New Research Shows that Even a Small Amount of Alcohol Consumption Can Lead to Serious Health Issue

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Before lifting your next glass of spirits, there is some new information you may be interested in before imbibing an alcoholic beverage.

It appears that the consumption of even small amounts of alcohol can negatively impact a person’s health. According to a recent New York Times report, research published in November revealed that “between 2015 and 2019, excessive alcohol use resulted in roughly 140,000 deaths per year in the United States. About 40 percent of those deaths had acute causes, like car crashes, poisonings and homicides. But the majority were caused by chronic conditions attributed to alcohol, such as liver disease, cancer and heart disease”

While those who drink to excess place themselves in a higher risk category for serious and even fatal illnesses or make themselves more vulnerable to life threatening accidents, it has now been revealed that health risks from drinking can come from moderate consumption as well, according to the NYT report.

Speaking to the NYT, Dr. Tim Naimi, director of the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research said,  “Risk starts to go up well below levels where people would think, ‘Oh, that person has an alcohol problem.  Alcohol is harmful to the health starting at very low levels.”

How would one gauge whether they are drinking too much? “Excessive alcohol use” technically means anything above the U.S. Dietary Guidelines’ recommended daily limits, the NYT reported. That’s more than two drinks a day for men and more than one drink a day for women.

Marissa Esser, who leads the alcohol program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there is also emerging evidence “that there are risks even within these levels, especially for certain types of cancer and some forms of cardiovascular disease,” according to the NYT report.

There is kind of bad news for weekend and holiday drinkers as well.  The report indicates that is one abstains from alcohol consumption during the work week but hoists a few on the weekends such as two or three a night, then those weekend drinks count as excessive consumption. It’s both the cumulative drinks over time and the amount of alcohol in your system on any one occasion that can cause damage.

Explaining why alcohol does have deleterious effects on one’s state of heath, Dr, Esser told the NYT that when you drink alcohol, your body metabolizes it into acetaldehyde, a chemical that is toxic to cells. Acetaldehyde both “damages your DNA and prevents your body from repairing the damage. Once your DNA is damaged, then a cell can grow out of control and create a cancer tumor, “ she said.

Alcohol also creates oxidative stress, another form of DNA damage that can be particularly harmful to the cells that line blood vessels, the NYT reported. Oxidative stress can lead to stiffened arteries, resulting in higher blood pressure and coronary artery disease.

“It fundamentally affects DNA, and that’s why it affects so many organ systems,” Dr. Naimi told the NYT. Over the course of a lifetime, chronic consumption “damages tissues over time.”

Alcohol intoxication results as the amount of alcohol in your bloodstream increases. The higher the blood alcohol concentration is, the more likely you are to have bad effects. Alcohol intoxication causes behavior problems and mental changes. These may include inappropriate behavior, unstable moods, poor judgment, slurred speech, problems with attention or memory, and poor coordination. You can also have periods called “blackouts,” where you don’t remember events. Very high blood alcohol levels can lead to coma, permanent brain damage or even death.

Alcohol’s effect on the heart is confusing because some studies have claimed that small amounts of alcohol, particularly red wine, can be beneficial, the NYT reported.  Past research suggested that alcohol raises HDL, the “good” cholesterol, and that resveratrol, an antioxidant found in grapes (and red wine), has heart-protective properties.

Mariann Piano, a professor of nursing at Vanderbilt University told the NYT that,  “There’s been a lot of recent evidence that has really challenged the notion of any kind of what we call a cardio-protective or healthy effect of alcohol.”

The idea that a low dose of alcohol was heart healthy likely arose from the fact that people who drink small amounts tend to have other healthy habits, such as exercising, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and not smoking, the NYT reported.  In observational studies, the heart benefits of those behaviors might have been erroneously attributed to alcohol, Dr. Piano said.

Few people realize that alcohol is also a potent carcinogen. The NYT reported that according to research by the American Cancer Society, alcohol contributes to more than 75,000 cases of cancer per year and nearly 19,000 cancer deaths.

Dr. Farhad Islami, a senior scientific director at the American Cancer Society told the NYT that “If somebody drinks less, they are at a lower risk compared to that person who is a heavy drinker. Even two drinks per day, one drink per day, may be associated with a small risk of cancer compared to non-drinkers.”