Doctors have equalized women’s safe doses of alcohol with men’s

In recent years, more and more evidence has emerged about the health risks of alcohol. But is alcohol as scary as it is made out to be?

Experts do not hide: not all of the “alcohol” studies can be trusted. For example, for many years it was believed that the permissible amount of alcohol for women was half that of men. “Finally, gender discrimination in this matter is over,” said the professor of the department of polyclinic therapy of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education MGMSU named after. A.I. Evdokimova Tatyana Adasheva during the First All-Russian Congress on Risk Modification with international participation held in Moscow.

Faina Ranevskaya said that everything that is pleasant is either harmful, immoral, or leads to obesity. And in recent years, the World Health Organization has positioned the thesis that there are no safe doses of alcohol. However, as it turned out, this thesis does not have convincing evidence. After all, not a single randomized clinical trial with alcohol products has been conducted in the world.

“There is no evidence base for the effects of alcohol on health, and such studies are impossible to conduct. For example, you need to take five thousand core patients who will drink vodka; 5 thousand – who will drink wine, and another 5 thousand – beer, and in different doses! Therefore, all studies regarding alcohol to date are only observational,” says Professor Adasheva.

Expert report “To drink or not to drink? Is there a limit to reasonable consumption? literally opened new horizons. According to Tatyana Adasheva, today there are many historical misconceptions regarding alcohol: “It is impossible to say unequivocally that alcohol is harmful. But there is a clear correlation between increased cardiovascular risk and alcohol abuse. But what will happen if you don’t abuse it?”

On March 8, 2012, women were given a gift: observational data was released confirming that a glass of wine a day reduces the likelihood of a heart attack in the fairer sex by 16%, and a stroke by 21%. But if you already drink two glasses, the risks increase. Another study showed that with moderate alcohol consumption (12-14 drinks per week), there is a decrease in the risk of overall mortality. When the number of drinks is increased to 18, the risks return to their original position (as for non-drinkers), and if there are more than 18 drinks, the risks of overall mortality begin to increase. By drink we mean 10-12 grams of pure alcohol, so when translated into volume in different alcoholic drinks, these will be completely different values. A large-scale study of 1.9 million adults confidently showed that moderate drinkers have a lower risk of vascular events than non-drinkers and heavy drinkers.

A few more surprising observations. While moderate alcohol consumption reduces the chances of a myocardial infarction or chronic heart failure, the risk of alcoholic liver disease and atrial fibrillation (AF) unfortunately increases. “The only cardiovascular disorder that is triggered by alcohol is atrial fibrillation. Alcohol has been shown to increase its risk. For example, a 2022 European study found that 1 glass of red wine per day reduces the risk of stroke by 17%, heart attack by 49%, but increases the risk of AFib. As they say, choose what is dearer to you,” the speaker continues.

To the question of whether to drink a lot, but rarely, or a little, but regularly, researchers also have an answer. True, it concerns mostly rats. During the study, one group of rodents was given unlimited access to alcohol, while the second group was periodically given a drink and then deprived of the “drinking bowl.” The second group of rats reached their maximum consumption.

The difficulty of interpreting studies in which the green snake appears is also due to the fact that experts have not yet decided what the standard dose is; Does the type of alcohol matter (everything is measured in alcohol)? But it is absolutely known that not a single study in the world has confirmed a safe level of alcohol based on gender. “When they say that the safe share of alcohol for a woman is half as much as for a man, this is gender discrimination,” says Professor Adasheva. “In fact, only weight matters!”

And if back in 2016, European recommendations stated that safe amounts of alcohol were up to 2 glasses a day for men and 1 for women, then since last year gender discrimination has been stopped: uniform doses have been introduced for everyone! And this is 100 g of ethanol per week, and it is better to distribute it every other day.

The speaker also recalled the so-called French paradox: France is considered a country of very low cardiac risk, while the French drink wine every day and eat fatty and heavy foods (cheese, croissants). However, if previously the main version of what was happening was moderate alcohol consumption, today another version has won: the French practically do not eat fast food and move a lot. And yet, most researchers are inclined to conclude: if you drink anything, then red wine, which contains not only ethanol, but also flavonoids, and the useful, fashionable antioxidant resveratrol (and in general, it can be sold in a pharmacy). “Resveratrol is found in grape skins, this substance fights bacteria, fungi and protozoa. Most of it is actually in red wine, so dry red wine has the highest protective properties. But is there evidence of the effect of its use on mortality? No. Of course, it would be possible to establish the production of dealcoholized wine. But it will be more expensive to produce and not everyone will like it,” notes Tatyana Adasheva.

In general, as experts admit, studies on alcohol, the results of which are published in serious scientific publications, often contradict each other: either there will be an article about improving cognitive functions in the elderly due to alcohol consumption, or a publication about how alcohol negatively affects the cortex brain. Either scientists recommend drinking wine to prevent vascular diseases, or they will reach a verdict that these recommendations are most likely wrong.

What remains for the average person? Probably rely on the recommendations of the American Heart Association, the essence of which can be boiled down to simple postulates: if you drink a lot, drink less. If you don’t drink, don’t start. And if you drink sensibly, keep going. Who knows, maybe it will be useful.