The Dangers of Alcohol By Mrs Vera West

I have been proclaiming for a long time the dangers of alcohol, part of the influence of my mother who was strong in the Temperance League. The main critique, back in the day, was a moral one, that alcohol diminished restraint and hence moral responsibility, especially sexual. But, apart from that, from time-to-time medical authorities dare to say that alcohol has mainly negatives effects, and few, if any positive effects, as was done by French health authorities a few years ago, to a vast outcry by vested interests.

Here is the latest debate, fuelled by research from the  Global Burden of Disease, a scientific effort led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, showing that for adults aged 15 to 39, there were no health benefits from drinking alcohol, but plenty of risks. This claim has stirred up a hornet’s nest too, perhaps a drunk hornet’s nest!

https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101243136

“An analysis from the Global Burden of Disease, a scientific effort led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, published in the Lancet suggested that for adults aged 15 to 39, there were no health benefits from drinking alcohol, only risks.

The authors said alcohol consumption guidelines should be changed so that they were age-specific, and policies should particularly target males under age 40 — the group most likely to use alcohol harmfully.

"The outcomes that young people are most at risk for are injuries, road traffic accidents, homicide, self-harm, and other intentional or unintentional injuries, and alcohol increases the risk of all those conditions," Emmanuela Gakidou, from IHME, said.

"While it may not be realistic to think young people will abstain from drinking, we do think it's important to communicate the latest evidence so that everyone can make informed decisions about their health."

Dr Gakidou said the background risk of diseases changed gradually over time, and for people aged over 40 without underlying health conditions, small amounts of alcohol could be beneficial.

"As individuals shift to over age 40 but particularly to over age 60 and 70, some of the predominant risks to their health have to do with ischemic heart disease and stroke, and also diabetes, and what we have found is that a small amount of alcohol can actually be protective for those conditions," Dr Gakidou said.

A "small amount" of alcohol is between one and two 100ml glasses of red wine.

The authors said alcohol consumption guidelines should be based on age and geographical region.

Risks of drinking one drink every second day 'not that high'

Robin Room from LaTrobe University's Alcohol Policy Research Centre said the health risks from alcohol were broad.

"Its intoxicating power means that there's a lot of problems associated with it that are social problems and welfare problems, as well as the health problems," Dr Room said.

"In Australia, we know about drink driving quite well because we've had a generation or maybe even two generations of that being emphasised. 

"For other kinds of risks, we're not so clear … people think of it (alcohol) as just a part of everyday life without thinking about the risks."

Dr Room said he was not convinced young people should not drink any alcohol.

"You can say that maybe there's no evidence of any benefit for people who are young, on the other hand, the risks of drinking one drink every second day are not very high for young people," he said.

Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council recommend that to reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury, healthy adults should drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than four standard drinks on any one day.

People under 18 years of age and pregnant women should not drink alcohol.

Dr Room said the guidelines were "set with a lot of consideration".

"They're based on risk curves that … actually allow a little bit more risk than we're aiming for when we try to control, for instance, traffic accidents," Dr Room said.

Dr Gakidou said the findings for Australia were consistent with the rest of the world when it came to young people.

"In Australia, we have found both men and women consume harmful levels of alcohol, so below the age of 40, about three out of four [or] four out of five Australian people consume alcohol at harmful levels," she said.

"What we also found in Australia is that trend continues into older ages, so older adults also drink more than they really should to maximise their health."

Alcohol consumption falling, figures show

Figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show alcohol consumption has fallen. In 2018, the apparent consumption of alcohol was 9.5 litres per capita, compared with 10.8 litres per capita in 2008.

The institute's 2019 National Drug Strategy Household Survey report showed that between 2016 and 2019 the proportion of ex-drinkers increased from 7.6 per cent to 8.9 per cent, and 31 per cent of people said they had reduced the amount of alcohol they were drinking at any one time, up from 28 per cent in 2016.

Of people aged 14 years and older in 2019, 60 per cent drank alcohol regularly — 5 per cent daily, 35 per cent weekly, and 21 per cent monthly. Another 15 per cent said they drank less than monthly.

The report also showed there had been little change in people drinking at risky levels: In 2019, a quarter of Australians drank at a risky level on a single occasion at least monthly.

Dr Room said in high-income countries, teenagers were increasingly turning away from alcohol, but he said it was not clear whether that had an impact when those teenagers moved into their 20s and 30s.

A rise in the number of people looking for alternatives to alcohol has led to a proliferation of zero-alcohol options.

"I think as alcohol-free options are becoming more accessible and more accepted within the community, people are ordering them more," Hobart bartender Jonathon Tate said.

"They can be here with a drink in their hand … if they want to come to the pub and not necessarily drink alcohol."”