Moderate alcohol consumption has no health benefits

Subject : Science and tech

Section: Health

Context:

Can consuming small amounts of alcohol daily will help keep the heart in good shape is a common question faced by many doctors across the country.

Genesis:

The presumed benefit of moderate alcohol use was first published in 1926 as a book by American biologist Raymond Pearl based on multiple patient case histories.
He describes the effect of alcohol consumption — from none to heavy drinking — on human survival as a J-shaped curve.
What the ‘J’ curve suggests?
- People who drink no or very less alcohol (represented by the portion to the left of the tipping point of J) experienced a lower survival rate.
- Those who drank heavy alcohol (represented by the portion of the right J-point) also experienced a lower survival rate.
- Those who consumed ‘modest’ amounts of alcohol lived longer.
- This gave birth to the myth that moderate alcohol consumption was beneficial.

Why moderate consumption of alcohol improves the survival rate?

As per the studies, a particular type of heart condition called ischemic heart disease (IHD) in which the arteries that supply the heart become narrowed leading to muscle damage and poor pumping capacity reduced with moderate alcohol use.
If IHD was reduced with modest alcohol use, there had to be another reason behind it.
In a study published in March 2023 in Cardiovascular Diabetology, the researchers concluded that modest alcohol consumption led to a reduction in damage to tiny vessels that regulate blood flow into heart muscles, called microvascular dysfunction or MVD that was responsible for IHD.
Another study found that improved heart health was due to a reduction in stress-related brain network activity with modest alcohol use.

What do the new findings say?

In a study published in JAMA Network in March 2023, researchers found the favourable health benefit of moderate alcohol use was because people also had healthier lifestyles.
When these individuals were excluded, moderate alcohol use was found associated with a greater risk for heart disease.
The risk increased exponentially with increasing dose and duration.
The MGH study that demonstrated a reduction in brain stress and thus improved heart health also showed that any amount of alcohol increased the risk of various cancers and cancer-related death.

Ill-impacts of alcohol consumption:

Any amount of alcohol damages the brain cells and reduces brain volume.
Alcohol consumption prevents new learning within brain pathways and impairs memory and reasoning.
Alcohol downgrades the immune system rendering it defenceless against a host of infections, especially a lethal bacteria called Klebsiella pneumonia that eats away the lung tissue.
Alcohol consumption increased the risks of over 200 diseases in men.
Any amount of alcohol exposure was found to be associated with various cancers, the reason why WHO recently cautioned that no level of alcohol consumption was safe for health.
Incidentally, individuals who were engaged in 15-20 minutes (BMC Medicine) of simple physical activity per day experienced a similar level of reduced mortality as seen with modest alcohol use. And the more one increases physical activity, the more the chances of living longer.