Now scientists say glass of wine a day won’t help you live longer

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

A daily glass of wine doesn't help people live longer, after all, according to new research.

Previous studies suggesting that an occasional tipple is good for you were based on "flawed" scientific research, according to the report.

Doctors say the healthiest option when it comes to booze is to not partake at all.

Over the years, many studies have suggested that moderate drinkers enjoy longer lives with lower risks of heart disease and other chronic ills than teetotallers do.

Experts say that triggered the widespread belief that alcohol, in moderation, can be a health tonic.

But not all research has painted such a rosy picture - and the new analysis, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs , sheds light on why.

Lead researcher Dr. Tim Stockwell, a scientist with the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria , says that, in a nutshell, studies linking moderate drinking to health benefits suffer from "fundamental" design flaws.

He points out that those studies have generally focused on older adults and failed to account for people’s lifetime drinking habits.

Moderate drinkers were compared with “abstainer” and “occasional drinker” groups that included some older adults who had quit or cut down on drinking because they’d developed any number of health conditions.

Dr. Stockwell said: “That makes people who continue to drink look much healthier by comparison."

For the new analysis, Dr. Stockwell and his colleagues identified 107 published studies that followed people over time and looked at the relationship between drinking habits and lifespan.

When the researchers combined all the data, it looked like light to moderate drinkers - those who drank between one drink per week and two per day - had a 14% lower risk of dying during the study period compared with abstainers.

But things changed when the research team took a deeper dive.

They found there were a handful of “higher quality” studies that included people who were relatively young at the outset - under 55 years of age, on average - and that made sure former and occasional drinkers were not considered “abstainers.”

In those studies, moderate drinking was not linked to a longer life.

Instead, Dr. Stockwell says it was the “lower quality” studies - with older participants, no distinction between former drinkers and lifelong abstainers - that did link moderate drinking to greater longevity.

He said: “If you look at the weakest studies, that’s where you see health benefits.”

Dr. Stockwell says the notion that moderate drinking leads to a longer, healthier life goes back decades.

As an example, he pointed to the “French paradox” - the idea, popularised in the 1990s, that red wine helps explain why the French enjoy relatively low rates of heart disease, despite a rich, fatty diet.

Dr. Stockwell says that the view of alcohol as an "elixir" still seems to be “ingrained” in the public's imagination.

In reality, he said, moderate drinking likely doesn't extend people’s lives - and, in fact, carries some potential health hazards, including increased risks of certain cancers.

Dr. Stockwell said that’s why no major health organization has ever established a risk-free level of alcohol consumption.

He added: “There is simply no completely ‘safe’ level of drinking."

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