Among both men and women, depression symptoms and anxiety symptoms were significantly correlated with increased PSQI-K values. In this study, we found that anxiety symptoms were more strongly correlated with PSQI-K values than depression symptoms and that women showed greater correlation between PSQI-K values and anxiety or depression symptoms as compared to men. The higher the respondent’s alcohol dependency, the higher the total score.
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Specifically, the study found that drinking alcohol delayed and shortened REM sleep, one of the sleep phases. REM sleep is essential for consolidating memories, promoting brain function and regulating emotions, among other functions. It’s possible that the fast-acting enzyme breaks down alcohol before it can have a beneficial effect on HDL and clotting factors.
Helps Your Heart
Until gold-standard experiments are performed, we won’t truly know. In the meantime, we must acknowledge the complexity of existing evidence—and take care not to reduce it to a single, misleading conclusion. Such nuance is rarely captured in broader conversations about alcohol research—or even in observational studies, as researchers don’t always ask about drinking patterns, focusing instead on total consumption. To get a clearer picture of the health effects of alcohol, researchers and journalists must be far more attuned to the nuances of this highly complex issue. Instead, much alcohol research is observational, meaning it follows large groups of drinkers and abstainers over time.
Breast cancer
Later research cast doubt on what actually caused those improved health metrics. Light drinkers may have been better educated, wealthier, more physically active, better insured, and benefitting from better diets. More recent research has adjusted for those sorts of factors and found no protective effect =https://ecosoberhouse.com/ from alcohol consumption in terms of longevity and elevated risk of hypertension and coronary artery disease with each progressive drink.
Wait: Older people have a lower alcohol threshold?
In August of 2018, two larger studies examined the impact of alcohol. The first one, published in The Lancet, included only people who drank at least some alcohol. It concluded that common recommendations regarding “moderate” drinking (one drink a day or less for women, and two drinks per day or less for men) might be too much. That’s the best way to describe the relationship between alcohol and health. As I’ve written about before, a number of studies have demonstrated health benefits with lower amounts of drinking. But if you drink too much alcohol (especially at inopportune times), there may be significant harms as well.
- Similarly, in randomized trials, alcohol consumption lowers average blood sugar levels.
- Many different subtypes of alcohol dependence exist, characterized by alcohol cravings, inability to abstain or loss of self-control when drinking (71).
- The main challenge is there’s an extra layer of stress, with a lot of obligations and expectations from friends and family.
18 An earlier study suggested that getting 600 micrograms a day of folate could counteract the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on breast cancer risk. 17 There was no association with folate and increased breast cancer risk among women who drank low or no alcohol daily. The risk of developing cancer increases substantially the more alcohol is consumed. This drinking pattern is responsible for the majority of alcohol-attributable breast cancers in women, with the highest burden observed in countries of the European Union (EU).
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For example, randomized controlled trials show that alcohol consumption raises levels of sex steroid hormones in the blood. Observational trials suggest that alcohol consumption also raises the risk of specific subtypes of breast cancer that respond to these hormones. Together, that evidence is highly persuasive that alcohol increases the chances of breast cancer. It’s long been known that alcohol reduces the amygdala’s reactivity to threatening stimuli while individuals are drinking. Alcohol can also increase specific hormones, such as estrogen, which may raise the risk of hormone-related cancers, particularly breast cancer. Another way alcohol can contribute to cancer growth is by acting as a solvent, allowing carcinogenic substances to enter cells more easily, says Andrews.
It means on days when a person does drink, women do not have more than one drink and men do not have more than two drinks. Some research suggests that moderate red wine consumption can increase the expression of longevity-related genes. According to a 2018 report, researchers have found an increased risk of dementia in people who abstained from drinking wine. A 2019 study reported that males who drank alcohol had a slightly lower risk of lethal prostate cancer and that red wine had links with a lower risk of progression to lethal disease. Further research into red wine consumption and breast cancer is necessary before scientists can make definitive claims. However, studies published in 2017 and 2021 indicated that grape products and whole red is alcohol good for you grape juice could also reduce blood pressure.
Prostate cancer
While alcohol intoxication is only temporary, chronic alcohol abuse can impair brain function permanently. However, moderate drinking may have benefits for brain health — especially among older adults. We need more high-quality evidence to assess the Sobriety health impacts of moderate alcohol consumption. And we need the media to treat the subject with the nuance it requires.
Your Risk of Cancer May Increase
Because each of us has unique personal and family histories, alcohol offers each person a different spectrum of benefits and risks. Whether or not to drink alcohol, especially for “medicinal purposes,” requires careful balancing of these benefits and risks. The active ingredient in alcoholic beverages, a simple molecule called ethanol, affects the body in many different ways. It directly influences the stomach, brain, heart, gallbladder, and liver. It affects levels of lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides) and insulin in the blood, as well as inflammation and coagulation. Drinking alcohol can also reduce the body’s ability to recover when blood sugar levels drop.