Briefly: Alcohol damage is determined by the dose beyond which damage to internal organs begins - the toxicity threshold.To maintain health, the body must have time to recover after drinking: to do this, you should drink no more than 170 grams of pure alcohol no more than once every 8 days.The benefit of moderate doses of alcohol may be that the body mobilizes in response to small doses of harmful substances.Dry red wine and unpasteurized beer contain useful impurities: vitamins, antioxidants, trace elements that are useful in small doses and harmful in large doses.
"Drinking too much is harmful, but drinking too little is boring."
What is moderate drinking?
As for pure ethanol toxicity threshold (ie, the dose at which organ damage begins) for the liver is 90 g (285 ml of vodka) per day, for the brain - 19 g (60 ml of vodka) per day.This means a person of white race with a healthy liver, kidneys and brain and with a body weight of 70 kg.
But it is not difficult to calculate that 90 grams of pure alcohol are contained in an incomplete glass of vodka.If you imagine a person who drinks a glass of vodka every day, then if he has a hereditary predisposition, he will develop alcohol addiction in six to eight months, and in the absence of a hereditary predisposition, in three years.Not to mention the fact that after a couple of months the dose of alcohol will increase continuously.
The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that the weekly consumption of strong alcoholic beverages (more than 25 vol.% ethanol) in an amount of more than 150 ml is sufficient to form alcohol dependence.
Note: if a person has suffered from viral hepatitis (except hepatitis A), or has other chronic liver diseases, then the safe dose for the liver during the period without exacerbation is reduced by two to three times.This depends on the volume of the affected part of the organ and the nature of the process.The nature of the process and the extent of the lesion can only be assessed individually.
Therefore, let's calculate what the drinking regime should be for this, so that the body has time to recover: the body of a healthy person cannot metabolize alcohol in an amount of more than 170 g per day (538 ml of vodka). One day of drinking alcohol to restore the liver should be alternated with eight days of abstinence. Thus, the "acceptable" dose per month will be (31/(1+8))*170 (g) in terms of pure alcohol, i.e. 586 grams.For comparison: a standard bottle of vodka contains 316 grams of alcohol.
If you drink more than 170 grams in terms of alcohol, then you need to increase the intervals between drinking sessions - this is the only way to reduce the damage.
To sum it all up, let's try to imagine three people drinking once every 8 days.Anyone who exceeds the threshold of 170 grams of alcohol will have damage to the liver and other organs: kidneys, stomach, pancreas, lungs, retina.Anyone who drinks from 90 to 170 grams is at risk of fatty liver degeneration (and if there is a violation of the flow of bile or hepatitis, then cirrhosis).Anyone who drinks between 19 and 90 grams of pure alcohol will only damage the brain.
With the development of medicine, doctors' recommendations are gradually changing.A professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London talks about this interestingly in his book "To Drink or Not to Drink?"(2020).First of all, the damage of alcohol to the liver and cardiovascular system was obvious.Recently, British doctors allowed men to drink up to 21 drinks (standard units of alcohol), and women - up to 14 drinks per week.Of course, the drinkers did not particularly try to stay within these limits: after all, if 14 drinks do not cause damage to the liver, then would the damage suddenly start from a dose two or three times larger?The liver seems unable to count.
In the 21st century, we have learned much more.Accurate scientific research has confirmed that even very small doses of alcohol damage the brain and increase the risk of cancer.This is much more serious.Scientists have discovered that there is no absolutely safe amount of alcohol;we can only talk about doses "with a low level of health risk".In 2016, British doctors equated this dose for men and women, because from small doses of alcohol the risk level for both sexes is the same, and if it is exceeded, the risk for men increases faster.Now everyone is recommended to drink no more than 14 drinks a week: this is 1 liter of 4% beer or 6 glasses of wine with a strength of 13% (glass of 175 ml).Moreover, you should extend this amount of drinks throughout the week and not drink every day.
Is it better for your health to drink less often or to drink more moderately?
For light-haired, light-skinned, light-eyed people of European descent, if you don't want to give up drinking, it's best to drink less often (in the short-term drinking regimen).Less often means no more than once a month, which is because of the risk of developing addiction quickly with regular drinking.For dark-skinned, dark-haired, dark-eyed people, the drinking regime is of no essential importance, provided that the ethanol doses are respected.
