Changes in Drinking Support "Moderate Alcohol Extends Lifespan"
A large population (not randomized) study that measures naturally occurring changes in alcohol drinking habits supports a years-old hypothesis that the right amount of drinking extends lifespan. Up until now, I wondered whether there was any evidence for causality at all (as opposed to: the type of people who drink a moderate amount are the ones who already were going to live longest, and if you adjust your alcohol intake to that intending to live longer, it won’t change anything about your underlying risk of death).
relative mortality (higher is worse) for before/after alcohol consumption (5 year interval):
1.29 non,non (
1.32 heavy,heavy (>13/wk) - also higher cancer risk
1.0 moderate,moderate (between 1-13 drinks/wk)
relative heart disease mortality for before/after:
1.32 non (
1.4 light (1-6/wk) -> non (perhaps they stopped drinking because of heart problems, though
0.7 non->light (if you hardly drink at all, and for some reason decide to drink a little, you’ll push back heart disease death by a few years)
via (also including links to even stronger wine-benefits evidence (0.5 *OVERALL MORTALITY* compared to abstinence, although I’m nearly sure that one is badly confounded by socio-economic status)