What is Moderate Drinking?
Our culture is built around social drinking. People in recovery or individuals who choose not to drink often lament a subtle or even overt pressure to join in. Non drinkers are often thought of as killjoys or party poopers.
Sometimes people drink alcohol to help with the symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. Alcohol changes the way your brain cells signal to each other, which can make you feel relaxed. While self-medication can feel good for a short time, this effect doesn't last for long. The reasons we drink and the consequences of excessive drinking are intimately linked with our mental health.
If you are pregnant, underage, in recovery, or have certain health conditions alcohol should not be consumed. But for the rest of us, how much is okay? How much is too much? Should we be drinking less? Is it affecting our health?
Right from the CDC guidelines are the following considerations:
Alcohol consumption is associated with health risks, including motor vehicle crashes, violence, sexual risk behaviors, high blood pressure, and various cancers such as breast cancer. The risk of these harms increases with the amount of alcohol you drink. For some conditions, like some cancers, the risk increases even at very low levels of alcohol consumption (less than 1 drink).
To reduce the risk of alcohol-related harms, the newest Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that adults of legal drinking age can choose not to drink, or to drink in moderation by limiting intake to 2 drinks or less in a day for men or 1 drink or less in a day for women, on days when alcohol is consumed. The Guidelines also do not recommend that individuals who do not drink alcohol start drinking for any reason and that if adults of legal drinking age choose to drink alcoholic beverages, drinking less is better for health than drinking more.
The Guidelines note, “Emerging evidence suggests that even drinking within the recommended limits may increase the overall risk of death from various causes, such as from several types of cancer and some forms of cardiovascular disease. Alcohol has been found to increase risk for cancer, and for some types of cancer, the risk increases even at low levels of alcohol consumption (less than 1 drink in a day).”
Although past studies have indicated that moderate alcohol consumption has protective health benefits (e.g., reducing risk of heart disease), recent studies show this may not be true. While some studies have found improved health outcomes among moderate drinkers, it’s impossible to conclude whether these improved outcomes are due to moderate alcohol consumption or other differences in behaviors or genetics between people who drink moderately and people who don’t.
Most U.S. adults who drink don’t drink every day. But two in three adult drinkers report drinking above moderate levels at least once a month. That’s why it’s important to focus on the amount people drink on the days that they drink.
Drinking at levels above the moderate drinking guidelines significantly increases the risk of short-term harms, such as injuries, as well as the risk of long-term chronic health problems, such as some types of cancer.
Alcohol use is linked to cancers of esophageal, mouth, larynx, colon, rectum, liver and breast. The most common cause of chronic pancreatitis is drinking a lot of alcohol over a long period of time. Excessive alcohol consumption over a lengthy time period can lead to brain damage, and may increase your risk of developing dementia.
Alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD) is caused by damage to the liver from years of excessive drinking. Years of alcohol abuse can cause the liver to become inflamed and swollen. This damage can also cause scarring known as cirrhosis. Cirrhosis is the final stage of liver disease.
In addition to the myriad of health concerns of alcohol use is the concern of developing a dependency. Binge drinking or excessive drinking does not necessarily mean that a person is an alcoholic. However, binge drinking may increase the risk of a person developing alcohol dependency at sometime in their life.
A family history of alcoholism is linked to an increased risk of alcoholism. Children who have one parent who struggles with alcohol use disorder have a 3-4 times increased risk of becoming an alcoholic themselves. Drinking at an early age is associated with a higher risk of alcoholism. Genetics likely plays a part in this but children learn behaviors by modeling their parents and other adults in their lives.
Certainly excessive drinking is detrimental. But more evidence is emerging that moderate drinking is putting our health at risk. The CDC current recommendations reflect this.
Alcohol consumption is a life style choice which effects emotional and physical health. Following these guidelines, a wise choice for wellness is to avoid daily consumption and on the days you do drink to limit intake of alcohol to 2 drinks or less in a day for men or 1 drink or less in a day for women.
