We've got beer all wrong — Diary Entry #4
The science behind alcohol consumption and living longer.
Beer isn’t bad for you, not really.
It can trigger your feel-good endorphin system, and the social consumption of alcohol may have the same effect as many other social activities; such as laughter, singing and dancing [1].
So why does it feel like you should be guilty about enjoying a drink?
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This PhD started with an assumption that turned out to be false. The assumption was that drinking alcohol is irredeemably bad and all scientific evidence would point to that.
Usually, academics hate making mistakes. But this time, despite having to rework every one of my research questions, I was glad to be wrong.
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How does science decipher what is good or bad for you?
This usually involves a lengthy and protracted process, but in reality, it comes down to one big question: will it kill you?
Or more specifically: will it cause your untimely death?
When it comes to alcohol, the lowest levels of death and serious illness are usually found in those who drink moderately, and not, as you may expect, with those who abstain from alcohol altogether [2].
Studies have described this as a J-shaped curve [3] — those who drink low-to-moderate levels of alcohol have a lower mortality rate than those who do not drink at all, and less surprisingly, than those who overindulge.
The ‘sick quitter’ hypothesis [4], as it become known in 1988, argued against the ‘J-shaped curve’. Stating many former drinkers who had an issue with alcoholism or general misuse, are now teetotal — skewing the statistics. You too may have suspected such an explanation, but you’d be wrong. The ‘sick quitter’ argument has been refuted, [5].
That’s not to say alcohol misuse and abuse doesn’t exist. Or there isn’t evidence suggesting the physical, mental and economic toll of binge drinking.
“Nowhere in medicine is the double-edged sword so sharp on both sides” is how the Southern Medical Journal so poetically put it [6].
Poetically for a medical journal, that is.
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Drinking alcohol is a personal choice, and (if you’re drinking alcohol) it’s safe to presume you’re an adult — you can put up with a dash of other people’s moralising being added to your Friday pints.
So why do we need to give this any more thought?
Once you’ve got your head around the foundational medical research into the very principal issue of not dying, you should consider that the J-shaped curve doesn’t explain why there seems to be an optimum level of alcohol consumption. For this, you can turn to the social sciences.
Unfortunately, we don’t know why exactly, but the picture is becoming clearer.
A 2016 study from the University of Oxford found social drinkers have more friends to depend on for emotional support. As well as feeling more engaged with and trusting of their local community. [1]
Open Arms: The Role of Pubs in Tackling Loneliness [7], a 2021 report by the University of Loughborough, highlighted the important role of pubs play in creating and maintaining the quantity and quality of people’s social relationships, and most importantly — in reducing loneliness.
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Heading out for a drink with friends can take many forms, and for a time during the COVID-19 pandemic, it didn’t involve heading out at all. You shouldn’t be drinking to your health whenever possible, that’s not how it works, but remember one beer is very unlikely to harm you and it may even be doing you some good.
Now Reading:
Critical Realism — The Difference It Makes, edited by Justin Cruickshank
Queenie, by Candice Carty-Williams