I'm sure once in your lifetime you
have heard that there are health benefits associated with
drinking alcohol. So called "researchers" claim that alcohol
is good for the heart. But time and time again studies have
debunked this theory and show that alcohol does just the
opposite, it raises blood pressure and greatly increases the risk
for a heart attack or stroke. Just makes you wonder how
much money alcohol companies pay these researchers to
make these bogus reports so they can promote their
product that kills people.
Deceptions in Reporting the Alcohol Benefit - When the media reports
a study showing alcohol consumption as health benefit by decreasing
risk of a heart attack, I would encourage the reading of the
original study and the editorial comments to get an accurate
assessment. In the New England Journal of Medicine (January 9,
2003), there was a study that attributed alcohol use to a reduced
risk of a heart attack. In the editorial comments in this same
issue, by Ira J. Goldberg, MD, there were some revealing facts about
this study that were not mentioned in the media. Those in the
non-alcoholic group had less physical activity, smoked, lower vitamin E intake, more
diabetes, a higher intake of trans-and saturated fat and most
importantly some had a past history of drinking, some of them
heavily, before quitting. Also Dr. Goldberg wondered if the
alcohol-consuming groups might have other lifestyle factors
associated with reduced risk. He said, “not everything fits,” as
alcohol does not reliably reduce arteriosclerosis in animals. The toxic effect of alcohol
is well established, whereas the data on alcohol and cardiovascular
disease is not. Another
media report said that wine was associated with better lung
function. However, the researchers in this study attributed the
improvement to the antioxidants in the wine, not the actual wine
itself and not the alcohol, and they warned of the harms of the
alcohol in the wine. In fact, valid studies show that wine
consumption makes the lung liable to injury and increases the risk
of allergic reactions. These following facts are also missing from
media reports: in 2000, our government declared alcoholic beverages
to be a class “A” human carcinogen, along with arsenic and asbestos.
Upon further investigation, only 27% of the
nondrinkers said they had never been drinkers and 27% provided no
information about their past drinking or non-drinking habits. The
vast majority of alcoholics are smokers -- who very often continue
to smoke while abstaining from alcohol. This would also be true of
non-alcoholic ex-drinkers who stopped drinking because of health
problems. Not
surprisingly, the investigators discovered that the lifelong
teetotalers among the nondrinkers had lower rates of smoking.
Additionally, even among the nondrinkers who did not have a previous
history of drinking there may have been those who did not drink
because of concern about interaction with prescription drugs.
The February 1998 issue of the journal ADDICTION contains a
research report which greatly advanced the study of the relationship
between alcohol consumption and mortality. It was probably also
larger than previous studies because it pooled the results of the
best available previous studies [ADDICTION 93(2):183-229 (1998)].
Unlike many previous studies which have a single category
for non-drinkers, this study carefully distinguished between former
drinkers and long-term abstainers. Using this distinction, the
reputed reduced mortality risk for light drinkers over long-term
abstainers was disproven for both men and women.
In the case
of males, the confounding effect of grouping former drinkers with
long-term abstainers was particularly illuminating. Five
statistically significant differences were seen between the two
groups. Compared to long-term abstainers, former male drinkers were
more likely to be: (1) heavy smokers (2) marijuana users (3)
unemployed (4) depressed and (5) less well
educated.
High Blood Pressure/Stroke/Heart Attack- Alcohol destroys a vital enzyme
necessary for muscle contraction when ingested in any quantity. It
is also risky for people with heart problems to drink at all since
alcohol can reduce cardiac output. {in the book, “Guidelines to
Safe Drinking,” Nicolas Pace, MD, 1984}
Alcohol inhibits enzymes needed for heart
contraction. Alcohol use is associated with deleterious effects on
virtually every part of the body. Eliminating alcohol can reduce the
symptoms of heart failure and improve the quality of your
life. {Alcohol Health and Research World, 1989, and Dept. of
Health and Human Services, 1990}
Alcohol interferes with calcium absorption
which is needed for heart contraction, so it is likely to impair the
strength of the heart muscle. {Alcohol Health and Research World,
1990, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services}
Alcohol makes every kind of irregular heart
rhythm worse, says Paul Hopkins, MD, doctor of internal medicine,
University of Utah, Cardiovascular Genetics Research Center in Salt
Lake City. Eliminate alcohol and you may be able to reduce or
prevent symptoms of palpitations. {“Getting Healthy Now,” book by
Gary Null, 1999 - www.sevenstories.com}
Low to moderate doses of alcohol
cause blood vessels within muscles to constrict, while causing those
at the surface of the skin to dilate. Blood cannot reach the muscles
where it is needed and performance is diminished. {Health and
Human Services, pamphlet no. (CDC) 89-8414, DHHS publication}
Editor's
comment: The heart is a muscle.
