The Journal: Addiction Research and Theory

The Study: Alcohol's potential health benefits may be overstated. Previous studies have shown a link between moderate alcohol consumption and reduced mortality, particularly when it comes to heart disease. A team of scientists from the U.S., Canada, and Australia went through 54 past studies on alcohol use and longevity, however, and found that once data were regrouped to exclude subjects who had stopped drinking because of health concerns, there was no significant relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and life span.

The researchers point to the past practice of counting people who have recently given up alcohol as "abstainers," even though many of those people gave up alcohol because their health was declining, or because they were taking medications that conflicted with alcohol.  When moderate drinkers were compared only with long-term abstainers, there was no significant health difference.

What It Means: Moderate drinkers do tend to be in better health; it's just not clear whether drinking is a sign of good health or a cause of it. Despite the large volume of data reviewed, the study's authors say they cannot discount theories that light alcohol use improves health. New studies that account for the possible "abstainer error" are needed before those conclusions can be drawn. The study strongly suggests, however, that the health benefits of alcohol could have been exaggerated in the past.

From the Archive:
08/20/2004 How To Live To Be 100
01/27/2003 Where's the Proof?