It is a common statement that “small amounts of alcohol are good for health”, and if you search medical databases, you can find a lot of research data to support this idea. In some epidemiological studies, a subtle correlation has been found between alcohol consumption and health indicators such as mortality and cardiovascular disease risk: the data curve appears to fall and then rise in a “J-shape”, and it appears that a group of people who consume a small amount of alcohol have a lower risk than those who do not. However, such a conclusion has been controversial. Recently, a new study has questioned it. The researchers analyzed that the data from the previous study was not reliable, and that the phenomenon of “small amounts of alcohol are healthier than no alcohol” may be an artifact of a flawed study. The J-shaped curve, in which health risk falls and then rises with the amount of alcohol consumed, has been seen in many of these studies. Is it healthier to drink less? It could be faulty research methodology The J-shaped curve appears quite frequently in epidemiologic studies of alcohol consumption, in which people in the small-drinking group had fewer heart attacks, less deafness, fewer broken bones, and even less cirrhosis of the liver than those in the non-drinking group, which is unbelievable. So they suspected that the studies were actually methodologically flawed – for example, the way they delineated the groupings for the subjects. In these studies, grouping people by how much they drink is a very important step, and the assessment of alcohol consumption should take into account both present and past conditions. Some former drinkers may have developed health problems as a result and decided to stop drinking later. If the study only asks about current drinking, then these ex-drinkers may be incorrectly categorized as “non-drinkers,” and as a result, the overall health of the “non-drinking group” may be lowered. Are you a non-drinker or have you stopped drinking? This is important for the results of the study. To verify this, the researchers searched a database of 87 past studies and evaluated their methodology. It turned out that there was indeed a general lack of reliability in the methodology, with only 13 of the studies ensuring that abstainers and occasional drinkers were correctly grouped. If the “unreliable” studies were excluded and only higher quality data were analyzed, the original “J-curve” trend was no longer apparent. That is to say, in those more reliable studies, the phenomenon of “a small amount of alcohol is healthier than no alcohol” does not appear. From this analysis, there is reason to be skeptical about the “health benefits of a little alcohol” and the research behind it. In future studies, researchers need to avoid bias as much as possible. Having said that, can you drink alcohol and how much can you drink? There is no “safe dose” of alcohol, but following the recommended limits can keep the risk low. If you don’t drink, don’t deliberately start drinking for reasons such as to “revitalize the blood” or “help you sleep”. In the end, the less you drink, the better. According to the current domestic standards, it is recommended that the daily alcohol intake of adult men should not exceed 25 grams and women should not exceed 15 grams, and pregnant women, children and adolescents should not drink alcohol.