The adverse effects of alcohol on the heart
muscle, or myocardium, have been known since the 1700's, and
although the reason is unclear, acetaldehyde (the first product of
alcohol oxidation), may induce myocardial damage (Screiber et al.).
Alcohol has been shown to diminish myocardial protein synthesis
(Bing). {"Role of Alcohol in the Diseases of the Liver," NIH.gov
- September 2002}
High Blood Pressure
One in four adult Americans has high blood
pressure. {Reader’s Digest, “High Blood Pressure,” Jan. 1996}
High blood pressure can be triggered by alcohol
consumption. {Family Guide to Stroke, Heart Association, 1994,
and Nutrition Action Health Letter, April 1998}
Alcohol consumption at any level significantly
increases the risk of stroke, especially in women. Medical studies
show that those with high blood pressure who drink alcohol should
stop consumption because doing so results in a decrease in blood
pressure. Men are more susceptible than women to the high blood
pressure effect of alcohol. {"The Effects of Alcohol on the
Heart," Alcohol Research Center, LSUHSC, August 2002}
Strokes
Even light drinking can double the risk of
hemorrhagic strokes. {JAMA}
To reduce stroke risk, lower
triglycerides as well as cholesterol. According to the Dec. 11, 2002
issue of Circulation, high triglycerides raise your risk of stroke,
independent of your cholesterol levels. {Mt. Sinai School of
Medicine, Focus on Healthy Aging newsletter, February 2002}
Editor's
comment: Even small amounts of
alcohol increase triglycerides.
Alcohol seems to interfere
with the liver’s ability to metabolize hormones, such as renin and
angiotensin, which are important for maintaining blood pressure
control. There is also some evidence that alcohol interferes with
steroid production which is instrumental in maintaining blood
pressure.{Washington Post Health, Feb. 10, 1987}Eliminate alcohol,
as regular alcohol use correlates with elevated blood pressure.
Alcohol taxes the liver and reduces the ability to detoxify blood,
thus causing more oxidizing and damaging substances to remain in
circulation where they can harm blood vessels. Further, if the liver
is busy processing alcohol, it is less able to process fats, leading
to elevated cholesterol levels. If the liver becomes congested,
stagnation in the portal veins, those that deliver blood to the
liver, can increase blood pressure in all other vessels downstream.{
JAMA 1985 study in Nutrition Science News, March 1999}Studies
suggest that regular consumption of alcohol raises blood pressure
during the hours that alcohol is not consumed, and can reduce
magnesium levels which can increase blood pressure. {U.S. Dept. of
Health and Human Services in their 10th Report to Congress on
Alcohol and Health. 2000}Limited accuracy because this survey only
covered the diets of the 17,000 adults for the previous 24 hours.
This is how the media can manipulate figures and report that blood
pressure is reduced by the use of alcohol. Two Japanese studies from
Alcohol: Clinical Experience and Research, have shown that even
modest amounts of alcohol consumption can lead to an increase in
blood pressure. This effect is more pronounced in older men.
According to the CDC, almost one in four Americans has high blood
pressure, but many don't know it because often there are no
symptoms. More than 17,000 people die from complications of this
disorder each year.{"Teetotaling Best for Blood Pressure,"
healthscout.com - July 2002} A study in the journal
“Circulation” found that alcohol can impair the body’s ability to
maintain a steady blood pressure. After drinking alcohol, people
have wider blood vessels and lower blood pressure, and these changes
impair the body’s ability to pump fresh blood to the brain, says Dr.
