Tag /

Alcohol

Alcohol featured article

Alcohol is one of the most heavily used and abused drugs. It's also a very controversial topic, in part because alcohol plays such a large role in societies and cultures around the world. For many, it's a normal part of daily life.

There is also a lot of confusion about alcohol. There's no doubt that alcohol can have a personal and public health impact. On the other hand, research in the last few decades suggests that not only may a moderate intake of alcohol not be harmful, but it might also be protective against certain diseases. This idea is heavily debated, and conflicting evidence has led to a divide among scientists, public health professionals, and government organizations over what the guidelines should be around alcohol consumption.

The literature on alcohol's effects on healthspan and lifespan is vast — and that's an understatement. We might know more about how this drug affects the body than any other substance.

How much is a drink?

It's important to...

Read the full topic article
Jump to related topics

Episodes

alcohol

More Women Would Avoid Alcohol If They Knew THIS

Posted on September 27th 2024 (8 months)

In this clip, Dr. Rhonda Patrick discusses alcohol's effects on fertility, pregnancy, and reproductive health for both men and women.

alcohol

Is Alcohol the Secret to Longevity in Blue Zones?

Posted on September 27th 2024 (8 months)

In this clip, Dr. Rhonda Patrick discusses alcohol's impact on mortality, life expectancy, Blue Zones, and recommended drinking limits for longevity.

alcohol

The Biggest Benefit of Exercise No One Is Talking About

Posted on September 27th 2024 (8 months)

In this clip, Dr. Rhonda Patrick discusses alcohol's impact on recovery, exercise benefits, and how exercise may reduce alcohol cravings.

Topic Pages

  • Alcohol

    Alcohol is one of the most widely used and abused drugs and is associated with several health conditions.

  • Breast milk and breastfeeding

    Breast milk is a complex, dynamic fluid containing nutritional and non-nutritional components that support infant development. Breastfeeding benefits both infants and mothers.

News & Publications

  • Sunburns remain common, with younger adults and higher-income individuals more likely to experience multiple episodes each year, particularly when consuming alcohol. journals.sagepub.com
    Cancer Alcohol Skin

    Sunburns are a major contributor to skin cancer risk, yet many people continue to get sunburned, with some experiencing multiple episodes each year. A recent study found that more than 30% of adults reported between one and five sunburns in the past year, and alcohol consumption was linked to an increased risk, with 21% of people who got sunburned having consumed alcohol at the time.

    Researchers analyzed data from the 2022 Health Information National Trends Survey, which included more than 6,200 participants. They used statistical analysis to identify associations between sociodemographic factors, cancer risk perceptions, sun exposure behaviors, and the number of sunburns reported in the previous 12 months.

    They found that 2.1% of participants reported more than six sunburns, 30.3% had between one and five, and 67.6% experienced none. Alcohol consumption was a contributing factor, with 21.5% of those who reported a sunburn also having consumed alcohol. Younger adults (aged 18 to 39) were more likely to experience sunburns than older adults, and men were at higher risk than women. Additionally, higher-income participants were more likely to get sunburned, with people in the highest income bracket more than four times as likely to report at least one sunburn in the past year.

    These findings suggest that public health interventions should focus on groups most at risk for sunburns, including younger adults, men, and higher-income people. Addressing alcohol consumption during sun exposure could also help reduce sunburn incidence. Sunscreens can protect against sunburns, but some carry health risks. Learn more in this Q&A featuring Dr. Rhonda Patrick.

    Read more
  • Smoking accelerates cognitive decline by 17% over a decade. www.eurekalert.org
    Exercise Alzheimer's Alcohol Dementia

    Smoking has numerous harmful effects on health, including increased risks of lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Evidence indicates smoking also contributes to cognitive decline, affecting memory and fluency. A recent study found that smoking accelerates cognitive decline by as much as 17% over time.

    Researchers examined data from more than 32,000 cognitively healthy adults aged 50 to 104 from 14 European countries. They grouped participants according to whether they smoked, engaged in regular exercise, were socially active, and drank moderately—defined as less than or equal to two alcoholic drinks per day for men or one drink per day for women. Then, they analyzed the effects of lifestyle on memory and fluency decline over 10 years.

    They found that non-smokers maintained relatively stable memory and fluency scores over the 10 years. However, smokers experienced up to 17 percent greater decline in memory and up to 16 percent greater decline in fluency, even after considering other factors that influence cognitive aging, including age at baseline, gender, country, education, wealth, and chronic conditions. Interestingly, healthy lifestyle behaviors offset some of the risks associated with smoking, with smokers who exercised, socialized, and drank moderately exhibiting cognitive declines comparable to non-smokers.

    These findings suggest that smoking markedly increases cognitive decline, increasing the risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Quitting smoking can be challenging, but mindfulness techniques can help. Learn more about mindfulness in this clip featuring Dr. Ashley Mason.

