Just one drink a day may put your health at risk, federal report finds
Just one alcoholic drink a day is linked to a wide range of negative health effects, according to a federal report released Tuesday.
Just one alcoholic drink a day is linked to a wide range of negative health effects, according to a federal report released Tuesday.
The findings, which apply to both men and women, tied a daily drink to an increased risk of liver cirrhosis, several cancers and injuries but a lower risk of ischemic stroke. That apparent protection is canceled out, however, by occasional binge drinking.
“The idea that you are, on average, going to be healthier and longer-lived by drinking a drink a day if you’re a woman, or two drinks a day if you’re a man, is not true,” Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, said.
“There’s not a level where it’s beneficial,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be a level where it’s completely free of risk.”
The report, from a group within the Department of Health and Human Services, is the second of two government reports on alcohol. The first, carried out by a committee at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and released last month, found that moderate drinking was linked with a lower risk of death from any cause and a lower risk of death from heart disease, but also a higher risk of breast cancer.
Rating: 5