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Scientists conducted research by studying the data of 309 people from the British biobank. Alcohol consumption is a major cause of death and disability worldwide, but the effects of different patterns of alcohol consumption on human health have not been studied before, the explanatory note to the research paper says.
The purpose of the study, the authors say, is to understand the relationship between different patterns of alcohol consumption and the risk of developing diseases, adjusted for the average value of the amount of alcohol consumed among regular drinkers.
Non-drinkers, infrequent alcohol users or patients with previous cancer, myocardial infarction, stroke or liver cirrhosis were excluded from the sample.
Scientists have found out that red wine causes the least damage compared to other types of alcohol - they assume that this is due to the polyphenols contained in grapes.
The article states that about half (47,8%) of the respondents consume an average of 10-140 milliliters of ethanol per week - this amount causes minimal harm to health. 43,3% admitted to drinking 150-350 milliliters of ethanol, causing moderate harm, and only 8,9% inflicting maximum harm on themselves (about 350 ml for women and 500 ml for men per week).
Cirrhosis of the liver (48%), heart attack and stroke (31%) are the leading diseases. Beer and cider have the strongest impact on health, especially when compared with red wine: 18% more risk of death from all causes, 36% more risk of liver cirrhosis, 11% more risk of accident or injury. Abuse without food increases the risk of mortality by 10%.