Virend K. Somers, a co-author of the study. As a result, drinkers
who suddenly stood up often felt lightheaded and sometimes
fainted.{HealthCentral.com - May 2000}Both alcohol use and stress
appear to increase blood pressure, in addition, stress is associated
with increased alcohol use. When stressed, a person is motivated to
drink in an effort to cope with negative feelings, which in turn are
made worse by alcohol use. Both systolic and diastolic blood
pressure were higher among daily drinkers than those who drank only
once a week, which significantly increased risk of stroke and
coronary disease.{Russell et al. 1991}{“Alcohol Research and
Health,” Journal of the NIAAA, Department of Health and Human
Services, 1999}Lowering blood pressure can reduce the chance of
stroke by as much as a third (ischemic and hemorrhagic
stroke}{Published in July 2000 in JAMA - five year study of 4,736
older men and women - HealthCentral.com}High blood pressure raises
the risk for stroke and heart disease. One recent study linked it to
Alzheimer’s, too.{“Simple Ways to Curb Memory Loss and Preserve
Brain power,” Bottom Line Health newsletter, April 2001}Younger men
should be just as concerned about high blood pressure as middle-aged
and older men because it puts them at significant risk of dying from
cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes later in
life, says a study from Northwestern University Medical School study
in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Media
Bias in Reporting Risks of Alcohol Use
- When reporting studies, the media often minimizes any risks while
maximizing or exaggerating any possible benefits, or omits important
information given by the researchers, which influences the public to
think of alcohol as healthy. The public deserves better balanced,
more responsible reporting. To help you balance the media’s
pro-alcohol reporting, I would suggest reading other subjects
relating to the dangers of light and moderate alcohol use on this
Web site, for example:
The Effect of One Alcoholic Drink or Health Benefits of Alcohol
Questioned.hormone cortisol, a marker for
Depression.{"Diabetes/Depression Link," Dangerous Combo, Prevention
magazine, Feb. 2002} Author's comments: This looks like a triple
whammy as alcohol is a negative for depression, diabetes and
elevated blood sugar,
Alcohol, like tobacco, is a drug and no less dangerous
because it is legal. Light or moderate alcohol consumption is
harmful, just as light or moderate use of tobacco is harmful. There
are safer, more effective, and longer lasting ways to improve or
maintain one’s health, such as exercise, proper diet and
meditation. Alcohol can
also weaken or loosen the sphincter which allows the stomach
contents to flow back into the esophagus, resulting in GERD, and can
cause leaky gut syndrome. The resulting chronic indigestion from the
use of alcohol can contribute to pre-existing heart problems.People
who are overweight are at risk for incontinence. {American
Urogynecologic Society. Oct. 2002} Author’s comment: Alcohol
use is a negative for both. Some 60 to 70 million Americans suffer
from digestive diseases, and in a single year they spend $107
billion on drugs and antacids to fight them. Pharmaceuticals,
however, are not the answer. Interference with digestion can lead to
chronic fatigue, premature aging, arthritis, poor skin and hair,
toxicity, allergies and cancer. Alcohol can change the colon's pH,
destroying beneficial bacteria.{"Probiotics Balance Digestion and
Improve Overall Health," healthwell.com - July 2001}Digestion must
occur before the body can extract energy from the foods you eat. For
this to happen, food must be chemically acted upon by stomach acid,
hormones, pancreatic enzymes and fat emulsifiers, as well as by the
mechanical process that propels food through the entire length of
the digestive tract. Most of the foods commonly eaten in our society
are hard to digest - foods that are high in saturated fats, sugars,
and animal protein - other foods stress the body through their
toxicity. Some foods, like alcohol, have a toxic effect that damages
the cells and affects their ability to function, and both alcohol
and sugar promote the growth of pathological organisms like candida,
which can worsen fatigue. Alcohol is particularly toxic to the
liver, brain, and nervous system. {"Foods To Avoid Or Limit," Susan
Lark, MD, excerpted from "The Women's Health Companion," healthy.net
- Feb. 2002}
Researchers: Alcohol Consumption Shrinks
Brain-
Johns Hopkins Study Debunks Stroke Prevention
Claim
POSTED: 3:39 p.m. CST December 4,
2003
UPDATED: 3:53 p.m. CST December 4, 2003 CHICAGO
-- Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found that
alcohol consumption shrinks the brain. An NBC5 HealthWatch
report said the researchers claim the shrinkage can begin with
as little as one drink per week. The researchers used brain
scans on nearly 2,000 people who are 55 years old or older.
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Those who drank between one and ten alcoholic
drinks per week had brain shrinkage, even after all other potential
causes were ruled out. At the same time, the study found no support
for the notion that drinking helps the heart and prevents strokes.