    Read more
  • A father's drinking habits may play a greater role in pregnancy than once believed. medicalxpress.com
    Alcohol Pregnancy

    Paternal drinking negatively affects pregnancy outcomes, a new study in mice shows. The more alcohol a male mouse drank before conception, the less likely the pregnancy was successful.

    Researchers modeled chronic alcohol consumption in adult mice for six weeks. One group drank no alcohol, one group drank to the legal limit (0.8 percent blood alcohol level), and the other drank to 50 percent above the legal limit. Then, using sperm samples they collected from the mice, they attempted to fertilize eggs taken from female mice.

    They found that any amount of preconception alcohol consumption reduced the fertilization success rate in the mice. However, the highest alcohol consumption – 50 percent above the legal limit – reduced the fertilization success rate by roughly half. They also found that alcohol altered the activity of genes involved in placental development.

    These findings suggest that male alcohol consumption plays a critical role in conception. Evidence suggests that exercise can reduce cravings for alcohol by inducing the production of a hormone called FGF21. Learn more in this video featuring Dr. Rhonda Patrick.

    Read more
  • Early menopause may be linked to increased risk of brain aneurysm. (2012) www.eurekalert.org
    Hormones Alcohol Tobacco Aneurysm

    From the article:

    The average age at which women in both groups had started the menopause was similar, and analysis of the results showed that later menopause and use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) protected against the risk of a cerebral aneurysm, lessening the risk by 21% and 77%, respectively.

    Premature menopause - before the age of 40 - had occurred in one in four (26%) of the women who had had an aneurysm compared with around one in five (19%) of those in the comparison group.

    And each successive four year increase in the age at which a woman went through the menopause lessened the likelihood of a cerebral aneurysm by around 21%.

    Smoking did not seem to be linked to an increase in risk, while alcohol consumption was of borderline significance.

    View full publication

    Read more
  • Exercising, drinking coffee and having sex are triggers that raise rupture risks for brain aneurysm, retrospective study finds. (2011) www.sciencedaily.com
    Exercise Alcohol Stress Sex Caffeine Aneurysm

    From the article:

    Calculating population attributable risk – the fraction of subarachnoid hemorrhages that can be attributed to a particular trigger factor – the researchers identified the eight factors and their contribution to the risk as:

    -Coffee consumption (10.6 percent)

    -Vigorous physical exercise (7.9 percent)

    -Nose blowing (5.4 percent)

    -Sexual intercourse (4.3 percent)

    -Straining to defecate (3.6 percent)

    -Cola consumption (3.5 percent)

    -Being startled (2.7 percent)

    -Being angry (1.3 percent)

    “All of the triggers induce a sudden and short increase in blood pressure, which seems a possible common cause for aneurysmal rupture,” said Monique H.M. Vlak, M.D., lead author of the study and a neurologist at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

    Risk was higher shortly after drinking alcohol, but decreased quickly, researchers said.

    […]

    Although physical activity had triggering potential, researchers don’t advise refraining from it because it’s also an important factor in lowering risk of other cardiovascular diseases.

    “Reducing caffeine consumption or treating constipated patients with unruptured IAs with laxatives may lower the risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage,” Vlak said. “Whether prescribing antihypertensive drugs to patients with unruptured IAs is beneficial in terms of preventing aneurysmal rupture still needs to be further investigated.”

    View publication

    Read more
  • Alcohol consumption increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as aortic aneurysms and reduces life expectancy. (2018) www.eurekalert.org
    Heart Disease Alcohol Blood Pressure Stroke Aneurysm

    From the article:

    The upper safe limit of drinking was about 5 drinks per week (100g of pure alcohol, 12.5 units or just over five pints of 4% ABV2 beer or five 175ml glasses of 13% ABV wine).

    However, drinking above this limit was linked with lower life expectancy. For example, having 10 or more drinks per week was linked with 1-2 years shorter life expectancy1. Having 18 drinks or more per week was linked with 4-5 years shorter life expectancy.

    […]

    The researchers also looked at the association between alcohol consumption and different types of cardiovascular disease. Alcohol consumption was associated with a higher risk of stroke, heart failure, fatal aortic aneurysms, fatal hypertensive disease and heart failure and there were no clear thresholds where drinking less did not have a benefit.

    View publication

    Read more
  • Fathers-to-be should avoid alcohol six months before conception. www.sciencedaily.com
    Alcohol Pregnancy

    Parental abstention from alcohol reduces an infant’s risk of being born with congenital heart disease.

    Congenital heart disease is an umbrella term for a range of heart conditions that are present at birth. Approximately 1 percent of all children worldwide are born with the conditions. Findings from a 2019 meta-analysis suggest that parental abstention from alcohol reduces an infant’s risk of being born with congenital heart disease.

