Moderate Drinking Linked to Lower Overall Mortality Rate, Says National Academy of Sciences

“When it comes to alcohol consumption, there is no safe amount that does not affect health,” declared the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2022. “No, moderate drinking isn’t good for your health,” headlined The Washington Post citing a 2023 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) meta-analysis probing the epidemiological association between mean daily alcohol intake and all-cause mortality. Interestingly, two of the co-authors of the JAMA article have been associated with various neo-prohibitionist organizations.

In any case, these pronouncements contradict decades of research that identified a U-shaped relationship in which mortality is greater for both non-drinkers and heavy drinkers than it is for moderate drinkers.

A new report reviewing evidence on moderate alcohol consumption and health outcomes issued earlier this month by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) concludes that the WHO and the JAMA researchers are wrong. Moderate drinking is associated with some health benefits, with one notable exception.

“The report concludes with moderate certainty that compared with never consuming alcohol, moderate alcohol consumption is associated with lower all-cause mortality,” notes the NAS press release. All-cause mortality is a measure of the total number of deaths from any cause in a specific group of people over a specific period of time. In this case, the mortality rates derive from a comparison between teetotalers and moderate tipplers.

In addition, the report found that compared with never consuming alcohol, consuming moderate amounts of alcohol is associated with “a lower risk of cardiovascular mortality in both men and women (moderate certainty).”

Some evidence, however, suggests that moderate consumption is associated with a higher risk of female breast cancer. With respect to comparing moderate alcohol consumers versus lifelong non-consumers, no association between moderate alcohol consumption and colorectal, oral cavity, pharyngeal, esophageal, or laryngeal cancers can be made. And no conclusions could be drawn regarding the association between weight-related outcomes and moderate alcohol consumption compared with never consuming alcohol.

So here’s a moderate toast to a Happy New Year!

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