What Is The Truth About Alcohol?

Is moderate alcohol consumption good or bad for you? Does it really make a difference? Michael Mosley investigates.

16:56 11 January 2016

For several years, there have been continuing debates about the benefits or otherwise of alcohol consumption, leaving people wondering if it is really bad or good for the health.

 

Michael Mosley investigated the issue and interviewed some experts to find the answer.

 

Prof Tim Stockwell, director of the Centre for Addiction Research at the University of Victoria in Canada, said: "There's 60 different ways at least that alcohol can make you unwell or kill you. It's not just the obvious things like liver disease. A man drinking three to four units a day increases his risk of developing prostate cancer by 23%. Alcohol, at whatever level, raises a woman's risk of breast cancer. There'd be 10% fewer deaths from breast cancer worldwide if there was no drinking."

 

Meanwhile, Dr Alexander Jones, a consultant cardiologist and clinical scientist at University College London, agrees that alcohol raises the risk of a wide range of cancers but believes that a small amount of alcohol can be beneficial for the heart.

 

"Heavy drinkers," he told me, "have a much higher risk of developing heart disease than non-drinkers, but there are large prospective studies involving thousands of people in different parts of the world which show that if you drink modest amounts of alcohol, up to say two units of alcohol a day, then you are less likely to develop coronary heart disease or stroke later on in life."