How different peoples tolerate alcohol
You should also keep in mind that Caucasians with dark skin and dark hair (Mongoloids are a separate issue) develop addiction during regular sessions of alcohol much more slowly than people with light skin and light hair.
This is due to the fact that dark-skinned and dark-skinned people carry the genes of peoples of southern origin.Peoples of southern origin were formed in the conditions of eating large amounts of fruits and berries that contained a lot of glucose, grape acid, fiber and pectin.In the large intestine, these compounds undergo alcoholic fermentation, so the body has adapted to microdoses of ethanol over many generations.
Light-skinned and light-haired people carry the genes of northern peoples, who evolutionarily consumed animal foods and vegetables that produce mainly lactic acid fermentation.For northerners, alcohol turns out to be a xenobiotic (foreign substance), and addiction to it is formed through other mechanisms, very similar to addiction to other weak poisons.
Where did humans get the ability to metabolize alcohol?
All mammals have the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which breaks down alcohol, but it processes ethyl alcohol with great difficulty, although it copes with other alcohols much better.If a person had inherited exactly this type of biochemistry from animals, then we would not be attracted to drinking: even the smallest doses of alcohol, which are found in ripe fruits, would cause severe intoxication in the body, not to mention strong drinks.
However, scientists managed to discover that our ancestors, after the evolutionary branch of orangutans split from them, but before we split with gorillas and chimpanzees, a special subtype of this enzyme appeared - alcohol dehydrogenase of the "fourth class" (ADH4).A small mutation in the genome of our ancestors changed the 294th amino acid of the enzyme and made it possible for their bodies to process ripe fruit that fell to the ground and eliminated the need to climb trees for unripe fruit.
So, 10 million years ago, the ability to process alcohol helped us come down from the trees and start exploring open spaces to become homo erectus.And, as often happens in evolution, this ability was later used for completely different purposes.
The benefits of wine - truth or myth
primary the benefits of alcoholic beverages comes of course from dry red wine.Dry wine is a product of grape fermentation (fruit and berry wines are not wines in the strict sense), in which all the sugar contained in the grapes is fermented by microorganisms into alcohol.The only sugar that ferments is that found naturally in grapes.Therefore, the ethanol content in dry wines, as a rule, does not exceed 13%.
The health benefits mainly come from dry red wine. powerful antioxidant.It helps lower cholesterol levels and is also 10-20 times stronger than vitamin E as an antioxidant.Dry red wine contains approximately 3 times more resveratrol than grape juice from the same grape varieties.
For reference, antioxidants are substances that can neutralize the so-called active radicals, which are constantly formed in the body and are considered one of the aging factors.However, it should be noted that powerful antioxidants are not an absolute benefit: they can also protect against cancer and cause cancer.Their excessive use carries risks in itself.
Dry red wine also contains a number of valuable trace elements, for example, rubidium, which has a soothing, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effect.
It should be borne in mind that an excess of rubidium is more harmful to the body than its lack, so daily consumption of dry red in large quantities will not bring any benefit.
A separate article should be devoted to the question of whether wine is good for the heart.Unfortunately, claims that the so-called Mediterranean diet is good for the heart due to moderate amounts of dry red wine have been proven false.
We must also disappoint those who believed that drinking in small doses could prevent atherosclerosis.No, all modern scientific data points to the opposite.A healthy dose of dry red wine is three glasses (approximately 450 ml) per week.
Is beer healthy?
Another alcoholic beverage that can be said to be capable of providing health benefits can be considered beer.We are talking, first of all, about unpasteurized beer, the so-called "live", which prevailed in the country 20 years ago, and is now a rarity.
Beer contains yeast products, including B vitaminsalthough in quantities that do not meet daily requirements;zinc, which is a valuable trace element needed for insulin synthesis.The condition of the skin and the reproductive system depends on the zinc content.Hops components - natural analogs of benzodiazepine sedatives - have a calming effect, especially in combination with phytoestrogens, plant analogs of female sex hormones of the follicular phase.Hops in moderate doses have a calming effect.
The limit for a healthy dose of beer is approximately 600 ml per day.However, the daily consumption of beer for several years leads to the formation of addiction in light-skinned, light-eyed, light-haired people, including due to the sedative content.Beer addiction develops more unnoticed and is more difficult to treat compared to "pure" alcohol addiction, which developed, for example, as a result of an addiction to vodka.
