Roughly 4 in 10 said that it had been more than a week since they had poured a drink. The government is expected to release new guidelines later this year, under the directive of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has promised big changes. In many cases, it would be the first thing young adults would have heard as they were coming into adulthood.”
What does ‘moderate drinking’ mean?
Firstly, alcohol is calorie-dense, often containing more calories than soda. When comparing soda and beer, it is essential to consider their overall nutritional value and potential health implications. However, it is important to enabling definition psychology note that specialty or high-alcohol beers, such as some IPAs or stouts, may have higher calorie content due to increased alcohol and malt content. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), women should consume no more than 25 grams of sugar per day, while men should not exceed 36 grams. The sugar in beer comes from the natural sugars found in the grains used during the brewing process, and most of it is consumed by yeast during fermentation to produce alcohol.
According to The Lancet, ‘four industries (tobacco, unhealthy food, fossil fuel, and alcohol) are responsible for at least a third of global deaths per year’. Some majority-Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Iran and Libya prohibit the production, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages because they are forbidden by Islam. Drinking culture is the set of traditions and social behaviours that surround the consumption of alcoholic beverages as a recreational drug and social lubricant. The consumption of alcohol is deeply embedded in social practices and rituals, often celebrated as a cornerstone of community gatherings and personal milestones. By 1743, England was drinking 2.2 gallons (10 litres) of gin per person per year. Unlike primary alcohols like ethanol, these tertiary alcohols cannot be oxidized into aldehyde or carboxylic acid metabolites, which are often toxic, and for this reason, these compounds are safer in comparison.
Brain Health and Moderate Drinking
- Research has demonstrated that long-term heavy drinking weakens the heart muscle, causing cardiomyopathy.
- Meanwhile, fatty alcohols actually improve scalp health and boost product performance.
- Many Native Americans in the United States have been harmed by, or become addicted to, drinking alcohol.
- Benzyl alcohol has a drying effect on the hair and scalp, which can lead to dandruff.
- In an ideal world, you could compare two groups of people who are alike, except one drinks and the other doesn’t, for life.
- Stanford Medicine is an integrated academic health system comprising the Stanford School of Medicine and adult and pediatric health care delivery systems.
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Although it’s common knowledge that drinking too much is unhealthy, research sometimes conflicts about where the dividing line is between permissible and risky alcohol consumption — and whether drinking a small amount could come with any health benefits. In addition, people who cut back on alcohol consumption in middle age had a higher dementia risk than adults who consistently consumed moderate amounts of alcohol. Instead, most of the biggest and most influential studies of alcohol and health rely on asking people about their drinking habits and looking for connections between the amount, type, and frequency of alcohol consumption and a wide range of medical outcomes.
There is convincing evidence that alcohol consumption increases the risk of breast cancer, and the more alcohol consumed, the greater the risk. Heavy drinking can damage the liver and heart, harm an unborn child, increase the Addiction Relapse Risks chances of developing breast and some other cancers, contribute to depression and violence, and interfere with relationships. “Moderate” drinking is not consistently defined, and grouping people into different categories – such as zero to three drinks per day – could skew averages when the outcomes may be very different for people at the low end of that category and the high end of that category.
Some research suggests that part of the way alcohol use may reduce the risk of heart attacks is the impacts it has on the limbic drug addiction substance use disorder diagnosis and treatment system, such as limiting stress signals in the brain. “These effects are important from a public health standpoint, but we can’t get above moderate certainty because there could be additional research that has different findings.” Research on the health effects of alcohol has some significant holes, which contributes to broader possibilities for interpreting the data.
Is drinking alcohol bad for your health? New dietary guidelines will weigh risks and benefits
These range from possible links to cardiovascular disease to a reduction in some blood pressure benefits after exercise. “Younger adults are developing oral cancers and we don’t know why,” Epstein said. Head and neck cancers—including those that appear in the throat and mouth—are on the rise among people younger than 45. This possible connection between antimicrobial mouthwashes and disease-causing bacteria is especially interesting, given current cancer trends.
Getting extra folate may cancel out this alcohol-related increase. Alcohol also increases estrogen levels, which fuel the growth of certain breast cancer cells. The International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded that both the ethanol in alcohol and acetaldehyde, a chemical formed from the breakdown of ethanol, are carcinogenic to humans in high amounts. It can increase blood pressure and damage heart muscle (cardiomyopathy). In the U.S., 1 drink is usually considered to be 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1½ ounces of spirits (hard liquor such as gin or whiskey).
Possible Health Benefits of Alcohol
But how this applies to each of us as individuals is much more nuanced, with the potential risks and benefits of alcohol consumption influenced in large part by our distinct life circumstances and unique medical histories. Even if concerns about health risks aren’t causing some adults to give up alcohol entirely, these worries could be influencing how often they drink. Interestingly, these differences in the ADH1C gene do not influence the risk of heart disease among people who don’t drink alcohol. The benefits of moderate drinking aren’t limited to the heart. The connection between moderate drinking and lower risk of cardiovascular disease has been observed in men and women.
“A lot of people with this genetic variant are aware of some of the visible symptoms, but they don’t know that it means alcohol really puts them at more risk than other people,” Chen said. These people — about 8% of the world’s population — often experience facial flushing and a rapid heartbeat after just one drink. Factors including age, genetics, body size and existing health conditions all influence how alcohol affects a person. “Even low-level drinking can worsen anxiety and depression, particularly in those who use alcohol to cope emotionally,” Humphreys said. Among 100 women who have one drink a day, 19 will, and among 100 women who have two drinks a day, about 22 will. Surgeon General’s Advisory reported that among 100 women who have less than one drink per week, about 17 will develop an alcohol-related cancer.
