Short: The harm of alcohol is determined by the dose beyond which damage to internal organs begins - the toxicity threshold.In order to maintain health, the body needs time to recover after drinking: for this you need to drink no more than 170 grams of pure alcohol, no more than every 8 days.The advantage of moderate doses of alcohol may be that the body mobilizes under the influence of small doses of harmful substances.Dry red wine and unpasteurized beer contain useful impurities: vitamins, antioxidants, microelements, which are beneficial in small doses and harmful in large doses.
"Drinking a lot is harmful, but a little is boring."
What is moderate drinking?
Regarding pure ethanol toxicity threshold (that is, the dose at which organ damage begins) for the liver 90 g (285 ml of vodka) per day, for the brain - 19 g (60 ml of vodka) per day.This means a person of the white race, with a healthy liver, kidneys and brain, weighing 70 kg.
But it is not difficult to calculate that an incomplete glass of vodka contains 90 grams of pure alcohol.If we imagine a person who drinks a glass of vodka every day, if he has a hereditary tendency, he will develop alcohol addiction in six to eight months, and in the absence of a hereditary tendency in three years.Not to mention that after a few months the dose of alcohol increases continuously.
The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that consuming more than 150 ml of strong alcoholic beverages (more than 25% ethanol by volume) per week is sufficient to develop alcohol dependence.
Note: if a person has had viral hepatitis (except hepatitis A) or other chronic liver disease, the safe dose for the liver during the period without exacerbation is reduced by two to three times.It depends on the volume of the affected part of the organ and the nature of the process.The nature of the process and the extent of the change can only be assessed individually.
That's why we calculate what the drinking order should be, so that the body has time to recover: the body of a healthy person cannot break down more than 170 g of alcohol per day (538 ml of vodka). One day of alcohol consumption should be replaced by eight days of abstinence in order to restore the liver. Thus, the monthly "acceptable" dose, based on pure alcohol, will be (31/(1+8))*170 (g), i.e. 586 grams.For comparison, a standard bottle of vodka contains 316 grams of alcohol.
If you drink more than 170 grams of alcohol, increase the intervals between drinks - this is the only way to reduce the damage.
In summary, try to imagine three people drinking once every 8 days.Anyone who exceeds the alcohol threshold of 170 grams will have damage to their liver and other organs: kidneys, stomach, pancreas, lungs, retina.Anyone who drinks 90-170 grams is at risk of fatty liver degeneration (and if there was a violation of the flow of bile or hepatitis, then cirrhosis of the liver).Anyone who drinks 19-90 grams of pure alcohol will only harm the brain.
With the development of medical science, the recommendations of doctors gradually change.The professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London talks interestingly about this "To drink or not to drink?"in his book.(2020).First, the harmful effects of alcohol on the liver and cardiovascular system were evident.Recently, British doctors allowed men to have up to 21 drinks (standard units of alcohol) and women to 14 drinks a week.Of course, the drinkers did not particularly try to stay within these limits: after all, if 14 drinks do not damage the liver, does the damage suddenly start with a dose that is two or three times larger?It seems that the liver cannot count.
We have learned much more in the 21st century.Accurate scientific research has confirmed that even very small amounts of alcohol damage the brain and increase the risk of cancer.This is much more serious.Scientists have found that there is no absolute safe amount of alcohol;we can only talk about "low health risk" doses.In 2016, British doctors equalized this dose for men and women, as the level of risk from low doses of alcohol is the same for both sexes, and if you exceed this level, it increases more quickly for men.It is now recommended for everyone to drink more than 14 drinks a week: this is 1 liter of 4% beer or 6 glasses of 13% wine (175 ml glasses).Moreover, you need to stretch this amount of drinking for the whole week, and you don't need to drink it every day.
Is it better for your health to drink less or in moderation?
For people of European descent, with blond hair, light skin, and light eyes, if they do not want to give up drinking, it is worth drinking less often (in a short-term drinking mode).Less often means no more than once a month, which is due to the risk of rapid addiction with regular drinking.In the case of people with dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes, the drinking order is not essential, provided that the doses expressed in ethanol are observed.
How different peoples tolerate alcohol
You should also keep in mind that Caucasians with darker skin and dark hair (Mongoloids are a separate issue) develop addiction much more slowly with regular drinking than light skinned and light haired people.
