Review of Risks of Moderate Drinking

The health risks and social effects of drinking alcohol offset the potential benefits of moderate drinking. One drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men, which is considered moderate drinking, is not healthy. It is also not healthy for university students to irresponsibly consume alcohol, moderately or not. The effect on cardiovascular health and the loss of sleep outweighs any benefits of moderate drinking. Moderate drinking does not provide benefits towards a healthy life.

Mayo Clinic’s researchers say that no one knows much about moderate drinking, and whether it is good or bad. Comparing moderate drinking to other situations health wise, they say that fewer people have been open about their relationships with alcohol. They say that alcohol could be related to unhealthy lifestyles, though there is not necessarily a cause (Alcohol in moderation, 2019). One of the studies that was found explained moderate drinking in an understandable way. This article titled: Study Urges Rethink of Drinking Guidelines, informs the reader on the risks of drinking. There are different ways to go about drinking alcohol. Furthermore, everyone has a different meaning of “moderate” drinking. It is important to understand that consuming any amount of alcohol can be riskful. The study that was done, was located in Canada (Leung, 2020). This article explained that there is not a true definition of moderate drinking, for every study that is done, there is a different number of drinks that classify as moderate drinking (Leung, 2020).

The organization that releases the standard regulations on how much alcohol should be consumed, is the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA). Their regulations for Canada are suggested that women drink no more than ten drinks per week, while for men it is 15 drinks per week (Leung, 2020). Dr. Sherk who was a reference, stated that, “There’s no doubt that the Canadian low-risk drinking guidelines are too high” (Leung, 2020). Then there are some countries that do not enforce any rules about moderate drinking. Myanmar does not have any limits for alcohol consumption. This implies that the 15,953 deaths from alcohol consumption a year (2016), are because the country is not focused on informing the people about the risks of alcohol consumption. Furthermore, this is why researchers wanted to conduct a study in Myanmar because alcohol consumption in young adults has not been studied (Htet et al., 2020).

One thing that goes along with alcohol, is the question of why do university age students consume alcohol at the stereotypical rate? This article explains a study that happened in six different universities in Myanmar. Myanmar is a country located in Southeast Asia. This study was done to see what makes university students drink alcohol at the stereotypical rate that it is done. Based on behaviors at the six universities, the researchers believe that before doing the study, many of the behaviors are related to alcohol consumption. This study was done in August of 2018, with 1,301 males and 2,155 females. The results from the study showed that males drank more alcohol compared to females (Htet et al., 2020).

Though they have been doing studies on youth who have had experiences with alcohol, they have missed the young adult ages. In this study, they were able to study the alcohol consumption of university aged students. Because of all the change that students that age go through, the researchers thought it was important to see how many effects alcohol had on their decisions while they are in college (Htet et al., 2020). There are also more things that go on for someone's health other than simply, just drinking alcohol. Htet et al., (2020) published in the article a section where they explained the mental effects of university students who consumed alcohol, “In this study, students who felt hopeless or sad were more likely to consume alcohol than their hopeful and happy counterparts. Similar findings were reported in previous studies [30–34]. Hopelessness is highly relevant condition that could motivate someone to consume alcohol [30]. Similarly, substance use is closely related to factors such as hopelessness and anxiety sensitivity [35]. People who experience feelings of hopelessness tend to harbour negative expectations about future life events and are more likely to experience depressive disorders or depend on substances like benzodiazepines, opiates, and alcohol [36]. Academic stress, the pressure to succeed, and peer competition may cause university students to relieve their stress by consuming alcohol.”

Cardiovascular health is an important aspect to focus on and to be aware about. This study was done to show the cardiovascular risks that alcohol consumption creates. In this specific case, it was done with beer, beer without alcohol, water, no substance, and then a group that got what they thought was beer, but really it was a placebo. The study was conducted with both male and females. A main result from the study was that it showed that the group that did drink the real beer, their cholesterol levels were higher compared to the rest of the groups. Cholesterol is not good for the heart (Spaggiari, Cignarelli, Sansone, Baldi & Santi, 2020). The people who made up the study were people who were having heart problems. There were also different groups of issues, such as cholesterol, blood pressure, body mass index, sugar levels, and insulin levels. Then based on the results from these groups, they picked which areas they were going to focus on (Spaggiari, Cignarelli, Sansone, Baldi & Santi, 2020).

For this study the researchers chose to focus on beer, because beer makes up more than half of the type of alcohol people chose to consume in Europe. They showed in the study that people who do drink beer often, show that their heart becomes weaker over time, faster than the average person. They also discovered that the cholesterol levels drastically increased, along with the fats. Cholesterol and fat around and in the heart is not healthy (Spaggiari, Cignarelli, Sansone, Baldi & Santi, 2020).

Along with the cardiovascular aspect of health, comes sleep at night. Bodies need sleep in order to stay as healthy as possible, and it is shown that alcohol consumption can mess up a normal sleep schedule. This article describes a study that was done over a span of 13 years, though it was done in two waves. There was a total of 9,941 adults who participated. The first wave were adults in the years 1994-1995, and the second wave was done between the years of 2007-2008. The goal of the study was to see if there was a relationship between those who drank alcohol, and those who did not sleep much. There were both male and females who participated in the study. Though at the end, the results showed that only men seemed to have a relationship between drinking and losing sleep. It also showed that the males in the second wave drank more alcohol than those in the first wave (Rognmo, Bergvik, Rosenvinge, Bratlid & Friborg, 2019).

