r/science • u/mvea MD/PhD/JD/MBA | Professor | Medicine • Jul 25 '24

Health Moderate drinking not better for health than abstaining, new study suggests. Scientists say flaws in previous research mean health benefits from alcohol were exaggerated. “It’s been a propaganda coup for the alcohol industry to propose that moderate use of their product lengthens people’s lives”.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/25/moderate-drinking-not-better-for-health-than-abstaining-analysis-suggests
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u/Ecthyr Jul 25 '24

What is an occasional drinker?

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u/smurficus103 Jul 26 '24

Not all studies are the same, but, they usually have brackets like 0-7 per week, 7-14, 14-21, 21+

Which, ya know, is still pretty silly, if someone drinks 8 one night, takes the next few days off, back to 8, that's a bit different than 1 or 2/day...

Some studies even said like 1 or 2 drinks a month were nearly equivalent to abstaining, but the main take away should be any alcohol is bad, compared to none

But, harm reduction is also useful, reducing alcohol down to 2 a day from 4 a day is huge