This is due to the fact that dark-skinned people and dark-skinned people carry the genes of peoples of southern origin.The peoples of southern origin developed under conditions of consumption of fruits and berries containing large amounts of glucose, tartaric acid, fiber and pectin.In the large intestine, these ingredients undergo alcoholic fermentation, so the body has adapted to microdoses of ethanol over many generations.
Fair-skinned and blond-haired people carry the genes of Nordic peoples who evolved to eat animal-based foods and vegetables that produce predominantly lactic acid fermentation.For the northerners, alcohol turns out to be a xenobiotic (foreign substance) and addiction occurs through other mechanisms, very similar to addiction to other weak poisons.
Where did humans get the ability to break down alcohol?
All mammals have the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which breaks down alcohol, but it processes ethyl alcohol with great difficulty, although it copes with other alcohols much better.If humans had inherited exactly this kind of biochemistry from animals, then we would not be attracted to drinking: even the smallest amount of alcohol in overripe fruits would cause serious poisoning in the body, not to mention strong drinks.
However, scientists managed to find out that our ancestors, after the evolutionary branch of orangutans separated from them, but before we separated from gorillas and chimpanzees, a special subtype of this enzyme appeared - the "fourth class" alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH4).A small mutation in the genome of our ancestors changed the 294th amino acid of the enzyme and allowed their bodies to process overripe fruit that had fallen to the ground and stopped climbing trees for unripe fruit.
So 10 million years ago, the ability to process alcohol helped us climb down the trees and start exploring the open spaces to later become homo erectus.And as often happens in evolution, this skill was later useful for very different purposes.
The benefits of wine - truth or myth
Main the benefits of alcoholic beverages of course he's coming of dry red wine.Dry wine is the fermentation product of grapes (fruit and berry wines are not wines in the strict sense of the word), in which all the sugars in the grapes are fermented into alcohol by microorganisms.The only sugar naturally found in grapes is fermented.Therefore, the ethanol content of dry wines usually does not exceed 13%.
The health benefits mainly come from dry red wine. strong antioxidant.It helps reduce cholesterol levels and is 10-20 times stronger than vitamin E as an antioxidant.Dry red wine contains about three times more resveratrol than grape juice from the same grape varieties.
As a reference, antioxidants are substances that can neutralize the so-called active radicals that are constantly formed in the body and are considered one of the factors of aging.However, it should be noted that strong antioxidants are not an absolute benefit: they both protect against cancer and can cause cancer.Their excessive use itself entails risks.
Dry red wine also contains many valuable microelements, e.g. rubidium, which has a calming, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergenic effect.
It should not be forgotten that an excess of rubidium is more harmful to the body than its absence, so consuming large amounts of dry red every day does not bring any benefits.
A separate article had to be devoted to the question of whether wine is good for the heart.Unfortunately, claims that the so-called Mediterranean diet has a beneficial effect on the heart due to moderate amounts of dry red wine have been proven false.
We also have to disappoint those who thought that drinking small amounts could prevent atherosclerosis.No, all modern scientific data shows the opposite.A healthy dose of dry red wine is three glasses per week (approx. 450 ml).
Is beer healthy?
Another alcoholic beverage that can be said to have health benefits is beer.We are primarily talking about the unpasteurized, so-called "live" beer that has been dominant in the country for 20 years and is now a rarity.
Beer contains products made from yeast, incl B vitamins, although in an amount that does not meet the daily requirement;zinc, which is a valuable trace element required for the synthesis of insulin.The condition of the skin and the reproductive system depends on the zinc content.Hop components - natural analogues of benzodiazepine sedatives - have a sedative effect, especially in combination with phytoestrogens, plant analogues of the female sex hormones of the follicular phase.Hops in moderate doses have a calming effect.
The daily limit of healthy beer is about 600 ml.However, the daily consumption of beer for several years leads to the development of addiction in light-skinned, light-eyed, blond-haired people, among other things due to the content of sedatives.Beer addiction develops imperceptibly and is more difficult to treat compared to "pure" alcohol addiction, which developed as a result of, for example, vodka addiction.
The effect of hermesis (hormesis).
