths.
“The most surprising finding was that even small amounts of alcohol use contribute to health loss globally,” senior study author Emmanuela Gakidou, a professor at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, told CNN. “We’re used to hearing that a drink or two a day is fine. But the evidence is the evidence.”
Alcohol was associated with a whopping 2.8 million deaths throughout the world in 2016. The causes of those deaths were auto accidents, infectious diseases, cancers, cardiovascular diseases, tuberculosis, self-harm, and other instances such as fires and drowning.
The U.S. ranked seventh among women and fifth among men on the list of countries associated with the most alcohol related deaths. China, India, and Russia, all of which have high populations, were the countries with the most alcohol-related deaths.
“This study is a stark reminder of the real, and potentially lethal, dangers that too much alcohol can have on our health and that even the lowest levels of alcohol intake increase our risks,” Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners in the UK, said in a statement. Stokes-Lampard was not a researcher in the study.
The beer, wine, and spirits industry has a different take. “Nothing in this study challenges the array of studies suggesting that choosing to drink moderately is associated with a decreased risk of some health issues and a lower risk of death,” the Alcohol Information Partnership, a group that includes eight of the world’s largest liquor companies, said in a statement. “We advocate sensible drinking by those who choose to drink and support consistent, evidence-based advice, which enables people to make their own informed choices about alcohol.”
The Distilled Spirits Council had similar thoughts: “Claims in the study disputing the research on potential benefits of moderate consumption do not comport with the body of scientific evidence, including a recent study in the American Heart Association Journal Circulation that found that moderate alcohol consumption is one of ‘five low-risk lifestyle-related factors’ that could help people live longer.”
But, with its massive sample size and deep amounts of research, the study published in The Lancet is a pretty solid indicator that alcohol does nothing for the health of people throughout the world.
So for all of us recovering alcoholics, we have a new incentive to stay sober. This sweeping study is an iron-clad reason. The takeaway message for us is that drinking is bad for your health — a message that many of us know all too well.
