Drinking a glass of wine or a pint of beer every day won’t add benefits to your health but it also won’t cause premature death, a recent Canadian study found.
The study published in JAMA Open Network on March 31 looked at existing research on more than 4.8 million people and found that low to moderate drinkers have similar mortality rates to those who avoid alcohol entirely.
However, women who drink more than one standard glass of alcohol a day are at least 20 per cent more likely to have an earlier death compared with those who don’t drink, the study found.
Men, on the other hand, were at a lower risk of premature death when consuming two drinks per day, but three drinks a day raised the group’s risk from 15 per cent to 34 per cent.
“There was a significantly increased risk of all-cause mortality among female drinkers who drank 25 or more grams per day and among male drinkers who drank 45 or more grams per day,” lead researcher Dr. Jinhui Zhao and his team from the University of Victoria wrote in the study.
The definition of a standard drink in Canada is equivalent to a bottle of beer, a glass of wine, a shot glass of spirits or a bottle of cider.
The study compiles data from 107 studies on the effects of alcohol, published between 1980 and 2021. It’s the latest research shining light on the dangers of even moderate alcohol consumption.
In January, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) released updated guidance stating that no amount of alcohol is safe to consume and that even moderate drinking — anything more than two drinks a week — can put your health at risk (increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer).
And a global study published in the Lancet in July 2022 found that people under the age of 40 risk their health if they drink more than a few sips of beer or wine per day and recommended that young people not drink alcohol at all.
Why are women at more risk?
The University of Victoria study found that across all levels of alcohol consumption, female drinkers had a higher risk of mortality than males.
There are biological and social reasons for the divide, said Dr. Shimi Kang, a Vancouver-based psychiatrist and parenting author.
“A lot of the studies from the past did not have a proportionate number of women in the studies. That’s true for all research and medical research as well,” Kang explained. “The gender gap between drinking and high-risk drinking has closed as well; you used to see much more heavier drinking with men.”
With the increased drinking, comes higher risks for women, she added.
Biologically speaking, the weight of the liver (which metabolizes alcohol) is on average smaller than men’s. This is why drinking guidelines are different for men and women, Kang explained.
“Women are also more likely to experience violence and sexual assault,” she said, adding that a majority of females with addiction problems have underlying mental health issues that haven’t been treated.
Can drinking wine be good for your health?
The common belief that a glass of wine a day is good for your health is thought to stem from the 1980s and is called the French paradox — the concept that drinking red wine contributes to low rates of heart disease in French people, despite a typical diet that includes many rich, fatty foods.
However, there is very limited evidence showing drinking red wine (or alcohol in general) can help you avoid heart disease, according to a 2020 article in Harvard Health Publishing.
The University of Victoria study states that studies that have examined this paradox are more “observational” and have many biases.
“The proposition that low-dose alcohol use protects against all-cause mortality in general populations continues to be controversial,” the researchers wrote. “Observational studies tend to show that people classified as ‘moderate drinkers’ have longer life expectancy and are less likely to die from heart disease than those classified as abstainers.”
However, the researchers argue, “mounting evidence” suggests there are other factors at play, leading to systemic biases in studies.
Other studies did not take into account age, sex, economic status and lifestyle behaviours, such as exercise, smoking and diet, the researchers argued.
For example, light moderate drinkers tend to have better dental hygiene, exercise more and have higher incomes, the study stated. Abstainers may have poorer health or be “sick quitters” or former drinkers, many of whom cut down or stop for health reasons.
There have been previous studies supporting low-level consumption of drinking with positive links to health issues, Kang said, adding that it is a very complex issue as it depends on the person’s history.
“And we can give it tons of anecdotes…. Queen Elizabeth reportedly drank gin every night and lived to be quite old,” she added.
“So I think that it’s a really individual thing.
“It is an interaction between your genetics, your DNA, your life history, and all the things that have happened to you, including concussions, head injuries, mental health issues, trauma, how stressed out you are and even how positive your social system is,”
— with files from Global News’ Kathryn Mannie