Only the over-55s `gain from alcohol'

Moderate drinking can prolong life but the benefits are marginal according to a new study. The protective effects are only seen in the over-55s because alcohol reduces the risk of death from coronary artery disease.

This latest study analysed published population data on death rates and alcohol consumption in England and Wales, recorded in 1996 and 1998 respectively. The figures were used to calculate the years of life lost and years gained from drinking alcohol. The work, by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is published this morning in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

It showed that alcohol reduced overall death rates by about 2 per cent, with the gains greater in men over 55 and women over 65, a time when the risk of heart disease is higher.

Men who drank had 2.8 per cent fewer deaths and women who had a tipple had 0.9 per cent fewer deaths.

The authors pointed out, however, that to benefit in health terms men should not begin drinking until after the age of 34. Women should avoid drink until they are 54.

Drinking before this increases the risk of death from diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver and breast cancer and so reduces life expectancy. It also increases the risk of alcohol-associated death due to car accidents, accidental falls and other mishaps.

The amounts needed to benefit health are also conservative, so the new study is no licence to imbibe. To benefit, men should not consume more than eight units (four pints of beer or eight glasses of wine) a week while women should keep consumption down to just three units a week.

The report showed that 75,000 years of life were lost prematurely because of alcohol, much of this among men under the age of 44. For this group avoiding alcohol would be a way to prolong life.

Yet for older people, a tipple now and again was seen to prolong life.

The researchers used the statistics as found but raised doubts about their accuracy. UK government estimates of the number of annual deaths from alcohol published in Our Healthier Nation in 1998 were a "misrepresentation" of the actual figures, they conclude.