Alcohol, guilty or innocent? Guilty!
Dr. Hildemar Dos Santos
Since my childhood, I have been against drinking alcohol. When I graduated in medicine in 1978, I became a strong anti-alcohol advocate because in my last year of school I accompanied my uncle who died of alcoholic cirrhosis in the hospital.
And for several years in medical and public health practice I have been a champion of alcohol abstinence, but always being fought by colleagues and the society. And I have always had to "swallow" the European scientists who advocate alcohol in moderation as better for health than total abstinence.
I teach a graduate course on alcohol and substance abuse prevention, and it is very acknowledged that the moderation movement for alcohol recovery is something that does not work. However, many researchers still defend the European model that alcohol protects the heart, decrease morbidity and mortality. Things that I really did not agree with!
However, things have changed now, especially after the recent study published in the medical journal The Lancet, August 23, 2018. The article as a part of the Global Burden of Disease Study clearly and definitively stated that alcohol is guilty of thousands of deaths and physical disability. The study evaluated other research conducted in 195 countries around the world and evaluated more than 694 statistical sources on alcohol consumption and 592 research studies on the effects of drinking.
This was the study I was hoping for. It will be difficult for anyone to counteract the results of it; a review of studies conducted in developed and developing countries and without funding from any compromising lobbies. In fact, the study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The article confirmed that alcohol was responsible for 2.8 million deaths in 2016 and was the seventh cause of death and disability on the planet. And in the age range of 15 and 45 years, alcohol was the main cause of death and disability. Alcohol-related diseases in this age group were tuberculosis, car accidents, and suicide. In the older group population, alcohol increases the risk of cancer.
The study showed that in developing countries men drink more alcohol than women, but in developed countries, this difference hardly exists. And regarding the potential protection that alcohol would have about heart disease and diabetes, a benefit that was only found in women, these benefits do not outweigh the risks of other diseases and accidents, so there is no advantage in consuming alcohol to reduce mortality.
The authors concluded that the level of safe alcohol consumption to prevent disease and decrease mortality is zero. And they advise measures to be taken globally to reduce alcohol consumption, such as increasing alcohol taxes, lowering alcohol sales, restricting sales at certain times, and prohibiting or restricting alcohol advertising in the media. Another point that was stressed is that developing countries should put more effort into restricting consumption of alcohol while consumption is not high and so many diseases and accidents could be prevented, which are common in those countries.
The authors even reported that the results of the study were undermined as it was difficult to assess alcohol consumption and related illnesses in many of the studies. In this way, they estimated that the alcohol effect would be probably greater than what they found.
We do not need to say anything else; alcohol is guilty. In fact, it was already, since anything that causes 2.8 million deaths cannot be beneficial. I could compare it to a serial killer who killed dozens of people, but on his resume was a report that he was a "hero" because he saved two people from a fire. The fact of saving two people does not justify the killing of the others, in which case the individual is guilty. And so for alcohol, it is guilty!
" Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.” Proverbs 20: 1