The effect of hermesis (hormesis)
Regarding other alcoholic drinks, we can say that the benefit of their moderate consumption is the effect of the so-called. hermesis (hormesis) - a mobilizing reaction of the body to a harmful effect in a small dose.
What kind of password is this? Let's figure it out now
This effect is as follows: our body tries to remain the same, regardless of external influences (homeostasis), and therefore, in response to the introduction of poison, it makes efforts directed in the opposite direction to the external influence.If the external influence is not excessive, then a mobilizing reaction is achieved (the usual stages of increasing influence are activation, training, stress).That is, you can take any harmful effect of alcohol and change the sign of the effect to the opposite.
This effect does not appear for moderate, but rather small doses of alcohol: no more than 50 ml of vodka (one tablespoon of alcohol), no more than twice a week.
By the way, this effect exists for any harmful effect, and is usually studied using radiation.
Does alcohol protect against radiation?
Is it true that alcohol protects against radiation?For example, after a radioactive explosion there were stories about how radiation sickness was treated with vodka.Is this true?
Alcohol is an antioxidant.When the body is irradiated, active radicals are formed that damage cells.Antioxidants neutralize active radicals.Therefore, while alcohol is not oxidized, it has an anti-radiation effect to some extent.Alcohol oxidation products themselves have a harmful effect similar to the action of active radicals.It will not be possible to treat radiation sickness that has already occurred with vodka (except symptomatically).
That is, vodka prevention of radiation sickness can look like this: drink a glass and proceed through the radiation zone.And at the exit - immediately under an IV.
On the contrary, before exposure to ionizing radiation, it makes sense to consume dry red wine prophylactically;it is a much more reliable antioxidant.
Does alcohol damage your hearing?
Australian scientists say that regularly drinking small amounts of alcohol can help people preserve their hearing in the future.From 1997 to 1999, they surveyed and surveyed two thousand residents in the Sydney area who were over 55 years old.
It turned out that people who regularly consumed up to 56 grams of pure alcohol per day throughout their lives (and this is the amount contained in 180 ml of vodka, or 600 ml of wine, or 1440 ml of beer) are less likely to develop hearing problems in old age.Perhaps the reason lies in the vasodilating effect of alcohol, which improves blood flow to the outer cells of the ear.
However, scientists note that the main thing in this matter is not to overdo it: patients who drink excessively (consuming more than 56 grams of pure alcohol per day) have much more serious hearing problems than absolute abstainers.
Does alcohol save you from depression?
In 2013, a large study was completed in the city of Pamplona, Spain.After extensive work with 5,500 volunteers, scientists concluded that moderate consumption - 5 to 15 grams of pure alcohol per day - reduces the risk of depression.Particularly good results were observed in those who drank wine in quantities of 2 to 7 glasses (150 ml) per week.
Those who drank more than that, by contrast, had a higher-than-normal risk of developing depression.Depression and bad mood should not be confused.Major depressive disorder is a disease that manifests with long-term depression and - this is the main difference - with depression without a cause of mood, with mental and motor retardation, as well as with the inability and unwillingness to enjoy natural things such as food or sex (anhedonia).
Why do creative people drink?
Creative people sometimes notice that after drinking, amazing new ideas come to them.Why is this happening?
Once in the body, alcohol causes the process of apoptosis: the death of brain cells.As a result, some elements are disconnected from the neural network, synaptic connections are broken and then partially restored.Some links are formed according to a new pattern.Here insight is possible, since all knowledge and understanding is the passage of electrical signals in the brain along a certain path.
However, such knowledge is a happy accident that can happen in the first years of drinking.It will not be possible to achieve this on purpose, because we do not know the death of which specific neuron will lead to the construction of a more successful "path of thought".It is much more likely that the death of neurons will lead to a decrease in mental abilities, and regular drinking will lead to alcoholism.
What is healthier: drinking in moderation or not drinking at all?
Research showing the benefits of moderate drinking is fundamentally flawed.So says a group of scientists from the USA, Canada and Australia.
Scientists analyzed 87 studies.According to their results, moderate drinkers were healthier than non-drinkers.It turns out that most of these studies cannot be trusted.
