?Nonsensical? to suggest moderate drinking improves health, says expert critical of Australian study - The Guardian Australia

Australian-led research claiming moderate alcohol intake is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease and death is not based on strong evidence, and fails to take into account recent research findings linking even moderate alcohol intake to cancer, experts say.

A research letter from Monash University reported the results of a survey of 18,000 people in the US and Australia over the age of 70 who were asked about their alcohol consumption.

The researchers followed the participants for almost five years and found a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease in people who consumed between more than five standard drinks a week compared to those who never drank, regardless of gender.

They found consuming five to 10 standard drinks a week was associated with a reduced risk of mortality from all causes. The findings were published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

Associate Prof Andy Towers, an addiction researcher from the school of health sciences at Massey University in New Zealand, said there had been numerous studies over the years showing an association between moderate drinking and reduced mortality. But the findings of many of those studies had since been called into question with problems in their methodology.

The Monash University study used similarly outdated methods that did not account for the socioeconomic status of participants, Towers argued. Higher socioeconomic status is known to be protective against poor health. Selection bias of participants - which meant they were generally more healthy to begin with - and the limitations of observational studies where participants self-report alcohol intake have been found to artificially show an association between drinking and better health.

On a graph, this association looks like a j-shaped curve, with the lowest point on the curve - light-to-moderate drinking - representing the “ideal” level of exposure to alcohol to offer health benefits.