Among both men and women, drinking just one alcoholic drink a day increases the risk of liver cirrhosis, esophageal cancer, oral cancer and various types of injuries, according to a federal analysis released Tuesday.
Women are at greater risk of developing liver cancer even with this modest level of alcohol consumption. Drinking two drinks a day — double the U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommendation for women but the amount currently condoned for men — increases the odds of alcohol-related death for both men and women.
The report, prepared by a scientific review panel under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services, is one of two competing assessments that will be used this year to shape the influential U.S. dietary guidelines.
For years now, some scientists have worried that the harms of moderate alcohol consumption have been underestimated, particularly the risk of cancer, the leading cause of death of Americans under 85, according to the American Cancer Society.
In December, a study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, a nongovernmental body, reached different conclusions from this latest report, saying that moderate alcohol consumption was linked to fewer deaths from heart attack and stroke, and fewer deaths overall, compared to without drinking.
The National Academies analysis acknowledged that moderate alcohol consumption in women was linked to a small but significant increase in breast cancer, but said there was insufficient evidence to link alcohol to other cancers.
This month, however, the U.S. surgeon general, citing mounting scientific evidence, called for labeling alcohol with cancer warnings similar to those that appear on cigarettes. And the government report released Tuesday found that increased cancer risk comes from any amount of alcohol consumption and increases with increased consumption.
“What many people may previously have considered ‘moderate’ alcohol consumption is actually moderately risky,” said Timothy Naimi, one of the authors of the new report and director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research.
Some protective effects of moderate drinking have been recognized. Women who drink one drink a day may have a lower risk of diabetes. But stroke protection is erased with two drinks a day, the report finds.
No protection against hemorrhagic stroke and ischemic heart disease was found at any level of alcohol consumption, even though one of the main arguments made for years in favor of moderate drinking was that it could prevent cardiovascular disease.
The new analysis made no specific suggestions about how much people should drink; this will be left to the authors of the final dietary guidelines. But the report indicates that health harms from alcohol begin at very low levels of consumption and increase in proportion to the amount consumed.
“For me, if I were to warn my loved ones, the potential harms outweigh the potential benefits of low levels of alcohol consumption,” said Katherine M. Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and a member of the scientific review board.
“Any suggestion that low or moderate levels of consumption are generally harmless or beneficial, the data simply does not bear that out,” he added.
Since the pandemic, harmful drinking habits have become more common, other research has shown.
The analysis should be read as meaning that no level of alcohol consumption is risk-free, said Dr. Jurgen Rehm, another author of the report and a senior scientist at the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at the Canadian Center for addictions and mental health.
“Humans accept risks to their activities and do things like mountain biking and other dangerous activities,” Dr. Rehm said. “If you take the usual higher risk threshold, that would equate to just under one drink a day.”
But, he said, even though the link between alcohol and cancer was first noted by scientists more than a century ago, many Americans are still unaware of it.
Alcohol makers attacked the new report, accusing the authors of bias and conflicts of interest.
“We are committed to science, not bias,” says a statement from a coalition representing 23 beer, wine and spirits producers; wheat, barley and hop growers; and restaurant and bartender organizations.
“This report heightens our concerns that dietary guidelines for recommending Americans with respect to alcohol will not be based on a preponderance of solid scientific evidence.”
“Many lifestyle choices carry potential risks, and alcohol consumption is no exception,” the statement continues. “We encourage all adults who choose to drink to adhere to dietary guidelines and consult with their healthcare providers.”
In 2020, the last time the dietary guidelines came under review, scientific advisors suggested lowering the recommendation to one drink a day for both men and women. But the final guidelines made no changes to the recommendation of two drinks for men and one for women.
Alcohol consumption is linked to a higher risk of death from seven types of cancer, including breast cancer, colorectal cancer and liver cancer, as well as cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx and the esophagus, the new report states.
Men and women are both vulnerable to these health harms, but women are much more likely to develop cancer related to alcohol consumption.
The report, prepared under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking, also highlighted the risk of death from traffic crashes and injuries faced by those who start drinking as teenagers.
For girls and boys who start drinking at age 15, the odds of an alcohol-attributed death increase more than tenfold as the number of drinks consumed increases from one a week to three a day, with the greatest risks for young men , the report states.
The new report assessed evidence from previous reviews and observational studies, which cannot prove that alcohol caused disease. It did not include data from randomized controlled trials, which could prove cause and effect, because they are very limited.
Unlike the National Academies report, which compared moderate drinking to no drinking, the new analysis assessed relationships between different levels of low alcohol consumption and the risk of dying overall from health conditions and accidents causally related to drinking. of alcohol in the United States.
The conclusions apply to all types of alcohol, including wine, beer and spirits.
The public will have the opportunity to comment on the two reports released by the National Academies and the Intergovernmental Panel starting Wednesday and lasting through Feb. 14.