Or Does Alcohol Damage your Health?
For a long time there has been a common misconception that one drink of alcohol is good for your health. Perhaps there are anti-oxidants in red wine that are good for us, or maybe it is good to relax and unwind with a cold beer at the end of a busy day. If this is the case, then there is no doubt that we could drink grape juice instead of wine, and do meditation instead of beer. Because that would deliver the same effect of the alcoholic beverages.
But we don’t want to do that – it seems we really just want a green light to go ahead and drink alcohol. There is no point trying to deny it, alcohol is addictive, and when we drink it, we always want to drink more alcohol.
Does Alcohol help you Live Longer?
The short answer is NO! The previous theory that moderate drinking was good for health was a myth, and the reality is that one drink a day does damage your health. The reason is because when we drink, the alcohol is metabolized within the body to an even more harmful chemical called acetaldehyde. This nasty by product of alcohol has been proven to be a grade 1 carcinogenic substance, and it is harmful in the body, even at low levels. There are many cancers that have been linked to alcohol consumption, such as prostate cancer, breast cancer, oral cancers, throat cancers, liver cancer, stomach and colon cancers.
How does one drink a day damage your health?
The problem with drinking alcohol is that you can’t avoid the nasty by products of alcohol in the body. Even at low levels, there is an increase of the exposure to acetaldehyde. The bad news is that the risk of cancer increases exponentially with every additional drink. This is the primary reason why binge drinking is so dangerous. With increased levels of acetaldehyde, the risk of developing cancers later in life is a dangerous reality.
Prostate Cancer
One of the proven examples of the increased risk of developing cancer is prostate cancer. For many years, there has been a correlation between alcohol consumption and the risk of men developing prostate cancer. Recently, it has been found that even very low level drinking, raises the risk of men developing prostate cancer, compared with someone who does not drink alcohol.
Does Alcohol help you Live Longer?
There is a growing body of evidence that shows a linear relationship between drinking alcohol and an increased cancer risk. That means that there is a direct causal response between every drink of alcohol and an increased risk of cancer. How does one drink a day damage your health – there is a slightly increased risk. For excessive alcohol consumption, there is a much higher cancer risk.
Does one drink a day damage your health due to cancer?
The problem with drinking alcohol is not restricted to a single cancer risk. There are many types of cancers that represent an increased risk even from one drink of alcohol. And the problem is the same for man as well as women, except that man have a risk of prostate cancer, whereas for women, there is an increased risk of breast cancer with alcohol. The other cancers such as oral cancers, throat cancers, liver cancer, stomach cancer and colorectal cancers are the same for both men and women, and at approximately the same risk.
How about the health guidelines – Does Alcohol help you Live Longer?
According to the National Health and Medical Research Council’s alcohol guidelines, you should not exceed two standard drinks of alcohol per day. So these guidelines acknowledge the risk of drinking alcohol, but recommend that you never exceed the low level exposure to alcohol. Rather than giving the green light to drink alcohol, these guidelines are placing a upper limit on the consumption of alcohol. And of course, the measurement of a standard drink is rather more strict than most people observe.
How about drinking on weekends only?
The guidelines represent a spread of alcohol at low levels, and also state that you cannot save up all of these drinks to have all at once at the weekend. This is even more damaging to your health. We need to be wary that when we go to parties or social events, we tend to drink more than normal. It can be very easy to exceed the safe limit of alcohol consumption, and find ourselves at a higher risk of alcohol.
Does one drink a day damage your health – there is no safe level
The reality about alcohol is that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.
Thinking about cutting back on alcohol?
If you are one of the many people who enjoy a drink and worry how does one drink a day damage your health, then there may be a lot to think about in this article. If you are worried about the risk of getting cancer in the future, the good news is that if you take action now, you can reduce the risk substantially.
Click here to see how to stop drinking, and how to reduce the risk of damaging your health and help you live longer.