in short: The harm of alcohol is determined by the dose at which damage to internal organs begins, known as the toxicity threshold.To stay healthy, the body needs time to recover after drinking alcohol: for this, you need to drink no more than 170 grams of pure alcohol, and no more than once every 8 days.A benefit of moderate drinking may be the body's ability to respond to small doses of harmful substances.Dry red wine and unpasteurized beer contain useful impurities: vitamins, antioxidants, trace elements, beneficial in small doses and harmful in large doses.
“Drinking too much is harmful, drinking too little is boring.”
What is moderate drinking?
Based on pure ethanoltoxicity threshold(i.e. the dose at which organ damage begins) is 90 grams per day (285 ml vodka) for the liver and 19 grams per day (60 ml vodka) for the brain.This means a Caucasian person with a healthy liver, kidneys and brain who weighs 70kg.
But it's not hard to figure out that an incomplete glass of vodka contains 90 grams of pure alcohol.If you imagine a person drinking a glass of vodka every day, he will develop alcohol dependence within six to eight months if he is genetically predisposed, and within three years if he is not genetically predisposed.Not to mention the ever-increasing dose of alcohol over several months.
The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that drinking more than 150 ml of strong alcoholic beverages (more than 25 vol.% ethanol) per week is enough to cause alcohol dependence.
NOTE: If you have viral hepatitis (other than hepatitis A), or if you have other chronic liver disease, the safe dose for the liver is reduced by two to three times in the absence of exacerbations.This depends on the volume of the affected part of the organ and the nature of the process.The nature of the process and the extent of the lesions can only be assessed individually.
Therefore, let's calculate what drinking regimen should be adopted so that the body has time to recover: The body of a healthy person cannot metabolize more than 170 grams (538 ml of vodka) of alcohol per day.One day of drinking to restore the liver should be alternated with eight days of abstinence from alcohol.Therefore, the "acceptable" monthly dose in terms of pure alcohol is (31/(1+8))*170(g), which is 586 grams.For comparison: a standard bottle of vodka contains 316 grams of alcohol.
If you drink more than 170 grams, then you should increase the intervals between drinks - this is the only way to reduce harm.
To summarize, let’s try to imagine three people drinking alcohol every 8 days.Anyone who consumes alcohol above the 170g threshold can cause damage to the liver and other organs: kidneys, stomach, pancreas, lungs, retina.Anyone who drinks between 90 and 170 grams of alcohol is at risk of fatty liver disease (which can lead to cirrhosis of the liver if bile flow is disturbed or if you have hepatitis).Anyone drinking 19 to 90 grams of pure alcohol will only damage the brain.
As medicine develops, doctors' recommendations gradually change.A professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London writes in his book To Drink or Not to Drink?This is interestingly discussed in .(2020).First of all, the harm of alcohol to the liver and cardiovascular system is obvious.Recently, British doctors allowed up to 21 drinks (standard units of alcohol) per week for men and 14 drinks per week for women.Of course, drinkers aren't particularly trying to stay within these limits: after all, if 14 drinks doesn't harm the liver, why would drinking two or three times that amount suddenly start harming the liver?The liver seems to be uncountable.
In the 21st century, we have learned much more.Accurate scientific research confirms that even very small doses of alcohol can damage the brain and increase the risk of cancer.This is much more serious.Scientists have found that there is no absolutely safe amount of alcohol; we can only talk about doses with "lower health risks."In 2016, British doctors equalized this dose for men and women because the risk levels for both sexes were the same at small doses and, if exceeded, the risk increased faster for men.It is now recommended that everyone drink no more than 14 drinks per week: that is 1 liter of 4% beer or 6 glasses of 13% wine (175ml cup).Additionally, you need to extend this drinking amount throughout the week rather than drinking every day.
Is it better for your health to drink less or moderate alcohol?
For people of European ancestry with blond hair, light skin, and light eyes, it is best to drink less (short-term drinking pattern) if they do not want to stop drinking.Drink less, which means no more than once a month, because regular drinking carries the risk of rapid addiction.For people with dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes, drinking habits don't matter as long as ethanol dosage is adhered to.