Regarding the other alcoholic beverages, it can be said that the benefit of their moderate consumption is the so-called hermesis (hormesis) - the body's mobilizing reaction to a small dose of harmful effects.
What kind of catchword is that? Let's figure it out now
This effect is as follows: our body tries to stay together despite external influences (homeostasis), therefore, in response to the introduction of the poison, it makes efforts in the opposite direction to the external influences.If the external influence is not excessive, then a mobilizing reaction is created (the usual stages of increasing influence are activation, training, stress).That is, it can take over any harmful effect of alcohol and change the sign of the effect to the opposite.
This effect is not moderate, but occurs with small doses of alcohol: no more than 50 ml of vodka (one tablespoon of alcohol), no more than twice a week.
By the way, this effect exists for all harmful effects and is usually investigated with radiation.
Does alcohol protect against radiation?
Is it true that alcohol protects against radiation?For example, after a radioactive explosion, there were stories about how radiation sickness was treated with vodka.Is that true?
Alcohol is an antioxidant.When the body is irradiated, active radicals are formed that damage cells.Antioxidants neutralize active radicals.Therefore, although the alcohol is not oxidized, it has a certain anti-radiation effect.Alcoholic oxidation products themselves have a damaging effect similar to the effect of active radicals.Radiation sickness that has already occurred cannot be treated with vodka (except symptomatically).
That is, vodka prevention of radiation sickness can look like this: drink it with a glass and move on through the radiation zone.And at the exit - immediately an IV.
It is better to drink dry red wine prophylactically before exposure to ionizing radiation;a much more reliable antioxidant.
Does alcohol damage your hearing?
Australian scientists say that regular, small amounts of alcohol can help people preserve their hearing in the future.From 1997 to 1999, 2,000 residents over the age of 55 in the Sydney area were surveyed and interviewed.
It turned out that people who regularly drank up to 56 grams of pure alcohol per day (and this amount is in 180 ml of vodka, or 600 ml of wine or 1440 ml of beer) were less likely to develop hearing problems in old age.Perhaps the reason lies in the vasodilating effect of alcohol, which improves the blood supply to the outer cells of the ear.
However, scientists note that the point in this matter is not to overdo it: patients with excessive alcohol consumption (drinking more than 56 grams of pure alcohol per day) have much more serious hearing problems than absolute abstinence.
Does alcohol save you from depression?
In 2013, a large study was conducted in the city of Pamplona, Spain.After extensive work with 5,500 volunteers, scientists concluded that moderate alcohol consumption - 5 to 15 grams of pure alcohol per day - reduces the risk of depression.Particularly good results were observed by those who drank 2-7 glasses (150 ml) of wine per week.
Those who drank more than this, on the contrary, had a higher than normal risk of developing depression.Depression and bad mood should not be confused.Major depressive disorder is a disease characterized by prolonged and - this is the main difference - unexplained depression of mood, mental and motor retardation, and the inability and unwillingness to enjoy natural things such as food or sex (anhedonia).
Why do creative people drink?
Creative people sometimes notice that they come up with amazing new ideas after drinking.Why is this happening?
When alcohol enters the body, it initiates the process of apoptosis: the death of brain cells.As a result, some elements are disconnected from the neural network, synaptic connections are broken and then partially restored.Some relationships are created according to a new pattern.This is where insight is possible, as all knowledge and understanding is the passage of electrical signals through the brain along a certain path.
However, such insights are lucky coincidences that can happen during the first few years of drinking.This cannot be achieved purposefully, because we do not know which nerve cell death leads to the formation of a more successful "thought pathway".It is much more likely that the death of neurons leads to a decrease in mental abilities, and regular drinking leads to alcoholism.
What is healthier: to drink in moderation or not at all?
Research showing the benefits of moderate drinking is fundamentally flawed.This is what a group of American, Canadian and Australian scientists say.
The scientists analyzed 87 studies.Based on their results, it turned out that moderate drinkers are healthier than non-drinkers.It turns out that most of these studies can't be trusted.
The main drawback of these studies was that the group of non-drinkers included everyone: both those who cannot drink for health reasons and those who previously drank so much that they later decided to stop in order not to become alcoholics.It turns out that a group of abstainers usually consists of people in poor health to begin with, who have been undermined by alcohol consumption or serious illness.Moderate drinkers are people who do not suffer from alcohol dependence and are generally healthy enough to drink as much as they want.
