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Is alcohol good for our heart? A public health researcher says only relatively heavy drinking has a heart benefit - but the harms from heavy drinking outweigh benefits. We're often told that a small amount of alcohol is good for our hearts. Well, a leading public health researcher reckons a re-think is in order. It's probably only relatively heavy drinking that has a heart benefit, he says in The Lancet, and even then the costs are too great to make it worth trying. His argument is that the evidence for good from alcohol is from observing the health and wellbeing of large groups of people - rather than testing alcohol intake in a trial. This was the same sort of evidence that wrongly told women that hormone replacement therapy was good for the heart. Such studies are unreliable because people are not the same. Those who don't drink are probably unhealthier than those who do and those who drink a little probably lead healthier lives - and no amount of statistical correction can make up for this. So when it all boils down, the evidence of a heart benefit from alcohol comes from moderate to heavy drinking - at levels where the harms from drinking outweigh the benefits.
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