Doctors want to change the way people think about alcoholism amid a growing body of evidence showing that even a small amount is bad for your health.
The Biden administration’s alcohol czar, Dr. George Koob, previewed revised drinking guidelines next year to better reflect a growing scientific consensus that no amount of alcohol is healthy.
Canadian officials also radically revised guidelines for safe drinking by recommending that people drink no more than two drinks a week, a stark difference from the maximum of 15 drinks outlined in guidelines published 11 years earlier.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s new official stance is that no amount of alcohol is safe, based on years of evidence showing that alcohol is linked to about five percent of cancers, more than a million strokes worldwide and more than 13,500 drunk driving deaths annually. .
Dr Stephen Holt, an addictions specialist at Yale University, told DailyMail.com that an alcoholic is not necessarily someone who drinks all day every day or who passes out when drinking.
Even someone who limits himself to just a couple of drinks to unwind after a stressful day may exhibit alcoholic tendencies.
CDC researchers found that between 2015 and 2019 there were about 90,000 deaths among adults ages 20 to 65 per year between 2015 and 2019 in which alcohol was an underlying or contributing cause.
For millions of people, relaxing in the evening after a long day at work means having a glass of wine or a bottle of beer.
That glass or bottle, however, can become two or three. You may wake up with a headache or nausea, but overall you feel fine; is not the picture of a drinking problem.
But once the residual symptoms fade, you may start to look forward to the ritual and sit on the couch with another drink later that day. You may even look forward to it so much that it’s all you can think about while you’re at work. So when you get home, you make a cocktail.
According to psychiatrists, a person who gets caught in that cycle of craving and drinking punctuated by brief, mild hangovers may be surprised to learn that they meet some criteria for alcohol use disorder.
Dr Holt told DailyMail.com that people tend to lull themselves into a false sense of security about their alcohol consumption if they only consume a couple of glasses a night. But, he warned, “addiction is not really a quantity.”
Dr. Holt said, “It’s really more about this maladaptive relationship that someone has with a particular substance.”
While it’s true that a couple of glasses of wine or a cocktail at the end of the day is hardly considered a binge, which is four or more drinks for a woman and five or more in one go for a man, emotional attachment to drinking that could be problematic.
Dr. Holt referenced a list of criteria for what constitutes alcohol use disorder (AUD), the accepted modern term for alcoholism.
Does a person experience cravings? Have you repeatedly tried to quit drinking and found you couldn’t? Has it damaged your relationships? Is your health affected as a result? Have you continued drinking despite knowing how it affects your mood and behavior?
He said: “None of the things I just said really have anything to do with how much someone drinks.” It’s more about his relationship with drinking.
“So, a person can, for example, have an alcohol use disorder and yet not exceed the limits that we have mentioned.”
Addiction experts believe the United States needs to reevaluate its relationship with alcohol, as research shows no amount is the healthiest.
Given all the health risks associated with alcohol consumption (four percent of cancers diagnosed worldwide may be linked to it), a growing wave of wellness-conscious young people are becoming teetotalers.
The general recommendation has long been for men to drink fewer than 14 drinks per week and for women to limit themselves to seven drinks or less.
But major health bodies are now challenging years of accepted knowledge.
Dr. Holt said, “But that guidance came out, gosh, about 15 or 20 years ago.” “In the past, I would say, three, four or five years, there has been growing evidence that perhaps there is no safe amount of alcohol.”
For millions of Americans experiencing widespread lockdowns, school closures and periods of mandatory work from home, alcohol became their go-to anxiety relief. Scientists estimate that a quarter of Americans drank more than usual during the pandemic.
And while younger Gen Zers have enthusiastically avoided alcohol for the sake of their mental health and social media presence, older working-age adults remain avid drinkers: 69 percent of people ages 35 to 54 years old drink and 59 percent of those over 55 years old.
The long-standing orthodoxy was that an occasional glass of red wine was heart-healthy, but experts have now refuted the purported benefits, stating that the evidence is flimsy and has only been documented in observational studies, meaning that other factors could be at play.
In reality, drinking just one glass may also increase the risk of a type of heart arrhythmia known as atrial fibrillation, according to a 2021 report in the journal. Annals of internal medicine.
It’s that kind of research that is causing Americans to reevaluate their relationship with alcohol and why they drink.
Alcohol is also known to raise blood pressure and increase the risk of heart disease.
A 2023 study published in the journal Hypertension It was found that as people drank more alcohol, their blood pressure increased. This was true for systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP).
It can also increase estrogen levels in women, which has been linked to an increased risk of developing breast cancer and other hormone-related cancers.