Dryness, Frizz, and Hair Damage
That being said, I recently learned that alcohol is actually a carcinogen, even in small amounts, and this concerned me. This idea is more popular among younger Americans, with nearly 1 in 5 adults younger than 45 participating in Dry January at some point. Still, Tawakol says that he doesn’t usually take a strong stance against alcohol when advising his patients. Despite the gaps in research, many experts say the evidence of risk is too strong to be ignored. The CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS from January 9-12 among a random national sample of 1,205 adults drawn from a probability-based panel. It isn’t a recognized mental health disorder, but research shows that problematic social media use can negatively affect your mental health, self-esteem and sleep
If you’re scanning ingredient labels wondering which alcohols deserve a spot in your routine, let’s start with the MVPs—cetyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol, and cetearyl alcohol. That’s why alcohol in hair products isn’t always the enemy—these fatty acid derivatives in hair treatment formulas actually support hair softening and proper hair moisturizing. They deliver hair hydration without the greasy residue you’d get from heavier oils. Fatty alcohols smooth those cuticle layers down, restoring moisture balance while creating slip that makes detangling methods actually work.
This adds strong indirect evidence that alcohol itself reduces heart disease risk. Moderate drinkers who have two copies of the gene for the slow-acting enzyme are at much lower risk for cardiovascular disease than moderate drinkers who have two genes for the fast-acting enzyme. The emphasis here, as elsewhere, is on moderate drinking.
As they put it, one’s risk appears to increase “from the first drop.” The board of scientists who advise the US government on diet guidelines, too, has advised that the guidance reduce the maximum recommended drinks for men from two to one daily, for example. “All of the arguing in the past 20 years has been around the health effects of very, very small amounts of alcohol,” Naimi said. If we imagine the conversation about alcohol’s health effects as a football field, the consensus covers 95 yards of the 100-yard field — almost all the way to the goal of general unanimity. The actual count, when considering deaths to which alcohol was at least a contributor, such as cancer in heavy drinkers, is more difficult to quantify but likely much higher. At the same time, however, alcohol-related deaths have been increasing, rising by 70 percent from 2012 to 2022, even with a definition of alcohol-related deaths that is limited to liver disease, poisoning and accidents. There is even evidence that younger people are drinking less than millennials or Gen X.
The type of alcohol in your product determines whether it’s helping or hurting your hair. When you scan a haircare label and see “alcohol” listed, it’s not a straightforward red flag—context matters here. So when you’re asking “is alcohol bad for hair,” you’re really asking two separate questions—one about what’s in your products, and another about what’s in your glass. Alcohol consumption affects hair nutrition from the inside out, potentially triggering deficiencies that slow growth and weaken strands. In product formulation, alcohols serve wildly different purposes depending on their molecular structure.
However, there are often restrictions on alcohol sale and use, for instance a minimum age for drinking and laws against public drinking and drinking and driving. Many governmental agencies and organizations issue alcohol consumption recommendations. The adverse effects of alcohol on health are most significant when it is used in excessive quantities or with heavy frequency. Alcohol, sometimes referred to by the chemical name ethanol,a is the active ingredient in alcoholic drinks such as beer, wine, and distilled spirits (hard liquor).
While both alcohol and soda are widely consumed worldwide, they differ significantly in their impact on the body. Additionally, the caramel dye 4-MeI found in darker-colored sodas is listed as a known carcinogen by the state of California, linking it to an increased risk of cancer. Acetaldehyde can damage DNA and proteins, increase blood levels of estrogen, a hormone linked to breast cancer risk, and impair the absorption of nutrients. While they are both calorie-dense and devoid of significant nutritional value, the extent of their negative effects on the body varies.
Start having sex about 72 hours before ovulation, then at least every other day during your fertile window Alcohol (in any amount) is a well-known cause of cancer Yes, grabbing a few beers or a couple of glasses of wine or cocktails with friends can increase your heart rate — dangerously in some cases An enzyme deficiency or rosacea are potential causes of alcohol flush “Alcohol tends to cause more problems than it solves for a lot of people,” Dr. Sengupta emphasizes.
- Put it all together and what’s become clear is that more people’s health is being put at risk by their alcohol use than was previously realized.
- Short-chain alcohols dry out your scalp and strands, while fatty alcohols actually boost hair hydration and protect against damage.
- High concentrations of Fusobacterium nucleatum bacteria can be similarly concerning—the pathogen has already been linked to periodontal disease, as well as oral, esophageal, and colorectal cancers.
- So it’s hard to predict who might actually benefit and who may be harmed more than helped by alcohol consumption.
- For example, one person may have a very low tolerance for cannabis but be able to tolerate alcohol well.
- Although ethanol is the most prevalent alcohol in alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages contain several types of psychoactive alcohols, that are categorized as primary, secondary, or tertiary.
At the same time, you still have studies that came out in the past decade that acknowledged the cancer risks but continued to report cardiovascular benefits and a possible reduction in the risk of diabetes with modest drinking. But a quarter century after that conventional wisdom about red wine benefitting the human heart really took hold, a growing number of public health organizations and researchers started to aggressively dispute the idea that moderate alcohol consumption could be “safe” or beneficial. Once you are having more than two drinks a day if you’re a man or one drink a day if you’re a woman, pretty much every researcher agrees that the health risks warrant trying to cut back.