Studies Confirm Benefits of Moderate Drinking

Studies Confirm Benefits of Moderate Drinking

4 May 2017

For Immediate Release

Two recently released international studies have confirmed the benefits associated with moderate drinking.

The studies, published separately in the British Medical Journal and the European Journal of Epidemiology, support other research which shows there are measurable health benefits associated with moderate drinking as part of a healthy lifestyle.

“Better heart function, lower blood pressure and living longer is the best way to summarise both sets of research,” said Spirits NZ Chief Executive, Robert Brewer.

“In fact the study published in the British Medical Journal finds that, when compared with moderate drinkers, abstainers were 24% more likely to die from ‘all causes’ and heavy drinkers 34% more likely,” said Mr Brewer.

“These studies sit alongside a growing body of evidence indicating that if you eat well, get some exercise and control your weight then drinking a moderate amount of alcohol is OK.

“The critical thing is understanding what ‘moderate’ actually means and, again, all the studies point to the same thing – moderate consumption is between two and three standard drinks per day with a couple of days off a week. Drink more than this then, over time, the health benefits you might have accrued quickly reverse.”

Mr Brewer says the key to healthy drinking is about frequency, or drinking patterns, and volume.

“The Ministry of Health drinking guidelines are very clear and reflect current research – no more than three standard drinks a day for men and two for women a week and two days of no drinking,” he said.

And Mr Brewer says if drinkers were wondering what this amount actually looked like then they should visit www.cheers.org.nz which has information on standard drinks and a test to see if their drinking is normal and within moderate drinking guidelines.

“As always, to be healthy we have to eat well, stay active and – if we choose to drink – drink moderately.”

ENDS

Editors’ note the two studies referred to in this release are:

Beulens, J. W., Fransen, H. P., Struijk, A., Boer, J. M., de Wit, G. A., Onland Moret, N. C., Hoekstra, J., et al. (2017). Moderate alcohol consumption is associated with lower chronic disease burden expressed in disability-adjusted life years: a prospective cohort study. European Journal of Epidemiology, Published early online 13 April 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10654-017-0247-x - open access.

Bell, S., Daskalopoulou, M., Rapsomaniki, E., George, J., et al. (2017). Association between clinically recorded alcohol consumption and initial presentation of 12 cardiovascular diseases: Population based cohort study using linked health records. British Medical Journal, 356:j909.http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j909

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