Study Challenges Assumption that Light Drinking is Good for Health

There have been a number of different arguments in favor of light alcohol intake and the healthy impact it can allegedly have on an individual. As of late, consistent studies into this area suggest that even low intake can have a detrimental impact on an individual. This study was examined in a recent Science Daily post.

Researchers writing in BioMed Central’s Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation suggest that low alcohol consumption is bad for your health in general. These researchers studied the relationship between alcohol consumption and health in an effort to test the current theory that suggests improved health is responsible for the link found between low alcohol consumption and increased salary.

A team of researchers was led by Johan Jarl of Lund University in Sweden. This team set out to determine the effect of low alcohol consumption on health through the measurement of alcohol-related medical care costs and episodes collected during the Swedish Cost of Alcohol Project in 2002.

In analyzing this research, Jarl’s team found that men who consumed up to five units a day and women who consumed up to 2.5 units a day cost the health service more than those who did not drink. Researchers suggest these findings call into question the previous assumption that low alcohol consumption is good for health.

According to Jarl, “In this study…we found that, when including also those diseases where low consumption increases the risk of morbidity and mortality, low-to-moderate alcohol intake actually has a net negative health impact. It is therefore doubtful if the common explanation of health as the link between alcohol consumption and increased wages is valid in its existing form.”