Drinking Alcohol and Blood Pressure
Even Small Amounts Can Increase HypertensionEven modest
alcohol consumption can cause blood pressure to increase, according
to two recent studies conducted in Japan. Dr. Noriyuki
Nakanishi, from the department of social and environmental medicine
at Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan, lead
author of the first study, concluded that "Alcohol use represents an
important modifiable risk factor for
hypertension." Previous research has demonstrated
some health benefits for those who drink small amounts of alcohol,
but the two new studies indicate that even very low alcohol
consumption can be a health risk for many.The first
study involved more than 5,000 Japanese male office workers, between
the ages of 23 and 59, for more than four years.
Researchers observed that as the alcohol
consumption rate went up, so did blood pressure. In the 12 grams to
22 grams per day group, systolic blood pressure went up 1.4 points
in those between the ages of 25 and 35, but increased 5.4 points for
men between the ages of 48 and 59, indicating that drinking affects
older persons more.
In the second of the two studies,
researchers from Kyushu University followed more than 1,100 people
over 40 for 10 years. During that study, 101 men and 106 women
developed hypertension with the risk of developing hypertension
higher for both men and women who drank, even those who drank less
than 23 grams daily.
More than 17,000 people die each year from high
blood pressure complications in the U.S. and almost one in four
Americans has high blood pressure, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. Hypertension can cause stroke, heart
disease and kidney failure.
Study: Wine’s Cardio Benefits Unclear When
Lifestyle Accounted For
By Adam Daley
Researchers seeking understand
once-and-for-all if wine drinkers have a lower
risk of cardiovascular problems have found that associated lifestyle
habits and environmental factors of wine consumers largely explained
their better health outcomes.
The study appears in the Journal of
Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
Previous studies have indicated that polyphenols and
other constituents present in wine and some beers protect against a
few cardiovascular risk factors, however they have been inconsistent
in showing that benefit after adjustment for all associated
lifestyle factors.
Researchers examined the level of wine consumption and
total mortality among 802 adults aged 55–65 over a 20-year period,
controlling for key sociodemographic, behavioral, and health status
factors. When they controlled only for overall ethanol consumption,
subjects who drank less wine showed a substantially increased
20-year mortality risk of 85 percent. However, after
controlling for all lifestyle attributes, the initial mortality
difference associated with wine consumption was no longer
significant.
According to the study, led by Charles J. Holahan, PhD,
from the University of Texas, wine consumers, especially in
comparison with spirits drinkers, have been shown to have higher
levels of education and income, to consume a healthier diet, be more
physically active, and have other characteristics that are
associated with better health outcomes.
The International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research
reviewed the results, noting the study fails to assess alcohol
consumption and covariates after baseline, and changes that may have
occurred during the 20-year observation period are not accounted
for.
Alcohol’s benefits debunked: Heart researchers review
findings
Researchers from Canada, USA, and Australia have together
produced a meta-analysis of 54 published studies, regarding
drinking, and death from all causes and from coronary heart disease
(CHD).
The report found that many of the previous prospective studies
have failed to distinguish between former drinkers and
persons who never were drinkers.
This systematic error was used to support the hypothesis
that alcohol use (by older users) reduces CHD risk.
Research actually showed: no evidence of
alcohol helping heart
The researchers found that the few studies without this error
showed no evidence of health benefits.
People may abstain because they are sick—they are not sick
because they abstain.
The new study supports an early researcher’s idea that an
apparent benefit is merely due to a ‘reduction or
termination of drinking in older people due to increased
illness, disability, frailty and/or medication use.’
Kaye M. Fillmore, William C. Kerr, Tim Stockwell,
Tanya Chikritzhs, Alan Bostrom, 2006, ‘Moderate alcohol use and
reduced mortality risk: Systematic error in prospective studies’,
http://www.iogt.org/pdf/m350jp7v218202g8.pdf
Besides, researchers from Brazil found that in certain
populations, drinking is not even statistically associated with
lower coronary heart disease. They questioned ‘whether the
cardioprotective effect of alcohol is real or may be confounded by
lifestyle characteristics of drinkers.’
