Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 28, 1994 TAG: 9401280090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
The study by experts at the University of Copenhagen and the city's Municipal Hospital ties very moderate alcohol consumption to a lower mortality rate, supporting earlier findings of the American Cancer Society. Previous research suggested moderate drinking reduced the risk of heart disease.
The Danish study, published today in the British Medical Journal, followed 13,285 men and women aged 30 to 79 who reported their intake of all forms of alcohol over 10 years. Of those, 2,229 died during the study period.
The lowest risk was observed for those people who had one to six alcoholic drinks a week. Abstainers had a 37 percent higher mortality rate.
Those who consumed more than 42 drinks a week had a 44 percent higher risk. And those consuming more than 70 drinks a week had a death rate nearly one and one-third times higher.
The researchers took into account smoking and body weight, and found they had little or no effect on these rates.
A previous American Cancer Society study indicated that people who had one drink a day had a lower mortality rate than abstainers. Two-a-day drinkers had a slightly higher rate than the one-a-days, but still lower than the teetotalers.
Epidemiologist Eric Rimm of the Harvard School of Public Health said the Danish study was "another important investigation of the association between alcohol and total mortality."
But he cautioned that it was "important to stress that people who currently do not drink alcohol should not start because of these results."
"There is plenty of evidence suggesting that some people who start drinking aren't able to drink in a controlled fashion and go on to become alcoholics."
by CNB