Alcohol is tied to nearly 3 million deaths globally each year: Study

Drinking alcohol in moderation is more harmful than previously thought, according to a new study that concludes there's no "safe" level of alcohol consumption.

The comprehensive study, which analyzed information from millions of people in nearly 200 countries, found that alcohol is tied to nearly 3 million deaths globally each year, with about 1 in 10 deaths linked to alcohol use among people ages 15 to 49.

What's more, any protective health effects of alcohol were offset by the drink's risk, including strong links between alcohol consumption and the risk of cancer and injuries such as those resulting from car accidents.

"The widely held view of the health benefits of alcohol needs revising," the researchers wrote in their paper, published n the journal The Lancet. "Our results show that the safest level of drinking is none."

The findings contrast with most health guidelines, which say that moderate drinking — about one drink a day for women and two for men — is safe.

No "safe" level

The study analyzed information from nearly 700 previous studies to estimate how common drinking alcohol is worldwide, and examined almost another 600 studies including a total of 28 million people to investigate the health risks tied to alcohol.

The researchers found that, globally, about 1 in 3 people (32.5 percent) drink alcohol, which is equivalent to 2.4 billion people worldwide, including 25 percent of women and 39 percent of men.

Worldwide, drinking alcohol was the seventh-leading risk factor for early death in 2016, accounting for about 2 percent of deaths in women and 7 percent of deaths in men. For people ages 15 to 49, alcohol consumption was tied to 4 percent of deaths for women and 12 percent for men in 2016.

Source: Live Science

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