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Limiting alcohol to half a unit per day is best for health , say Oxford University researchers who analyzed the link betweenalcohol consumption and 11 chronic diseases and concluded 4,600more lives would be saved every year if people in England were tocut the amount they drink to within this level. They write about their findings in a BMJ Open paper that was published online on 30 May. The lead author of the study was Dr Melanie Nichols of the BHFHealth Promotion Research Group, in the Department of PublicHealth, at Oxford University. She told the press: "People who justify their drinking with the idea that it is goodfor heart disease should also consider how alcohol is increasing their risk of otherchronic diseases. A couple of pints or a couple of glasses of wineper day is not a healthy option." One unit is 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol. The UK government currentlyrecommends people should not regularly drink more than 3 to 4 units(about 1.5 pints of 4% beer) a day for men, and 2 to 3 units (a175ml glass of wine) a day for women. Changing the government recommended limit to half a unit a daywould mean drinking no more than a quarter of a glass of wine or aquarter of a pint of beer a day. Several studies have examined the effect of alcohol intake on heartdisease and other diseases like liver disease and cancers , but these have only studied the links individually. For their study, Nichols and colleagues set out to find the optimumdaily intake of alcohol that would result in the fewest number ofdeaths in England from a range of diseases known to have links toalcohol. From the 2006 General Household Survey they could work out thealcohol consumption levels among adults in England, and from awealth of available published research, they had data on the effectof different levels of alcohol intake on the risk of developingvarious diseases. They got mortality data for 2006 from the Officefor National Statistics. They then developed a mathematical model to calculate the effectthat changing alcohol consumption might have on deaths from 11diseases and conditions linked to alcohol intake. The 11 diseases included: five cancers, coronary heart disease , stroke , high blood pressure , cirrhosis of the liver, epilepsy , and diabetes . In 2006, they caused over 170,000 deaths in England. Nichols explained what they found: "Although there is good evidence that moderate alcohol consumptionprotects against heart disease, when all of the chronic diseaserisks are balanced against each other, the optimal consumptionlevel is much lower than many people believe." The results showed that just over half a unit of alcohol a day wasthe optimum level whereby limiting drinking to within this levelwould prevent around 4,579 premature deaths, or around 3% of alldeaths from the 11 conditions. Deaths from heart disease would go up by 843, but there would be2,600 fewer deaths from cancer and nearly 3,000 fewer deaths fromliver cirrhosis. Although the study did not look at patterns of alcohol consumption,Nichols said that regardless of average intake, the best possiblehealth comes from avoiding heavy drinking sessions or "bingedrinking". She said there was very clear evidence that bingedrinking increases people's risk of many diseases, as well as therisk of injuries. "Moderating your alcohol consumption overall, and avoidingheavy-drinking episodes, is one of several things, alongside ahealthy diet and regular physical activity, that you can do toreduce your risk of dying early of chronic diseases," said Nichols. She added: 'We are not telling people what to do, we are justgiving them the best balanced information about the differenthealth effects of alcohol consumption, so that they can make aninformed decision about how much to drink." Written by Catharine Paddock PhD Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today Additional References Citations. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China Retractable Banner Stand , China Colour Booklet Printing for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Custom Vinyl Banner.
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