Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

This is a restatement of what we've puzzled over for some time now: that those who consume modest amounts of alcohol have a reduced risk of mortality.

It's an epidemiologic association, so this isn't something you can exactly hang your hat on and encourage people to do. But it has been observed that cardiovascular risk is lowest for women who have just under 1 drink per day, and men who have 2 or fewer per day.

This reinforces the older literature, but doesn't really help illuminate the causal chain, if any.

(Edit - as sp332 points out below, this does present new data about an association between heavy drinking and reduced mortality in this cohort.)

Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#5

Post by dododo » Tue, Aug 31, 2010, 4:21 PM UTC

title of paper is: "Late-life alcohol consumption and 20-Year mortality" http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/j.1530-0277.201...

in particular, they are looking whether some 55-65 year olds died the next 20 years, women were underrepresented in their sample (just 37%) who tend to be lighter drinkers anyhow [citation needed]. participants were select by having been at a health care facility in the last 3 years. the socioeconomic factors they took into account where those at the start ("at baseline"). i.e., who knows what changed in the past or future, or why they were in a health care center, etc. was there an observation effect? who knows.

the yahoo article doesn't seem to represent this very well. hype hype hype

Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#6

Post by sp332 » Tue, Aug 31, 2010, 4:22 PM UTC

carbocation wrote: post #4

This is a restatement of what we've puzzled over for some time now: that those who consume modest amounts of alcohol have a reduced risk of mortality. It's an epidemiologic association, so this isn't something you can exactly hang your hat on and encourage people to do. But it has been observed that cardiovascular risk is lowest for women who have just under 1 drink per day, and men who have 2 or fewer per day. This…

What's new is that, in this study, heavy drinkers outlived abstainers. Very unexpected, even though I knew that moderate drinkers had some health benefits.

Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#7

Post by dctoedt » Tue, Aug 31, 2010, 4:23 PM UTC

Reminds me of an old Willie Nelson song, "I Gotta Get Drunk," with the lines: "There's a lot of doctors that tell me / that I'd better start slowin' it down, / But there's more old drunks, than there are old doctors, / So I guess we'd better have another round."

Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#8

Post by secretasiandan » Tue, Aug 31, 2010, 4:25 PM UTC

carbocation wrote: post #4

This is a restatement of what we've puzzled over for some time now: that those who consume modest amounts of alcohol have a reduced risk of mortality. It's an epidemiologic association, so this isn't something you can exactly hang your hat on and encourage people to do. But it has been observed that cardiovascular risk is lowest for women who have just under 1 drink per day, and men who have 2 or fewer per day. This…

I don't think your summary is quite correct

"abstaining from alcohol does actually tend to increase one's risk of dying even when you exclude former drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers' mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers."

"Even though heavy drinking is associated with higher risk for cirrhosis and several types of cancer (particularly cancers in the mouth and esophagus), heavy drinkers are less likely to die than people who have never drunk."

Side question : For your statement about men, is that just under 2 a day or less than 2 a day?

Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#9

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 31, 2010, 4:27 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#10

Post by carbocation » Tue, Aug 31, 2010, 4:29 PM UTC

secretasiandan wrote: post #8

carbocation wrote: post #4

This is a restatement of what we've puzzled over for some time now: that those who consume modest amounts of alcohol have a reduced risk of mortality. It's an epidemiologic association, so this isn't something you can exactly hang your hat on and encourage people to do. But it has been observed that cardiovascular risk is lowest for women who have just under 1 drink per day, and men who have 2 or fewer per day. This…

I don't think your summary is quite correct "abstaining from alcohol does actually tend to increase one's risk of dying even when you exclude former drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers' mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers." "Even though heavy drinking is associated with higher risk for cirrhosis and several types of cancer (particularly cancers in the mouth and esophagus), heavy drinkers…

2 a day or fewer (inclusive of 2 a day). Also, I think what you said and what I said are in agreement. This is why I called the article a "restatement," because it presents similar outcomes from a different perspective (abstainers have high mortality as opposed to moderate drinkers have low mortality - different ways to represent similar facts). But perhaps you still see a difference?

(Edit - see the comment from sp332 below where he/she explains the difference - the news about the heavy drinkers is novel.)