Just one alcoholic drink a day is linked to a wide range of negative health effects, according to a federal report released Tuesday.
The findings, which apply to both men and women, tied a daily drink to an increased risk of liver cirrhosis, several cancers and injuries but a lower risk of ischemic stroke. That apparent protection is canceled out, however, by occasional binge drinking.
“The idea that you are, on average, going to be healthier and longer-lived by drinking a drink a day if you’re a woman, or two drinks a day if you’re a man, is not true,” Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, said.
“There’s not a level where it’s beneficial,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be a level where it’s completely free of risk.”
The report, from a group within the Department of Health and Human Services, is the second of two government reports on alcohol. The first, carried out by a committee at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and released last month, found that moderate drinking was linked with a lower risk of death from any cause and a lower risk of death from heart disease, but also a higher risk of breast cancer.
Both reports were commissioned by the government ahead of an update to the federal dietary guidelines this year, which could include new recommendations on alcohol consumption.
Humphreys said it’s time to reassess the amount of alcohol recommended by the guidelines. They currently recommend women limit their consumption to one drink a day and two for men.
The alcohol industry criticized the new report.
“Today’s report is the product of a flawed, opaque and unprecedented process, rife with bias and conflicts of interest,” a group of 23 trade associations linked to the industry said in a statement.
“This report heightens our concerns that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans’ recommendations with respect to alcohol will not be based on a preponderance of sound scientific evidence,” the statement said.
The new report looked at 56 systematic reviews on the relationship between alcohol and health.
The authors found that Americans have a 1 in 1,000 risk of dying if they have more than seven drinks a week, or at least one drink a day. The risk jumps to 1 in 100 if they have more than nine drinks a week.
The report identified a higher risk of dying from seven types of cancer, including colorectal, breast, liver, and several cancers of the mouth and throat, among alcohol drinkers.
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said this month that alcoholic drinks should come with a cancer risk warning label because of that link.
“What’s clear to me is that there is an association with cancer and that there’s not a dose of alcohol for which the cancer risk goes down,” said Dr. Ahmed Tawakol, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
The report also showed that, among teens and young adults ages 15 to 20, the risk of death due to alcohol rose with alcohol intake, mostly due to car crashes or injuries. Alcohol-related incidents were a major cause of death in this age group.
The report will be open for a 30-day public comment period and then submitted to Congress.
Both reports will help the Department of Health and Human Services and the Agriculture Department as they finalize the updated dietary guidelines, which are expected to be released by the end of the year.
“One of the things that I say to my patients is, don’t choose to drink alcohol for the purpose of health,” Tawakol said. “If you’re not drinking, don’t start for the purpose of improving health.”
“There are many ways that you can lower your risk of stroke, diabetes, heart disease, other than drinking,” said Jane Figueiredo, a cancer epidemiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “Looking at the whole picture, and the risks and benefits for your entire health and mental and well-being is really important.”