The main drawback of these studies was that the group of non-drinkers included everyone: both those who could not drink for health reasons, and those who drank so much before that they later decided to stop in order not to become an alcoholic.It turns out that a group of abstainers usually consists of people with initially poor health, impaired by alcohol or serious illness.And the group of moderate consumers includes people who do not suffer from alcohol addiction and are generally healthy, so they can afford to drink as much as they want.
This is why at the end of the study it turns out that moderate drinkers are healthier than absolute abstainers. The scientists looked again at previous studies and found such people who drink infrequently and irregularly.It turned out that they live longer than the study participants with moderate drinking.Their life expectancy was, on average, longer than moderate drinkers, than non-drinkers, and even longer than heavy drinkers.
He did not live to see the search
When studying mortality from alcohol, elderly patients are selected for study: over 50 years old.While alcoholics often die at an earlier age.But "dead people cannot be included in group studies," as a doctor of medical sciences from the Boston Medical Center (USA) comments.
Drinkers over 50 are people who accidentally survived due to particularly good health, genetics, consumption of less dangerous alcoholic beverages, etc.That is why patients with such good health, which even alcohol could not destroy, live even longer than abstainers and thus spoil all statistics.It's just that the most resilient stayed alive, the rest of the alcoholics died earlier, but we don't consider young people in mortality studies.
Naimi, along with Tanya Chikritz, already known to us, and other colleagues published new data in 2019. They analyzed statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the years 2006–2010 in the United States.It turned out that more than 40% of deaths from alcohol occur before the age of 50.
Drinking turned out to be less dangerous for people over 65: although 35% of alcohol-related deaths also occur at this age, drinkers of this age are 80% less likely to die prematurely (before the expected expected age).So if you read an article about how drinkers live longer than non-drinkers, know that this pattern only applies to older people.Young alcoholics are more likely to die young.
Can alcohol be helpful?Research results
In 1999, a Dutch doctor conducted a study, the results of which suggest that moderate drinking is beneficial for the cardiovascular system.Myocardial infarction occurred the least in patients who drank alcohol in moderate doses: from 14 to 56 grams of pure alcohol per day, which is less than a glass of vodka.
In absolute abstainers, the risk of myocardial infarction was even slightly higher and in alcohol abusers it was significantly higher.At the same time, the choice of drinks did not play a role: wine, beer and alcoholic beverages in moderation reduced the risk of heart disease.An extensive article was published in the British Medical Journal about this and other studies on this topic in 2017.
The researchers suggested the same U-shaped dependence of the incidence of brain diseases on the amount of alcohol.That is, brain diseases occur slightly more often in nondrinkers, rarely in moderate drinkers, and much more often in heavy drinkers. In this case, it turns out that even small doses of alcohol only damage the brain.In general, it is not yet possible to say with certainty whether moderate drinking can be beneficial or whether alcohol is harmful to us in any amount.
Studies can show different results and that's normal: health and longevity are influenced by thousands and thousands of factors (diet, habits, sports, climate, genes, whatever).Isolating the influence of one of them is a difficult task that requires a large number of subjects, refined methodology and a lot of patience.It is often difficult to distinguish results from statistical noise.
What can be said for sure is that if there are benefits of small doses of alcohol, then they are barely noticeable against the background of everything else that affects the body.But the harm from alcohol, unfortunately, is immediately detected and does not raise any doubts among researchers.Thus, if the main thing for you is to maintain health, then it is better not to drink at all than to try to improve your body with small doses of alcohol.
Alcohol producers can bribe scientists
In the summer of 2018, a scandal broke out in the United States: the National Institute of Health (N.I.H.) was going to spend 100 million dollars on a large-scale study on the benefits of small doses of alcohol.However, officials intercepted correspondence between the researchers and representatives of the alcohol industry.It turned out that most of the money was taken from the alcohol producers and the results of the study were predetermined.As a result, the study was cancelled.
It must be said that such news should not be surprising: quite often, research on the benefits of a certain product is sponsored by manufacturers.For example, some companies pay for most of the research on the benefits of cocoa, while others sponsor research on the benefits of yogurt.This is not a direct bribe, and anyone can see who ordered the research.Another thing is that manufacturers can present the results in a favorable light.For example, publish only those studies that show the benefits of cocoa and then say that not only cocoa is healthy, but also chocolate made from it (which is not true).So we have another reason to be critical of what is written about science in the press.
To finally put an end to this issue, scientists are trying to find out if moderate drinkers live longer than non-drinkers.