The Éduc’Alcool organization has been telling us for years: you shouldn’t drink every day and you should aim for a weekly maximum of 15 drinks for men, 10 for women.
Well, the science has moved on. And these recommendations are in the field…
To avoid health risks, you have to drink a lot, much less than 15 drinks for men and 10 for women.
Are you sitting well?
According to a study1 from the Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) – which analyzed more than 150 recent scientific studies – it is now necessary to aim for six drinks for men and two for women.
I hear you screaming from here!
The study is an update of knowledge on the risks associated with alcohol consumption on our health (and on that of others: there is a link between alcohol and violence, especially among men).
I summarize the conclusions of the CCSA: one or two drinks per week, the risk is low. Three to six drinks per week, the risk of developing several cancers (colon and breast, in particular) increases, but the risk remains “moderate”.
But seven or more drinks a week is the tipping point: you “drastically” increase your risk of developing cancer, heart disease or having a stroke.
“The lifetime risk of death and disability attributable to alcohol consumption increases with the amount consumed,” as stated on page 34 of the report.
The CCSA study is extremely thorough, I would even say unassailable. It also debunks this erroneous belief that moderate alcohol consumption can sometimes be beneficial: this is not the case.
Anyway, I hear you scream. It’s normal: alcohol is the most consumed drug in Canada, 75% of the Canadian population drinks alcohol.
How, Sir Chronicler, a dope ?
You read that right: alcohol is a drug, in the clinical sense. It is even the most dangerous drug for oneself and for others, the case has been scientifically understood for a long time2I told you about it a few years ago, in another chronicle on alcohol3.
But since alcohol is the most widespread, socially accepted and acceptable drug, we trivialize the dangers and harms associated with this substance. Many of us will therefore find that these recommendations are exaggerated, perhaps even puritanical or prohibitionist…
That’s not what transpires from the report Facts about alcohol and health. Observation, after having read it: according to the scientific studies carried out here and elsewhere in the world, our understanding of the health risks related to the consumption of alcohol has evolved and, as a citizen, I have the right to know it. I’m even happy to know that. Afterwards, I will govern myself accordingly…
Or not.
What the report advocates is spreading the new knowledge in the public sphere, which would include mandatory information on the labels of alcohol containers, such as what constitutes a “standard drink” and the effects of alcohol. about health.
Example of a label on a bottle of wine: This bottle contains five standard 142ml glasses; to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease, it is recommended to drink no more than six glasses (for men) and two glasses (for women), weekly.
Afterwards, as I was saying, people are free to adapt – or not – their consumption. But what is essential is that the information reaches citizens, so that we can make informed choices.
I believe that is not the case now. I did not know this data until Tuesday, when I read in The Press Mylène Crête’s text on the CCSA study4. I didn’t know that more than six drinks a week put me at great risk of developing serious health problems.
While cannabis has been discussed from all angles, alcohol is the subject of very little debate. In his recent documentary5 blow the ballthe journalist Hugo Meunier has tackled the more harmful side of alcohol than we think, but otherwise, the collective attitude is more about “moderation tastes much better” than “the more you drink, the more the cancer is eyeing you”…
Alcohol is a drug, I said. I’m not saying this to demonize, just to put things in perspective, as the CCSA report does (page 57): alcohol is a leading preventable cause of death (18,000 in 2017), disability and accidents. In 2016, an estimated 77,000 people were hospitalized solely because of alcohol in the country.
Cannabis direct annual costs: $3.2 billion.
Direct annual opioid costs: $5.9 billion.
Direct annual costs related to tobacco: 12.3 billion.
Direct annual costs related to alcohol: 16.7 billion, including 5.4 billion in health care.
Let’s drink, but let’s drink knowingly.
And for the moment, we drink a little in a kind of naive ignorance.