How different people tolerate alcohol
You should also keep in mind that dark-skinned and dark-haired Caucasians (Mongoloid people are a separate issue) become addicted much more slowly during regular drinking than light-skinned and light-haired people.
This is because dark-skinned people carry the genes of people of southern descent.Peoples of southern origin were formed by eating large quantities of fruits and berries containing large amounts of glucose, grape acid, fiber and pectin.In the large intestine, these components undergo alcoholic fermentation, so the body has adapted to many generations of microdoses of ethanol.
People with light skin and blond hair carry the genes of northern peoples who evolved to eat mostly animal foods and vegetables that produce lactic acid fermentation.For northerners, alcohol is an exotic substance and addiction to it develops through other mechanisms, much like addiction to other weak poisons.
Where did humans get the ability to metabolize alcohol?
All mammals have alcohol dehydrogenase, which breaks down alcohol, but it has trouble processing ethanol, although it can handle other alcohols better.If a person inherited this biochemical property from animals, then we would not be attracted to drinking alcohol: even the smallest amount of alcohol, contained in overripe fruits, can cause severe intoxication in the body, let alone hard liquor.
However, scientists have discovered that a specific subtype of this enzyme - "type 4" alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH4) - arose after our ancestors branched off from orangutans, but before we parted ways with gorillas and chimpanzees.A small mutation in the genome of our ancestors changed the 294th amino acid of the enzyme, allowing their bodies to process overripe fruit that fell to the ground and eliminate the need to climb trees to access unripe fruit.
So, 10 million years ago, the ability to process alcohol helped us climb down from trees and start exploring open spaces in order to later become Homo erectus.And, as often happens in the course of evolution, this skill was later used for entirely different purposes.
Benefits of Wine – Fact or Myth
mainBenefits of Alcoholic BeveragesOf course, here we come,from dry red wine.Dry wine is the fermentation product of grapes (fruit wine and berry wine are not wine in the strict sense), in which all the sugars contained in the grapes are fermented into alcohol by microorganisms.The only sugars that are fermented are those found naturally in grapes.Therefore, the ethanol content in dry wine usually does not exceed 13%.
The health benefits come primarily from dry red wine. Powerful antioxidant.It helps lower cholesterol levels and is an antioxidant 10-20 times more powerful than vitamin E.Dry red wine contains approximately 3 times more resveratrol than must from the same grape variety.
For reference, antioxidants are substances that neutralize so-called reactive free radicals, which are constantly formed in the body and are considered one of the factors of aging.However, it should be noted that powerful antioxidants are not an absolute benefit: they can both prevent and cause cancer.Overusing them comes with its own risks.
Dry red wine also contains many valuable trace elements, such asrubidium, has sedative, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effects.
It is important to remember that an excess of rubidium is more harmful to the body than a deficiency, so consuming large amounts of dried red every day will not bring any benefit.
A separate article would have to be devoted to the question of whether wine is good for the heart.Unfortunately, claims that the Mediterranean diet is heart-healthy due to moderate amounts of dry red wine have been proven false.
We must also disappoint those who believe that small doses of alcohol can prevent atherosclerosis.No, all modern scientific data suggests the opposite.A healthy dose of dry red wine is three glasses (about 450 ml) per week.
Is beer healthy?
Another alcoholic beverage that can be said to offer health benefits can be considered beer.First of all, we are talking about unpasteurized so-called "live" beer, which was popular in the country 20 years ago and is now rare.
Beer contains yeast products includingB vitamins, although the amount does not meet daily needs; zinc is a valuable trace element necessary for the synthesis of insulin.The condition of the skin and reproductive system depends on the zinc content.Hop ingredients - natural analogues of benzodiazepine sedatives - have sedative effects, especially in combination with phytoestrogens (plant analogues of female sex hormones in the follicular phase).In moderation, hops have a calming effect.
A healthy beer intake is approximately 600ml per day.However, drinking beer every day for several years can lead to addiction in people with light skin, light eyes, and blond hair, including due to the presence of sedatives in it.The development of a beer addiction is more likely to be overlooked and more difficult to treat than a "pure" alcohol addiction, such as one that develops from an addiction to vodka.
Hormesis
As with other alcoholic beverages, we can say that the benefits of drinking them in moderation are the so-called "alcohol effects." Hermes(hormesis) - The body's mobilization response to the harmful effects of small doses.
