Many of us enjoy alcohol for various reasons in what we consider to be healthy ways. After all, we’re living long, productive lives drinking the alcohol we please in the meantime. However, research and science don’t necessarily stand on our side in terms of what they consider a healthy amount of alcohol to consume.

Why Is Alcohol So Dangerous?

Science now says drinking any amount of alcohol is dangerous. The international medical journal called The Lancet based on a comprehensive report looked at 694 data sources as well as 592 studies, prospective and retrospective. They found that alcohol is a leading cause of death in today’s world.

There are numerous health risks associated with drinking, including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, liver problems, diabetes, and on and on. The risks from alcohol don’t end there, unfortunately. Car accidents and other things associated with alcohol (things like bar fights, drowning, and even unintentional injuries, for instance) add to why drinking alcohol is considered dangerous, especially surpassing certain amounts regularly. The chances of an accident or altercation happening when alcohol is involved are just higher.

How Much Is Too Much?

Drinking even a moderate amount is linked to the aforementioned health issues. One drink per day increases the health risks by .5 percent. Even increasing that by just one drink per day causes the likelihood for health problems to skyrocket to seven percent. If you drink five drinks a day, you have a 37 percent higher likelihood of developing an associated health problem.

The measure of how much one drink constitutes is simple. A glass of wine is 100 milliliters at 13 percent alcohol by volume. One 12 ounce bottle of beer is one drink, as well as one shot of any spirit at 40 percent alcohol by volume. That means drinking even two beers a day to apparently a pretty big health risk. While that seems absurd, science is science. Of course, the best option is to abstain from alcohol altogether, but many are not willing to do that for the positive effects they see alcohol bringing to their immediate lives.

Forget What You Thought You Knew About Alcohol’s Health Benefits

There have been studies showing that moderate alcohol consumption can actually have positive health effects. Those include things like anti-inflammatory and anti-stress results. However, this new report debunks all that, stating that the risks of alcohol far outweigh the benefits.
Many say that due to this new information, governments should take action to get people to cut down on alcohol or even cut it out of their lives entirely. They could do things like limit hours for alcohol sales as well as limit advertising for alcoholic drinks. However, this is not likely to happen because of how embedded alcohol already is most societies.