A recent controversial report from the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and Addiction (CCSA) proposed an update of Canada’s low risk guidelines for alcohol…
We all want to reduce levels of common preventable disease such as cancer, heart attack and stroke. The current guidance focuses on the comprehensive risks of alcohol consumption, particularly cancer risk. Many people enjoy a drink at the end of the day or a little more at a party. I enjoy drinking wine. Is it really unsafe and if so how unsafe is it?The NP Comment newsletter from columnist Colby Cosh and NP Comment editors tackles the important topics with boldness, verve and wit.
Now the newly revised CCSA guidelines go even further and recommend that women not have more than one drink per week and men, not more than two. In my opinion the new guidance is flawed. Most of the data used was available for previous less restrictive guidelines. What primarily changed was the method of analysis and continuing to look at alcohol risk in isolation without considering the role of other associated risk factors.
The major flaw in the study was the focus only on alcohol consumption as a risk factor, thus leading to a confirmation bias. If you only look at alcohol risk that is all you will find. There was no controlling for differences in variables known to affect cancer risk, such as diet, obesity, smoking, exercise and family history.
The CCSA document produced very detailed levels of risk for 21 variables with increasing risk for every extra drink per week consumed. The tipping point of risk was generally determined to be seven drinks a week. At six drinks a week or less the only benefit was a reduced risk of intracerebral brain hemorrhage, coronary heart disease and ischemic stroke. For some unexplained reason diabetes risk was considerably lower.