    Alcohol elicits an array of harmful effects on the human body and is widely considered a toxin. Consuming alcohol is associated with an increased risk of many disorders, including infectious diseases, cancer, neuropsychiatric diseases, cardiovascular disease, liver and pancreas disease, metabolic dysfunction, obesity, and unintentional and intentional injury. Health experts advise women who are pregnant to avoid alcohol to reduce the risk of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder as well as other developmental delays and disorders.

    The investigators searched the scientific literature to identify studies examining links between paternal alcohol consumption and congenital heart disease risk. They filtered their results based on a set of criteria designed to identify studies of high quality. Finally, they combined data from these high-quality studies and reanalyzed it so they could interpret the results on a large scale.

    They identified 55 studies involving nearly 42,000 infants with congenital heart disease and nearly 300,000 without. Infants whose mothers consumed alcohol three months before pregnancy or during the first trimester were 16 percent more likely to develop congenital heart disease. However, if a father consumed alcohol during those timeframes, his infant was 44 percent more likely to develop the condition. Infants whose fathers binge drank were 52 percent more likely to develop congenital heart disease. When the investigators looked at specific diseases, they found that infants whose mothers drank alcohol before or during pregnancy were 20 percent more likely to develop tetralogy of Fallot, a rare condition caused by a combination of four heart defects that are present at birth. Infants with tetralogy of Fallot are often referred to as “blue babies” due to the cyanosis that manifests with the condition.

    These findings suggest that parental consumption of alcohol in the months before or during early pregnancy increases an infant’s risk for developing congenital heart disease. This risk is markedly higher for fathers, whose roles in their offspring’s health are becoming more evident. For example, research suggests that infants of fathers who exercise have better metabolic health later in life.

    Read more
  • Could the cure to alcoholism be a liver hormone modulated by aerobic exercise? FGF21 changes behavior of monkeys, reducing alcohol consumption by 50% newatlas.com
    Exercise Alcohol Aerobic

    Liver-derived hormone FGF21 dramatically reduces appetite for alcohol Researchers believe that humans first encountered alcohol long before we learnt how to control the process and make it ourselves – through the consumption of fermented fruit. One plausible result of this long history of alcohol exposure is that we have evolved a suite of biological mechanisms for detoxifying and regulating our appetite for alcohol, which may be useful for developing new treatments for alcohol use disorder. Now, a recent randomized controlled trial suggests that the liver-derived hormone fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a candidate treatment capable of altering the reward system of the brain and profoundly reducing alcohol intake in primates.

    The researchers carried out their study in vervet monkeys – a species that parallels human populations in containing a mix of alcohol avoiders, moderate consumers, and heavy consumers who will drink to the point of intoxication. Twenty monkeys were selected based on having at least a slight interest in consuming alcohol. The researchers then quantified each individual’s preferred alcohol intake level by monitoring their behaviours when the animals received four hours of daily access to a bottle of 10% ethanol solution alongside plain tap water.

    After a baseline observation period of nine days, monkeys were randomly selected to receive a daily injection of either a sterile saline solution (placebo) or a pharmacological analog of the liver hormone FGF21 for a total of 16 days.

    The FGF21-mimicking drug was found to produce a 50 percent reduction in alcohol consumption, without influencing the monkeys’ intakes of food or water. Looking into the effects of FGF21 in the brain, the researchers uncovered that both FGF21 and its synthetic analog increased the transmission of signals to a specific group of brain cells in the nucleus accumbens – a hotspot of the brain’s reward system. These cells were distinguished by the presence of specifically D2-type dopamine receptors, which have been strongly implicated in reigning in impulsive and repetitive consumption of other substances like sugar. Human variants in the D2 receptor gene have also been linked to greater risk of alcohol dependence.

    The findings suggest that FGF21 serves as a regulatory message between the liver and the brain’s impulse control circuits, and that boosting this signal may aid in the treatment of substance addictions.

    -Link to full publication.

    Read more
  • Red wine mitigates the negative neurological effects of high LDL cholesterol even without reducing its levels directly. www.tandfonline.com
    Brain Cholesterol Inflammation Alcohol

    Since the 1980’s, clinicians and researchers have been puzzled by the “French paradox”: the observation that residents of France have a surprisingly low incidence of cardiovascular disease given their high rates of smoking, intakes of saturated fat, and hypercholesterolemia (i.e. abnormally high serum levels of harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol). A recent study now offers evidence that the negative health impacts of these common risk factors might be effectively mitigated by the French habit of regular red wine consumption.

    The authors of this study examined mice that had been genetically modified to lack LDL receptors – proteins crucial for removing LDLs from the bloodstream and initiating their degradation. This genetic modification, known as a “knock-out”, meant that the mice experienced a virtually life-long state of hypercholesterolemia, which served as the biological backdrop for an experiment on the potential health effects of wine consumption.