What kind of buzzword is this?Now let's figure it out
The effect is as follows: despite external influences (homeostasis), our body strives to remain the same and therefore, in response to the introduction of poisons, it works in the opposite direction to the external influences.If the external influence is not excessive, a mobilization response will occur (the usual stages of increasing influence are activation, training, pressure).That is, you can take any harmful effect of alcohol and change the sign of the effect to the opposite effect.
This effect does not occur with moderate, small doses of alcohol: no more than 50 ml (one tablespoon of alcohol) of vodka, no more than twice a week.
By the way, this effect exists for any harmful effect and is often studied using radiation.
Can alcohol protect against radiation?
Can alcohol really protect against radiation?For example, after a radioactive explosion, there were stories about how vodka was used to treat radiation sickness.Is this true?
Alcohol is an antioxidant.When the body is exposed to radiation, reactive free radicals are formed that damage cells.Antioxidants neutralize reactive free radicals.Therefore, although alcohol is not oxidized, it has anti-radiation effects to a certain extent.Alcohol oxidation products themselves have destructive effects similar to those of active free radicals.Vodka does not treat radiation sickness that has already occurred (except for symptoms).
That said, vodka's defense against radiation sickness might look something like this: Take a drink and then continue walking through the radiation zone.At the exit - just below the IV.
Instead, it makes sense to drink dry red wine prophylactically before exposure to ionizing radiation.It is a more reliable antioxidant.
Can alcohol damage your hearing?
Australian scientists say regular, small amounts of alcohol may help people preserve their hearing in the future.From 1997 to 1999, they surveyed and surveyed 2,000 residents over the age of 55 in the Sydney area.
It has been shown that people who regularly drink up to 56 grams of pure alcohol per day throughout their lives (this is the amount contained in 180ml of vodka, or 600ml of wine, or 1440ml of beer) are less likely to develop hearing problems in old age.Perhaps the reason lies in alcohol's vasodilatory effects, which improve blood flow to the cells outside the ear.
However, scientists point out that the most important thing in this matter is not to overdo it: patients who drink excessive amounts of alcohol (more than 56 grams of pure alcohol per day) have more severe hearing problems than absolute abstainers.
Can alcohol protect you from depression?
In 2013, a large study was completed in the Spanish city of Pamplona.After an extensive study of 5,500 volunteers, scientists concluded that moderate alcohol consumption (5 to 15 grams of pure alcohol per day) can reduce the risk of depression.Particularly good effects were observed in people who drank 2 to 7 glasses (150 ml) of wine per week.
Conversely, those who drank more than this amount had a higher than normal risk of depression.Depression and feeling bad shouldn't be confused.Major depressive disorder is a disorder characterized by long-term unexplained depressed mood, mental and motor retardation, and an inability and unwillingness to enjoy natural things like food or sex (anhedonia), which is the main distinction.
Why do creative people drink?
Creative people sometimes notice that after drinking alcohol, they come up with surprising new ideas.Why does this happen?
Once inside the body, alcohol triggers the process of apoptosis: the death of brain cells.As a result, some elements are severed from the neural network, synaptic connections are destroyed and then partially restored.Some connections are formed based on new patterns.This is where insight becomes possible, as any knowledge and understanding is the transmission of electrical signals in the brain along specific pathways.
However, such insights are a pleasant surprise that can occur during the first few years of drinking.Purposefully achieving this is impossible because we don't know which specific neuron's death will lead to building a more successful "thought line."More likely, neuronal death leads to mental decline, and regular drinking leads to alcoholism.
What's healthier: drinking in moderation or not drinking at all?
Research shows the benefits of moderate drinking are fundamentally flawed.So say a team of scientists from the United States, Canada and Australia.
Scientists analyzed 87 studies.According to their findings, moderate drinkers are healthier than non-drinkers.It turns out that most of these studies are discredited.
The main drawback of these studies is that the group of non-drinkers includes everyone: including those who cannot drink for health reasons, as well as those who previously drank a lot but later decided to stop drinking to avoid becoming alcoholics.It turns out that a group of recovering alcoholics usually consists of people who were in poor health to begin with, either as a result of alcoholism or suffering from a serious illness.The group of moderate drinkers includes people who are not addicted to alcohol and are in good health, so they can drink as much as they want.
