News from the Noteworthy: LEAF

Study Reveals New Data About Alcohol Consumption

April is Alcohol Awareness Month, and some pretty big news on the topic has just come out. A study released this past week from the “Journal of the American Medical Association” that covered 40 years, 107 studies, and four million participants found there were no protective benefits to moderate- or low-volume consumption of alcohol. It also found that even moderate consumption is associated with an increase in the risk of death. (If you love reading research, I have included the citation at the end of this article.)

That may be surprising for many who have been told most of their lives that wine, red wine in particular, is good for cardiovascular health. In full disclosure, there is an antioxidant in wine (resveratrol) that has presumed heart-healthy benefits. That bit of information comes with three caveats. 1) The alcohol (ethanol) itself carries risk factors for significant health-related problems that are not mitigated by the amount of antioxidants found in wine. 2) Resveratrol can be found in many other food sources that do not contain alcohol. 3) No amount of alcohol is safe for female breast tissue. Alcohol is the number one most preventable cause of breast cancer and is responsible for about 12 percent of new diagnoses (American Cancer Society).

Related to that last caveat, the part of this new JAMA study that really caught my attention is a trend that I have personally been watching for the last couple of decades. We are understanding more with each passing year how significant the impact of alcohol on women’s health actually is. For centuries, we have more clearly understood the impact on men’s health because men were typically the heaviest drinkers in the world’s cultures. We could see with our eyes what alcohol could do to the men in and around our lives. Now, more research is coming to light about women and alcohol.

It is unfortunate that alcohol is not an equal opportunity substance. Due to biological reasons, women are far more susceptible to harm. As an aside, even though the alcohol industry knows the research far better than I do, it has turned a large part of its marketing attention to women. For curiosity’s sake, the next time you’re in the store look at the number of cute, pink, pastel or fruity drink options and consider who is being targeted.

During the pandemic, women’s alcohol consumption went up by 41 percent, and no such increase was seen in the male population (RAND). That kind of increase comes with a significant toll on women’s health. So much so that during that time period, alcohol-related deaths increased at a faster pace for women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that women develop alcohol-related cancers, liver disease, and heart disease more quickly than men.

This article is not intended to create fear or to wag a finger at any who enjoy a drink. This article is about the belief that an informed population has the greatest opportunity to base health choices on the best available knowledge given the current research. I find that people don’t talk to women very often about alcohol and their health. When I have the honor of doing so, women are often surprised about the increased health impacts and grateful to have been given the information.

If you would like more information about women’s health and alcohol, check out LEAF’s Facebook feed this month: www.facebook.com/LEAFinc. We have been sharing all kinds of information that may be helpful in making positive health decisions.

JAMA article: Zhao J, Stockwell T, Naimi T, Churchill S, Clay J, Sherk A. Association Between Daily Alcohol Intake and Risk of All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-analyses. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(3):e236185. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.6185

Julie Dostal is executive director of the LEAF Council on Alcoholism & Addictions, Oneonta.