Drinking alcohol is a cultural pastime for people all around the world. Every place has their own specific drink, or a way of drinking that is deeply ingrained in their people. In the past people often had more access to alcohol than they did clean, drinking water, which helped rise its popularity.
We've all heard new studies that come out about alcohol, like how drinking a glass of wine every day can be good for you, and can even be good during pregnancy. These types of studies can make us feel good about this habit that we all well know is not healthy for us.
Unfortunately, your drinking bubble is about to get burst. If you ever thought that drinking being healthy for you was too good to be true, you are right. There is far more danger to drinking at any level than previously stated. As you'll find out, a large group of scientists have come together to make this claim.
While there have been many positive studies regarding alcohol, researched wanted to look into the net negative and positive results of multiple studies to come to a conclusion. Researchers used data from 195 different countries over twenty six years (1990-2016). This encompassed 694 studies which were focused on how often people drink, and 592 studies that investigated the health risks of drinking.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded the research to determine if there was validity to drinking having health benefits, whether that's at a low or moderate level. Of course anyone would tell you that drinking heavily will not be good for you. While specific studies have shown that moderate drinking can have positive health benefits, this encompassing research leads to a different conclusion. We will go over the results in the next paragraph, which might make you set down that beer.
The study found that despite the fact that moderate drinking of certain alcohols could provide some health benefits against things like heart disease and diabetes, there are far more negative health aspects to drinking than positive aspects. If you were hoping to stave off heart disease with a couple of cold ones every night, you may have other health risks to worry about. The top health risks might even be surprising to you.
The study found that there are three main health hazards connected to drinking alcohol for young people specifically. They are road injuries, self-harm, and tuberculosis. The study also found that 2.4 billion people drink alcohol from around the world. An interesting fact found from the study is that Denmark has the most drinkers at over ninety five percent for both men and women.
The study suggest that the negative impacts of drinking alcohol is something that must be addressed: "This level is in conflict with most health guidelines, which espouse health benefits associated with consuming up to two drinks per day. Alcohol use contributes to health loss from many causes and exacts its toll across the lifespan, particularly among men."
The study warned of future problems caused by alcohol consumption: "Alcohol poses dire ramifications for future population health in the absence of policy action today. The widely held view of the health benefits of alcohol needs revising, particularly as improved methods and analyses continue to show how much alcohol use contributes to global death and disability. Our results show that the safest level of drinking is none." That may be upsetting for people who enjoy a drink, but the results don't lie.
