Forum: Harm from alcohol consumption outweighs any health benefit

I refer to the report, “The Bottom Line: Is drinking a glass of red wine a day good for health?” (May 16). Despite all protestations from oenophiles, the rhetorical question is perhaps best answered honestly with an informed and firm “no”. 

Research into the benefits and harms of alcohol had almost always distinguished between light and heavy consumption, where light consumption – like a can of 4-per-cent-alcohol beer or 100 cc of 12-per-cent-alcohol wine or a far lower amount of hard liquor – brings some degree of salutary gains, whereas heavy drinking beyond that is pernicious. These limits are somewhat arbitrary, and it should be noted that Asians are known to have inherited genetic mutations making them more intolerant of alcohol. 

Now, the latest study on alcohol consumption sets out the injurious effects of even small amounts of alcohol on human health (Alcohol use can raise risk of developing 60 diseases, health issues, June 10). To the long list of the known deleterious effects of alcohol, add lung cancer, fractures, bowel/rectal cancers and cataracts. 

The latest World Health Organisation advisory is that the antioxidants polyphenols and resveratrols in red wine notwithstanding, there is no safe amount of alcohol imbibing that does not affect health.

Earlier risks of alcohol are well documented, and they include fatty degeneration/cirrhosis of the liver, brain shrinkage, a complex relation with depression, and obesity. And while light drinking may decrease the chance of diabetes and heart ailments, with the misconception that more brings added salutary effects, actually anything beyond strict limits increases the incidence of these medical mishaps, too.

If you have not started, don’t start; if you are a habitual drinker, then perhaps keep it to a tipple or two occasionally. Still, losing 5kg of body weight brings far greater health benefits than any amount of alcohol may bring.

Yik Keng Yeong (Dr)