Alcohol guideline in your country may not be safe

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The safe alcohol guidelines are too high in many developed countries and should be lowered to save lives, a study suggested on Friday.

People who drink more than 100 grams of alcohol per week – about five or six medium glasses of wine or pints of beer – had linked to the increased risk of stroke, heart disease, heart failure, fatal hypertensive disease and fatal aortic aneurysm, according to research published in The Lancet medical journal.

"Recommended limits in Italy, Portugal, and Spain are almost 50 percent higher than this, and in the USA, the upper limit for men is nearly double," the researchers found.

The international team analyzed data on nearly 600,000 drinkers aged 30-100, from 83 studies in 19 high-income countries. The researchers factored in other health-related data such as the participants' age, gender, diabetes history, their socio-economic status, and whether they smoked.

The participants had been observed for at least a year after signing up. Among the group, the team recorded 40,310 deaths and compared this with the participants' self-reported levels of alcohol intake.

Drinking the equivalent of 100-200g of pure alcohol a week shortened life expectancy by about six months compared to drinking less than 100g, they found.

Consuming between 200-350g per week lowered life expectancy by one to two years, and more than 350g by up to five years.

"This study has shown that drinking alcohol at levels which were previously believed to be safe is actually linked with lower life expectancy and several adverse health outcomes," said study co-author Dan Blazer of Duke University in North Carolina.

In the United States, for example, the recommended cutoff for men is 196g or 11 glasses of wine per week, and for women 98 grams.

Limits in Italy, Portugal, and Spain are about 50 percent higher than in Britain, where the threshold for safe drinking was recently lowered to 112g.

"These data support adoption of lower limits of alcohol consumption that are recommended in most current guidelines," the report added.

Source(s): AFP