Flávio D. Fuchs, Lloyd E. Chambless, Aaron R. Folsom,
Marsha L. Eigenbrodt, Bruce B. Duncan, Adam Gilbert, Moyses Szklo,
1 Sep. 2004, ‘Association between Alcoholic Beverage Consumption
and Incidence of Coronary Heart Disease in Whites and Blacks’,
American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 160, No. 5, pp. 466-474, http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/160/5/466.full
Again, researchers (after excluding certain confounding factors)
have associated drinking with greater risk of future heart
disease. ‘In conclusion, our findings add to the emerging evidence
that binge drinking is associated with higher rates of
cardiovascular disease...’ ‘Surprisingly, our findings also raise
the possibility that even moderate alcohol consumption
could have proatherogenic effects among young adults.’
Mark J. Pletcher, Paul Varosy, Catarina I. Kiefe, Cora
E. Lewis, Stephen Sidney, Stephen B. Hulley, 1 Mar. 2005, ‘Alcohol
Consumption, Binge Drinking, and Early Coronary Calcification:
Findings from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults
(CARDIA) Study’, American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 161, No.
5, pp. 423-433, http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/161/5/423.full
American Heart Association cautions: ‘NOT to
start drinking’
Why should anyone be told to start drinking under the
illusion of heart disease prevention?
Alcohol is known to increase the danger of: ‘alcoholism, high
blood pressure, obesity, stroke, breast cancer, suicide and
accidents.’ ‘the American Heart Association cautions people NOT
to start drinking...’
American Heart Association, ‘Alcohol, Wine and
Cardiovascular Disease’, http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4422
Posted 30 January 2006 -
11:14 AM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://news.bbc.co.u...alth/377381.stmHealth Alcohol
benefits debunked Other studies show wine can help the
heart Moderate alcohol consumption has no positive effect on
health - contrary to a number of studies - while heavy drinking
doubles men's chances of dying from a stroke, research has
found. The large-scale study took place over 21 years, and
while it confirmed that binge drinking is extremely bad for health,
it contradicted studies showing reduced levels of heart disease
among people who regularly drink a little. There was no
significant increase in the risk of heart disease among those
drinking most, but men who drank more than 35 units - or 17 pints of
beer - of alcohol a week had more than double the chance of dying
from a stroke. The Stroke Association, which funded the
study, said the findings should raise awareness of the connection
between alcohol and strokes, particularly among the
young. International pattern Professor George Davey
Smith, of the department of social medicine at Bristol University,
was a co-author of the paper, which appears in the British Medical
Journal. "We didn't find any benefit or any harm in low-level
regular drinking," he told BBC News Online. "What we did find
was that people who were drinking most had more than twice the
mortality from stroke, which is not an inconsiderable
effect." He said the findings tied in with international
studies that found that men in Finland who regularly drank enough to
suffer a hangover and men in Russia who went binge-drinking had
higher death rates. "The bottom line is that binge drinking
is not good for one." Long-term study The team studied
5,766 men from various workplaces in Glasgow, Clydebank and
Grangemouth over a 21-year period. Heart disease was the
same for all For non-drinkers and moderate drinkers - up to 14
units of alcohol a week - the risk of any cause of death was
similar. This was regardless of whether they drank beer,
wine, or spirits. However, people who drank more than 22
units a week - the equivalent of 11 pints of beer a week or half a
bottle of wine a day - increased their chances of dying with every
drink. Many of the heavy drinkers in the study also smoked
and had poor diets, but the researchers adjusted their findings for
to take these factors into account. Statistical
U-turn They explained that earlier studies may have shown
improved health among moderate drinkers simply through a statistical
quirk. Many of the previous studies had shown results in the
form of a U graph, with moderate drinkers having the lowest death
rates, while heavy and non-drinkers had the highest. However,
such figures could be skewed because sick people are more likely to
be non-drinkers - they do not drink because they are ill, rather
than being ill because they do not drink.
International study questions health benefits of
moderate drinking
Previous analyses did not account for effects of
age and illness that may make abstainer groups appear to have higher
death rates than drinkersThe majority of studies suggesting
that "moderate" drinking helps prevent heart disease may be flawed,
according to an international research group.
In a new report, researchers from the U.S., Canada, and Australia
analyze 54 studies that linked how much people drink with risk of
premature death from all causes, including heart disease.
Researchers from the University of Victoria in British Columbia and
the University of California, San Francisco led the team.