    At the age of three months (early mouse adulthood), animals were randomly assigned to receive 60 days of unlimited access to either plain tap water or red wine diluted to yield a 6% ethanol solution. This concentration ensured that the animals consumed the human equivalent of a 5-ounce glass of wine on a daily basis.

    When the researchers tested the mice on a variety of cognitive tasks, they discovered that the water-only group displayed learning and memory impairments characteristic of their poor lipid profiles. Their performance was particularly poor on a short-term memory test, where the animals turned out to be unable to recognize objects they had seen only an hour prior. Long-term memory retention was also compromised. In a test that required the animals to remember the location of an escape platform hidden in a tub of opaque water, the mice swam in the right direction only 20 percent of the time.

    Interestingly, wine-consuming mice were not impaired to the same degree. And while their plasma lipid profiles were no better compared to their water-drinking peers, they had substantially lower levels of several biomarkers of neuroinflammation, such as GFAP and lectin. The findings indicate that red wine compounds might help protect against the negative health outcomes of hypercholesterolemia by interfering with the associated inflammatory processes.

    Link to full study.

    Read more
  • Alcohol consumption may increase the risk of several types of cancer. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
    Cancer Alcohol

    Alcohol is a group 1 carcinogen, the highest classification of a substance known to cause cancer in humans – and the same classification as asbestos, formaldehyde, and tobacco smoke. Epidemiological data indicate that nearly three-quarters of a million new cancer cases worldwide are directly attributable to alcohol consumption00279-5/fulltext). Findings from a 2015 meta-analysis suggest that alcohol consumption increases the risk of several types of cancer.

    Scientists do not fully understand how alcohol drives cancer, but evidence points to a variety of mechanisms related to how the body metabolizes ethanol, the form of alcohol present in alcoholic beverages. Evidence indicates that the processes and products associated with ethanol metabolism exert genotoxic effects; promote oxidative stress; alter vitamin metabolism (especially folate and vitamin A-related compounds); increase estrogen levels; and drive inflammation.

    The investigators reviewed data from 572 studies involving more than 480,000 cancer cases. They calculated site-specific cancer risk for light, moderate, and heavy drinkers versus non-drinkers.

    They found that cancer risk increased for every category of drinking in a dose-dependent manner. As such, risk was greatest for heavy drinkers (more than four standard drinks per day). For example, compared to non-drinkers, the risk that heavy drinkers would develop cancer oral and pharyngeal cancer was 5.13 times higher; esophageal cancer, 4.95 times higher; laryngeal cancer, 2.65 times higher; breast cancer, 1.61 times higher; and colorectal cancer, 1.44 times higher. Heavy drinkers were also more likely to develop cancers of the stomach, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and lung.

    These findings suggest that alcohol consumption markedly increases cancer risk in a dose-dependent manner. Alcohol consumption is just one of many lifestyle behaviors that influence cancer risk. Learn how modifying lifestyle behaviors can reduce the risk of breast cancer, for example, as well as other chronic diseases, in this clip featuring Dr. Ruth Patterson.

    Read more
  • BDNF genetic variant predicts success in alcohol dependence treatment. www.sciencedaily.com
    Brain Alcohol Genetics Addiction BDNF

    Alcohol dependence is a complex disorder that increases a person’s risk of death from all causes. Findings from a 2009 study suggest that variations in certain genes can impact the likelihood of relapsing following treatment.

    BDNF is involved in neuronal growth and survival, as well as influencing neurotransmitters – chemical signals from the nervous system. Low BDNF levels have been linked to the development of depression, anxiety, and alcohol dependence.

    Previous research has demonstrated that alcohol dependence has a genetic component. The current study investigated whether common variations in certain genes would have an effect on post-treatment relapse.

    The prospective study involved 154 participants who met the criteria for alcohol dependence and were admitted to a treatment facility. The patients provided blood samples for genetic analysis and completed self-assessment questionnaires about depression, hopelessness, impulsivity, and the severity of their alcohol use. The authors followed up with participants for approximately one year to assess whether they had relapsed. Relapse was defined as any drinking during the observation period, with heavy drinking considered as more than four drinks per day for more than four consecutive days. During the follow-up period, 59 (48 percent) participants relapsed, with 48 returning to heavy drinking. The average time to relapse was 218 days.

    The authors tested a genetic variant that resides in the BDNF gene, known as Val66Met. They observed that participants with the Val form of this gene were more likely to relapse compared to those with the Met version. Participants with two copies of the Val allele – one from each parent – had higher rates of relapse and shorter times to relapse when compared to carriers of at least one Met allele.

    These findings suggest that BDNF influences a person’s ability to remain abstinent following treatment for alcohol dependence. With further evaluation, these findings may help clinicians to identify people at increased risk for post-treatment relapse and tailor their care plans.

    Read more