Does drinking in moderation add years to your life? Heart doctor explains

Does drinking in moderation add years to your life? Heart doctor explains We've all heard this. When it comes to alcohol and our health, we've all heard so many different things over the years. They range on one hand from alcohol being good for you in moderation and red wine having health benefits to all alcohol being bad for you. So what is the truth? Well, the reality is that when it comes to health and nutrition, scientists are learning new things all the time. So just because something was previously believed to be the case doesn't mean new research and evidence can't change what we think. And this is certainly true with alcohol. Dr Jeremy London is a heart surgeon who is board-certified in general surgery, vascular surgery and thoracic surgery, and regularly posts advice on social media and in interviews. He directly answered the question: does drinking in moderation add years to your life? Is drinking in moderation good for you? "That used to be the story: a glass of wine a day and you would live longer," said Dr London on his TikTok account. "And I'm not here to tell you that a single drink is going to hurt you. I'm going to tell you that the story is incomplete. "The studies that looked at this compared drinkers to non-drinkers, and many of those non-drinkers had quit drinking because they were already sick so the flaw is that the moderate drinkers looked like they were actually healthier. If you remove this flaw then the benefit shrinks dramatically. "Here's what I can tell you doesn't shrink: when you drink alcohol you convert it to acetaldehyde, a compound that directly damages DNA. Now, agencies that place tobacco as a carcinogen also put acetaldehyde in this same category. "So have any of these agencies found a benefit to drinking alcohol? The short answer is no. What they have identified is that a little is better than a lot and none is better than a little. So what I ask is make informed decisions. If you're going to drink, don't drink because you think it's going to add years to your life." But Eric Rimm, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, said: "There's good evidence that, in general, moderate drinkers who average one to two drinks a day tend to live longer. Whether that is directly linked with alcohol, other lifestyle factors, or some combination is still being explored." In a previous video, Dr London said: "Hate to break it to you [but it's] toxic. Toxic to every cell in your body. Your body, your rules, you decide for yourself. For me personally removing alcohol from my life has probably been one of the most transformative decisions I've made as an adult." But despite what he believes about alcohol, Dr London has saved his fiercest criticism for a different kind of drink, which he called "liquid death". He added: "Just don't drink them. Period. Done." Does alcohol cause cancer? There are only two foods that are believed to be direct causes of cancer: alcohol and processed meats. Cancer Research UK says: "We know for definite that processed meat is a cause of cancer. We are as sure of this link as we are for other proven causes of cancer, like tobacco and alcohol. "Drinking alcohol doesn’t mean that you’ll definitely get cancer, but the risk is higher the more alcohol you drink. People might talk about some alcoholic drinks being better or worse for you than others. But all types of alcohol increase the risk of cancer as it’s the alcohol itself that causes damage, even in small amounts." In a recent report, the then-surgeon general of the US Public Health Service warned that alcohol use had been directly linked with at least seven types of cancers. They were cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, oesophagus, breast, liver and colon and rectum. He also warned that even light or moderate alcohol consumption can increase a person’s risk of cancer. “There is no safe level of alcohol when it comes to cancer risk,” Dr Ernest Hawk, the vice president and head of the division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, told the New York Times. Is red wine good for you? When it comes to alcoholic drinks, red wine is usually the one highlighted as having particular health benefits. This is because it is associated with the Mediterranean diet (which has been labelled the world's healthiest diet) and because it contains polyphenols and antioxidants, which are known to have a range of health benefits. However, as the British Heart Foundation explains.: "Other foods – including grapes, blueberries and strawberries – provide antioxidants without the negative effects of alcohol." BHF-funded research published in 2018 looking at the effect of alcohol consumption on heart and circulatory diseases concluded that the risks outweigh the benefits, and drinking more than the recommended limits will have a negative effect on your health. The BHF concluded: "It’s therefore not a good idea to drink wine to protect your heart."