What are the long-term effects of drinking alcohol?
The consensus here in Denmark is that it is unhealthy stuff. While I agree that alcoholism is definitely unhealthy, I cannot find anything about the effects of alcohol with more normal use. (Except for some risk of liver problems.)
Long term heavy drinking can increase the risk of stroke.
The “long term effects” depend on how often and how much you drink. Up to two drinks a day for a male and one for a female have several health benefits including cardiovascular benefits and increase average life expectancy for populations that do that type of drinking. As you move beyond that the risks rise so that the benefits start to be negated.
The health benefits of light to moderate alcohol consumption are, quite frankly, generally overstated. The effect seems to be real, but it is modest. And the effect reverses and goes into negative territory real fast once you exceed the moderate consumption range.
And we’re talking of going from a 10-40% health benefit from light to moderate drinking to a health risk increase of 200-300% when the drinking moves past the moderate level.
Also, what’s moderate for an individual varies greatly, depending on their size, body fat content, physical fitness, recent exercise, whether they’re drinking with food and what type of food, etc.
So: if you want the health benefits of alcohol consumption, check out the references below to help you figure out what light to moderate consumption is for you, then stick with it!
One good thing to note:
http://www.acsh.org/publications/pubID.391/pub_detail.asp
Other cites:
An Overview of Health Risks and Benefits of Alcohol Consumption.
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. 22(7) Supplement 1:285, 1998.
Thakker, Kerstin Damstrom
liver damge (cirrhosis - a fatal disease)
heart damage (cardiomyopathy)
brain damage (dementia, balance difficulty, permanent double vision, grossly impaired short term memory)
nerve damage (neuropathy)
muscle damge (myopathy)
cancers of mouth and tongue
esophagitis
stomach ulcers (and bleeding)
pneumonia (and lung abscesses)
pancreas damage (acute or chronic pancreatitis)
bone marrow suppression (anemia, low platelets)
impotence
birth defects (in offspring of alcohol consuming mothers)
trauma (violent crime, accidents, suicide, homicide)
domestic violence
domestic turmoil
I’m sure there are more. These are just off the top of my head.
There are many more, for sure, but you got the top ones.
Pancreas damage causes not only pancreatitis (very painful), but that can also lead to alcoholic diabetes (potentially fatal).
Alcoholic hepatitis.
Hypertension, at times resulting in stroke.
Neuropathy.
Seizure disorder (alcohol raises the seizure threshhold, coming off alcohol lowers it).
Vitamin deficiency, which can lead to a cariety of other problems.
Gout.
Gastric and esophageal varices can result from the back-up of blood from a damaged liver. These “varicose veins” inside the stomach and esophagus can rupture when the person coughs, hiccups, sneezes or laughs, possibly resulting in death.
There are at least three types of alcoholic psychoses: delirium tremens, alcoholic Korsakoff’s Syndrome, and an auditory hallucinosis (the exact name escapes me at the moment).
I will probably think of more. But it is important to note: for the most part these and the ones listed by KarlGauss typically result from years of alcohol abuse, not years of occasional, moderate use.
TheLadyLion, KarlGauss:
The things you mention seem to be related to more abusive levels of drinking. If you have some source that shows that these factors are relevant for someone drinking, say, 20 units a week, I would like to see it.
Pubmed mentions something about testosterone levels. here , for example. I couldnt find a good study about the effects on a longer timescale though.
Ahem, mr. jp , please note the last sentence of my post.
It also depends on the person. Some folks can handle it better physically than others.
Here is a slight hijack.
As a moderately obese moderately high consumer of alcohol, is there any research to differentiate between the risks of alcohol and obesity as they range from slight to moderate to high to severe. A lot of the anti alcohol, anti obesity information seems to be based on looking at say, a group of people in the moderate/high/severe use of alcohol/obesity and considering them as a single group. My knowledge of statistics and science in general tells me that the few people at the higher percentiles of the spectrum may skew the apparent results for the moderate plus higher group. Is there any research that concentrates on, for instance, people who are in the moderately obese, moderately heavy drinkers where the sample excludes the high/severe people?
Before this thread goes any farther, can someone clear up what a ‘unit’ of drinking is? Is it like a standard serving? If beer, would it be 12 ounces or a pint?
If a unit is one drink, then 20 units a week would seem to be pushing beyond the moderate range.
In the US:
http://www.aim-digest.com/gateway/pages/guide/articles/safe.htm
. A drink-equivalent in alcohol is, on average, about 5 ounces of wine, 12 of beer, or 1.2 of spirit, each containing approximately 14 grams of ethyl alcohol.
In the UK:
One unit of alcohol is 10 ml (1 cl) by volume, or 8 g by weight, of pure alcohol. For example:
* One unit of alcohol is about equal to:
o Half a pint of ordinary strength beer, lager, or cider (3–4% alcohol by volume), or
o A small pub measure (25 ml) of spirits (40% alcohol by volume), or
o A standard pub measure (50 ml) of fortified wine such as sherry or port (20% alcohol by volume).
* There are one and a half units of alcohol in:
o A small glass (125 ml) of ordinary strength wine (12% alcohol by volume), or
o A standard pub measure (35 ml) of spirits (40% alcohol by volume).
It seems from the above that one unit in the UK is 8g alcohol and one unit in the US is 14g of alcohol- is this right?
Just done the calculations from oz to metric and checked.
1 US unit equals 1.75 UK units
1 UK unit equals .57 US units.
Recommended level for men in UK is 21-28 units UK meaning 12-15.7 US.
Recommended level for men in US seems to be 14 US units.
About the same then.
So it seems to work out to an average of two drinks a day. I wonder why the British chose to use a unit that works out to about two-thirds of an actual drink? I wonder if it came about that way because beer is usually drunk in pints, and a pint probably works out to about two units?
Happiness and memories of good times with friends!
Any cost benefit analysis has to include the pro along with the con. Something is going to kill all of us eventually, the key is to enjoy life while you have it.
The above statements extolling the happiness benefit of alcohol presumes levels below those that typically cause major health effects.
Exactly. The half pint of standard beer was taken as a standard. It is understood that 4 units (2 pints) is just on the Drink Drive limit. This dates from when beer was the reference drink. Now much more drinking involves spirits and wines, and much of the available beer has gone from 3% plus ( a “session” bitter) to 5% plus (lagers and strong ales), so the old ‘2 pints and you are probably safe’ rule is gone.
Just to add some info here, these are MAXIMUM WEEKLY limits. Because some folks (gee, can we figure out that these people would be the “problem drinkers?”) thought it was then OK to save up their units and use them all on the weekend, the UK has broken the weeklies down to daily unit maximums. That would be 3-4 units for men and 2-3 for women.