This study was done to show if there was a relationship between alcohol consumption and not being able to sleep. Because of how important sleep is, the researchers wanted to see the effects that alcohol had on sleep. They already knew that alcohol affects the part of the brain that allows deep sleep. There have been studies done that show the lack of sleep in people who have had previous alcohol abuse. Though the long term effects are uncertain for those who drink alcohol, if in the future they will have poor sleep habits (Rognmo, Bergvik, Rosenvinge, Bratlid & Friborg, 2019). After the study was done, the researchers did find that there was a relationship between those who drank alcohol and those who may lose sleep. Though the study did show that the men who had a constant habit of drinking ended up having more loss of sleep. Compared to those who drank once in a while or not consistently (Rognmo, Bergvik, Rosenvinge, Bratlid & Friborg, 2019).

The study also found that the males in the second wave had more poor and unhealthy drinking habits compared to those in the first wave. The researchers hope that the people who may be at risk for the lack of sleep, will see this and understand that it could be caused from their alcohol consumption level (Rognmo, Bergvik, Rosenvinge, Bratlid & Friborg, 2019). This is a well-designed study because they had a large number of participants, and they had an equal number of men and women. It does state that this was an observation, rather than an experiment. Because of this, there was no treatment that was done. Their results showed that there could be an association between alcohol consumption and sleep loss, though because it is not an experiment, they are unable to classify this study as causal association (Rognmo, Bergvik, Rosenvinge, Bratlid & Friborg, 2019).

Though, just like any study, there may be bias induced. Rognmo, Bergvik, Rosenvinge, Bratlid & Friborg (2019) do state some bias that was induced, “There are some limitations in the present study that should be mentioned. First, the study is based on self-report data, and sleeplessness was measured by a single item, which may constrict the validity of this sleep measure. The main diagnostic criteria for insomnia are, according to ICD-10, difficulty with initiating or maintaining sleep, as well as early awakening. Moreover, dissatisfaction with sleep quality and experience of daytime impairment need to be present [35]. Our general question about sleeplessness thus missed several specific aspects of insomnia as a sleep disorder; however, sleeplessness represents a core functional symptom of insomnia that covers both difficulties initiating and maintaining sleep. We therefore consider sleeplessness a valid and clinically relevant indicator of sleep problems and believe that the results of our study are comparable with those of other studies investigating sleep problems related to insomnia. Alcohol use was measured using two slightly different questions at T1 and T2, which may increase the measurement variance between these two occasions. We attempted to account for this limitation by using ordinal ranks rather than the original scores of the variables. The low mean level of alcohol consumption (results not shown) aligns with a tendency to underreport alcohol use in population-based studies [36].”

There is talk about potential benefits of moderate drinking. The study that was conducted, was results from men and women's drinking habits in British Columbia in 2014. Some data that was received from the study was, they found there were 2,054 deaths related to alcohol consumption, and 13,760 patients who were admitted to the hospital because of alcohol-related causes (Leung, 2020). Based on the study, the main concern for more than moderate drinking is cancer. Though there are other factors that have been discovered. It is important to remember that following the rules about drinking in Canada, may still lead to an unhealthy life. Some other issues that people who consume alcohol have are: stomach complications, lung or breathing issues, and even HIV. When people are under the influence, they are unable to give consent (Leung, 2020).

Based on current data, 5.9% of the world deaths per year are related to alcohol consumption. Also, based off of a different study in other Asian countries, between the ages 15-24, 15% of males have alcohol-related deaths, while 6% of females have alcohol-related deaths. This data is based off of a study that lasted for one year. This study also explained how different behaviors alcohol consumption caused (Htet et al., 2020). This article from the Mayo Clinic, tells the reader about how people hear about the benefits from moderate drinking, though there are other things that are more healthy and practical. Moderate drinking has become a thing that people think is good for them, though that may not be the case. They do say that if there are any benefits from drinking, they are minor and not generalized to all people. This article does state some pros and cons of moderate drinking though there are four times the number of cons (Alcohol in moderation, 2019).

The benefits that people may argue are true, happen to be minor and not relative to everyone who consumes alcohol. Furthermore, for the majority of people the possible bad things are enough to make them ease the drinking. Though there are still some people that may argue that moderate drinking brings them benefits. Mayo Clinic also says that if people are smart about their drinking, then there should not be any problems. The definition of moderate drinking is one drink a day for women, and two drinks a day for men (Alcohol in moderation, 2019). They want to make it clear that drinking a lot and often, does not have any benefits. Rather once people start drinking more than two drinks a day, things become unhealthy. The unhealthy rate of drinking for females is four drinks or more, and males is five drinks or more, both in the span of two hours. There are many things that cause harm because of the relationship that alcohol has with human bodies (Alcohol in moderation, 2019).

References

1. Alcohol in moderation: How many drinks is that? (2019, October 26). Retrieved October 07, 2020, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/alcohol/art-20044551
2. Htet, H., Saw, Y. M., Saw, T. N., Htun, N. M. M., Lay Mon, K., Cho, S. M., Thike, T., Khine, A. T., Kariya, T., Yamamoto, E., & Hamajima, N. (2020). Prevalence of alcohol consumption and its risk factors among university students: A cross-sectional study across six universities in Myanmar. PloS One, 15(2), e0229329. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229329
3. Leung, W. (2020, Jun 15). Study urges rethink of drinking guidelines. Globe and Mail Retrieved from https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2419184650?accountid=64591
4. Rognmo, K., Bergvik, S., Rosenvinge, J. H., Bratlid, K. L., & Friborg, O. (2019). Gender differences in the bidirectional relationship between alcohol consumption and sleeplessness: The Tromsø study. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 444. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6801-6
5. Spaggiari, G., Cignarelli, A., Sansone, A., Baldi, M., & Santi, D. (2020). To beer or not to beer: A meta-analysis of the effects of beer consumption on cardiovascular health. PloS One, 15(6), e0233619. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233619