That's why studies ended up finding that moderate drinkers were healthier than abstainers.Scientists revisited previous studies and found that these people drank alcohol infrequently and irregularly.It turns out they lived longer than study participants who drank moderately.On average, they have a longer life expectancy than moderate drinkers, non-drinkers, and even heavier drinkers.
Did not live to see this study
When studying alcohol mortality, older patients aged over 50 years are selected for study.And alcoholics tend to die young.However, a MD from Boston Medical Center in the United States commented on this situation, "The deceased cannot be included in the cohort study."
Heavy drinkers over 50 are people who accidentally survive due to exceptional health, genetics, consumption of less dangerous alcoholic beverages, etc.This is why even alcohol cannot destroy healthy people live longer than abstainers, thus destroying all statistics.It's just that the most resilient people stay alive, the rest of the alcoholics die earlier, but we don't consider younger people in our mortality studies.
Naimi and Tanya Chikritz, whom we already know, and other colleagues published new data in 2019.They analyzed statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2006 to 2010.It turns out that more than 40 percent of alcohol-related deaths occur before the age of 50.
It turns out that drinking alcohol is least dangerous for people over 65: While 35% of alcohol-related deaths also occur at this age, drunks at this age are 80% less likely to die prematurely (before their predicted expected age).So if you read an article about how drinkers live longer than non-drinkers, know that this pattern only applies to older adults.Young alcoholics are more likely to die young.
Is alcohol good for you?Research results
In 1999, a Dutch doctor conducted a study showing that moderate alcohol consumption is beneficial to the cardiovascular system.The incidence of myocardial infarction was lowest among patients who drank moderately: 14 to 56 grams of pure alcohol per day, less than a glass of vodka.
The risk of myocardial infarction was even slightly higher among abstainers and significantly higher among heavy drinkers.Meanwhile, beverage choice doesn't play a role: Moderate amounts of wine, beer and spirits can also reduce the risk of heart disease.In 2017, the British Medical Journal published a lengthy article on this topic and other related research.
Researchers believe the same U-shaped dependence exists on the incidence of brain disease and alcohol consumption.That is, brain diseases occur more frequently in nondrinkers, less frequently in moderate drinkers, and more commonly in heavy drinkers.In this case, it turns out that even small doses of alcohol only cause damage to the brain.Overall, it's not possible to say with certainty whether drinking in moderation is beneficial, or whether certain amounts of alcohol are bad for us.
Studies may show different results, and that's normal: health and life expectancy are affected by thousands of factors (diet, habits, exercise, climate, genes, etc.).Isolating the influence of one of these factors is a difficult task that requires a large number of subjects, sophisticated methodology, and a great deal of patience.It is often difficult to distinguish results from statistical noise.
It's safe to say that if there are benefits to alcohol in small doses, they are virtually invisible in the context of other factors affecting the body.But alas, the dangers of alcohol were quickly discovered and did not arouse any suspicion among researchers.So if your main priority is to stay healthy, it's wiser to not drink alcohol at all than to try to improve your body with small doses of alcohol.
Alcohol producers could bribe scientists
In the summer of 2018, a scandal broke out in the United States: the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was preparing to spend $100 million on a large-scale study on the benefits of small doses of alcohol.However, officials intercepted communications between researchers and alcohol industry representatives.It turns out that most of the funding was received from alcohol producers and the results of the study were predetermined.As a result, the study was cancelled.
It must be said that such news is not surprising: as a rule, studies on the benefits of a specific product are sponsored by the manufacturer.For example, some companies pay for most research on the benefits of cocoa, while others sponsor research on the benefits of yogurt.This was not a direct bribe and anyone could see who ordered the study.Another thing is that manufacturers can present the results in a favorable way.For example, only publish those studies that show the benefits of cocoa and then say that not only is cocoa healthy, but also the chocolate made from cocoa is healthy (which is incorrect).So we have another reason to be critical of media coverage of science.
To finally address this question, scientists are trying to find out whether moderate drinkers live longer than non-drinkers.