Is life span closely related to drinking? A survey of 11,558 drinkers finally revealed the answer

During holidays, it is not uncommon to hear news of people being sent to the hospital due to excessive drinking. Behind the lively drinking, there are health risks that cannot be ignored.

Long-term drinking is harmful to the body silently. From liver damage to cardiovascular disease, from digestive system problems to nervous system damage, the effects of alcohol are everywhere. What is more worrying is that excessive drinking may significantly shorten life expectancy and even cause irreversible health problems.

Today, let’s talk about the relationship between drinking and life expectancy, as well as how to treat drinking scientifically and protect our health.

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The more you drink when you reach middle age, the faster you age!

Klotho is a longevity factor that decreases with age. In a study of experimental mice, it was found that Klotho can enhance the cognitive function and synaptic function of experimental mice, and at the same time has a certain improvement function on Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, aging, etc.

Klotho is also considered a biomarker of aging. A study published in the journal BMC Public Health by a research team from the Central Theater Command General Hospital also found a relationship between Klotho and alcohol consumption.

This study mainly selected a total of 50,588 participants from the NHANES database from 2007 to 2016. After excluding factors such as disease status, age and missing data, a total of 11,558 people were finally included in the study.

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The researchers mainly used 4 multivariate linear regression models to evaluate the relationship between participants' daily alcohol consumption and serum α-Klotho. The results showed that moderate to heavy drinkers had significantly lower α-Klotho levels.

After adjusting for age, race, and sex, the negative correlation between alcohol consumption and α-Klotho levels remained. When compared with non-drinkers, current light drinkers and former light drinkers also had significantly lower α-klotho levels.

In addition, alcohol intake was also negatively correlated with serum α-klotho levels in subgroups divided by gender, age, BMI, hypertension, and cancer. However, the researchers also found that the relationship between the two was not obvious in patients with heart disease, chronic kidney disease, and cancer.

The researchers have reason to believe that there is a negative correlation between current moderate to heavy drinking and serum α-klotho levels in the elderly, suggesting that drinking can induce aging by regulating serum α-klotho.

A little drinking can help you feel better, but is being a little tipsy less harmful?

In November 2023, an analysis of the drinking big data of 510,000 Chinese people by researchers from Peking University in a sub-journal of The Lancet pointed out that the claim that moderate drinking is good for health does not exist at all . The so-called "moderate drinking is good for health" and "being tipsy is healthier" are all delusions.

In January 2022, the World Heart Federation released a briefing called "The Impact of Alcohol Consumption on Cardiovascular Health: Myths and Measures", which also broke people's illusions about alcohol: the evidence is clear that any level of drinking can cause you to lose your healthy life. Even drinking a small amount of alcohol can increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as stroke, coronary heart disease, heart failure, and cardiomyopathy.

The briefing also bluntly stated that the claim that "red wine is good for heart health" is also a lie, and most of the so-called "beneficial" studies are actually sponsored by alcohol companies.

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There is also a survey study from the University of Pennsylvania on 40,000 healthy people aged 40 to 69. After controlling factors such as age, gender, and height, the researchers found that consuming 0 to 1 unit of alcohol per day may have little effect on the brain, but consuming 1 to 2 or more units of alcohol per day will reduce the volume of gray matter and white matter in the brain. The more alcohol you drink, the more obvious the change in brain volume and the more serious the impact on the brain.

As early as 2019, a Korean study published in the European Journal of Cardiology sorted out and analyzed relevant information of 9.78 million people. Compared with people who occasionally "drink a lot", regular and small amounts of drinking are more harmful than alcoholism and are more likely to increase the risk of atrial fibrillation. For every 1 ml increase in weekly alcohol consumption, the risk of atrial fibrillation will increase by 2%.

Alcohol has been classified as a Class 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization . Even a small amount can harm the body and increase the risk of cancer or other chronic diseases. In real life, it is really difficult to grasp the so-called "moderate" drinking, so from a health perspective, it is best not to drink at all.

Drinking is unavoidable, how to reduce the harm?

Many people can't help drinking too much, which can easily lead to accidents and even life-threatening situations. For example, people who are drunk cannot control their bodies and fall or get injured, or they drive under the influence and cause serious traffic accidents; people who are drunk and vomit violently and then inhale alcohol may suffocate and die; alcohol can dilate blood vessels and speed up heat dissipation, which can easily cause hypothermia and lead to accidental death, etc.

It is indeed difficult to abstain from alcohol in life, but if you really cannot avoid drinking, then drink as little as possible, and do the following four things before drinking to reduce the harm of alcohol to the body:

1

Don't drink on an empty stomach

Eating high-protein, high-fat or high-carbohydrate foods , such as bread, yogurt, etc. before drinking can slow down the blood's absorption of alcohol, avoid getting drunk too quickly, and reduce alcohol's irritation to the esophagus or stomach.

2

Don't mix them.

Do not mix different types of alcohol. Not only will it make people drink too much without realizing it, but mixing two or more types of alcohol will produce a synergistic effect and cause greater harm to the body.

3

Pay attention to control

The Chinese Dietary Guidelines recommend that adults should not drink more than 15g of alcohol per day. Drinking more than 15g is considered excessive drinking. 15g of alcohol is equivalent to 450ml of beer, 150ml of red wine, and 30ml of white wine.

4

Drink some water when you drink alcohol

Drinking some water while drinking can reduce the discomfort caused by alcohol dehydration. Note that the water here is boiled water, not beverages or tea. Beverages will accelerate the rate of blood absorption of alcohol, while tea will make people excited and drink more alcohol.

When many adults are drunk, they can't help but ask their children to drink a little, or use chopsticks to dip some wine for babies to taste. In fact, this is very undesirable. Children's nervous system and organs are still in the development stage and are more sensitive to alcohol. Even a small amount of alcohol may cause intellectual development disorders, or cause serious consequences such as epilepsy, liver and kidney damage.

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Source: 39 Health Network (ID: health39net)

Reviewer: Zhang Na, Associate Researcher, Doctoral Supervisor, Peking University School of Public Health

Editor: Wang Mengru

Proofread by Xu Lailinlin