Moderate drinkers don’t live longer lives, on average. That’s only true if you compare them with reformed heavy drinkers who now abstain from drinking.
That’s the flaw in scientific research which found that moderate drinkers enjoyed longer lives with lower risks of heart disease and other chronic ills than those who abstain.
Scientists at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria analyzed 107 published studies that followed people over time and looked at the relationship between drinking habits and longevity. When the researchers combined all the data, it looked like light to moderate drinkers (that is, those who drank between one drink per week and two per day) had a 14% lower risk of dying during the study period compared with abstainers.
Things changed, however, when the investigators did a deeper dive. There were a handful of “higher quality” studies that included people who were relatively young at the outset (younger than 55, on average) and that made sure former and occasional drinkers were not considered “abstainers.” In those studies, moderate drinking was not linked to a longer life.
The flawed studies made people who continue to drink look much healthier by comparison to reformed drinkers with heath problems, according to lead researcher Tim Stockwell, Ph.D. "“If you look at the weakest studies, that’s where you see health benefits.”
The belief in alcohol as an elixir and the notion that moderate drinking leads to a longer, healthier life goes back decades. The “French paradox,” popularized in the 1990s, suggested that red wine helps explain why the French enjoy relatively low rates of heart disease, despite a rich, fatty diet.
In reality, Stockwell says, moderate drinking likely does not extend people’s lives and, in fact, carries some potential health hazards, including increased risks of certain cancers. No major health organization has ever established a risk-free level of alcohol consumption.
“There is simply no completely ‘safe’ level of drinking.”