This is why it was revealed at the end of the study that moderate alcohol consumption is healthier than absolute abstinence. The scientists re-examined previous studies and found exactly people who drink infrequently and irregularly.It turned out that they live longer than the participants of the moderate alcohol consumption study.Their life expectancy was on average longer than moderate drinkers, non-drinkers, and even more so than heavy drinkers.
He did not survive the research
When alcohol-related deaths are investigated, elderly patients are selected for the study: those over 50 years of age.While alcoholics often die earlier.But "the dead cannot be included in cohort studies," as a doctor of medicine at the Boston Medical Center (USA) comments on the situation.
Heavy drinkers over the age of 50 are those who accidentally survived due to particularly good health, genetics, consumption of less dangerous alcoholic beverages, etc.because ofTherefore, patients in good health, which even alcohol could not destroy, live even longer than abstainers, and thus spoil all the statistics.Only the most persistent survived, the other alcoholics died earlier, but young people are not taken into account in death investigations.
Naimi, Tanya Chikritz, whom we already know, and other colleagues published new data in 2019.They analyzed statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2006 to 2010 in the United States.It turns out that more than 40% of alcohol-related deaths occur before the age of 50.
Drinking has been shown to be the least dangerous for those over 65: although 35% of alcohol-related deaths occur at this age, drinkers at this age are 80% less likely to die prematurely (before expected age).So, if you read an article about drinkers living longer than non-drinkers, know that this pattern is only true for older people.Young alcoholics are more likely to die young.
Can alcohol be beneficial?Research results
In 1999, a Dutch doctor conducted a study, the results of which suggest that moderate alcohol consumption has a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system.Heart attacks occurred most often in patients who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol: 14 to 56 grams of pure alcohol per day, which is less than a glass of vodka.
The risk of heart attack was slightly higher among absolute abstainers, and significantly higher among alcohol consumers.However, the choice of drink did not play a role: wine, beer and moderate spirits all reduced the risk of heart disease.An extensive article on this and other studies on the topic was published in the British Medical Journal in 2017.
The researchers suggested that the incidence of brain diseases follows the same U-shape from the amount of alcohol consumed.In other words, brain diseases occur somewhat more often in non-drinkers, rarely in moderate drinkers, and much more often in heavy drinkers. In this case, it turns out that even a small amount of alcohol only harms the brain.In general, it is not yet possible to say with certainty whether moderate drinking can be beneficial or whether alcohol in any quantity is harmful to us.
Tests can show different results, and this is normal: health and life expectancy are influenced by thousands and thousands of factors (diet, habits, sports, climate, genes, whatever).Isolating the effect of one of them is a difficult task that requires a lot of subjects, a sophisticated methodology and a lot of patience.It is often difficult to distinguish results from statistical noise.
It is safe to say that if there are benefits to small amounts of alcohol, they are barely visible against the background of all the other effects on the body.But unfortunately, the damage caused by alcohol is detected immediately and does not raise any doubts among the researchers.Thus, if maintaining your health is the most important thing for you, it is wiser to not drink at all than to improve your body with a small amount of alcohol.
Alcohol manufacturers can bribe scientists
In the summer of 2018, a scandal broke out in the United States: the National Institute of Health (N.I.H.) wanted to spend 100 million dollars on a large-scale study on the benefits of small amounts of alcohol.However, officials intercepted correspondence between the researchers and representatives of the alcohol industry.It turned out that most of the money was received from alcohol manufacturers and the results of the investigation were predetermined.As a result, the study was cancelled.
It must be said that such news should not be surprising: research into the benefits of a given product is often supported by manufacturers.For example, some companies pay for much of the research on the benefits of cocoa, while others sponsor research on the benefits of yogurt.This is not a direct bribe, and anyone can see who commissioned the research.Another thing is that the manufacturers can present the results in a favorable light.For example, publish only those studies that show the beneficial effects of cocoa, and then say that not only cocoa is healthy, but also the chocolate made from it (which is not true).So we have yet another reason to be critical of what is written about science in the press.
To finally put an end to this question, scientists are trying to find out if moderate drinkers live longer than non-drinkers.