The researchers investigated a suggestion put forth in the
scientific community that many of the studies conducted so far on
drinking and premature death made a consistent and serious error by
including as "abstainers" people who had cut down or quit drinking
due to declining health, frailty, medication use or disability. When
such studies show a higher death rate for abstainers than for
moderate drinkers, this result may reflect the poor health of some
abstainers who recently quit drinking rather than indicating a
protective effect for alcohol.
The team found only seven studies that included only long-term
non-drinkers in the "abstainers" group. The results of the seven
studies showed no reduction in risk of death among the moderate
drinkers compared with abstainers. When the researchers combined the
data from these studies, they showed that it was possible to perform
new analyses that appeared to show a protective effect of moderate
drinking--but only when they deliberately included the error of
combining long-term abstainers with people who had cut down or quit
drinking more recently.
The authors caution that their report, published online in
advance of the May 2006 issue of Addiction Research and Theory, has
not disproved the notion that light drinking is good for health, as
too few error-free studies have been performed. They suggest,
however, that the extent to which these benefits actually translate
into longer life may have been exaggerated.
"The widely held belief that light or moderate drinking protects
against coronary heart disease has had great influence on alcohol
policy and clinical advice of doctors to their patients throughout
the world," said Tim Stockwell, PhD, of the Centre for Addictions
Research at the University of Victoria. "These findings suggest that
caution should be exerted in recommending light drinking to
abstainers because of the possibility that this result may be more
apparent than real."
"We know that older people who are light drinkers are usually
healthier than their non-drinking peers," said Kaye Fillmore, PhD,
of the UCSF School of Nursing. "Our research suggests light drinking
is a sign of good health, not necessarily its cause. Many people
reduce their drinking as they get older for a variety of health
reasons."
The authors emphasize that there is a need for more well-designed
research in the future that assesses people's alcohol intake and
abstinence more precisely as their drinking patterns change with
age.
META-ANALYSIS
The research that the team analyzed consisted of prospective
studies, including hundreds of thousands of individuals who were
followed over a number of years. Most studies were from North
America and Europe, some from the Caribbean and Asia. The majority
of the results were published in the 1980s and 1990s, with one study
published in 1974 and one as recently as 2004.
The team investigated this body of research using meta-analysis –
a method that synthesizes the results from many different studies to
determine if their results are in agreement, statistically
significant and the degree to which there is variation in the
results of the studies.
Light drinking was defined as having two drinks or fewer per day
(or about 30mls of pure alcohol per day) and drinking at least once
a month. Moderate drinking was 2 to 4 drinks per day. The effects of
other factors that influence health and life expectancy were
controlled as far as possible in analysis.
Two parallel analyses were carried out: one for 54 studies
evaluating death from all causes including heart disease and the
other for 35 studies evaluating heart disease deaths specifically.
The two analyses showed similar results. Moderate drinking was
associated with protection from premature death in the majority of
studies -- those containing the "abstainer error." Protection was
not found in the few studies without the error, e.g. where moderate
drinkers were compared with long-term abstainers.
Previous meta-analyses that combined data from many studies have
shown that moderate drinking appeared to have a protective effect
against heart disease deaths and against premature death in general.
These studies did not address the effect of the "abstainer error."
"By ignoring this error, these meta-analyses perpetuated it,"
Fillmore said.
"In this analysis, every attempt was made to test the proposition
of a health benefit more thoroughly than ever before in the past,"
Fillmore said. "Many other factors may account for the different
findings across studies. Fully 57 characteristics of these studies
were tested (e.g., smoking, health status, measurement
characteristics). None were found to challenge the finding that the
'abstainer' error was responsible for alcohol's apparent protective
effect."
Stockwell noted that other diseases and conditions have been
found to have a protective effect as a result of the use of alcohol
(in contrast to abstaining from alcohol). "It is critical that
future research test whether faulty measurement may have contributed
to their findings," he said. "Also, it is well to remember that the
types of research usually used to find links between lifestyle
factors (e.g. diet, exercise, medication use, in addition to alcohol
use) and disease later in life have a high potential for error and
on their own cannot prove causation."
The authors credit British heart specialist Gerry Shaper, MD, of
the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London,
England, for first proposing the possibility of an "abstainer error"
in the design of prospective studies of the association between
alcohol use and heart disease risks.
"This study was performed in the spirit of the tradition that all
scientific findings are open to challenge," Fillmore said.
"Competing hypotheses, even if unpopular, should be encouraged and
tested to be sure that accepted beliefs about health are sound."
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