According to a study published in The Lancet, it is necessary to lower the recommended alcohol consumption thresholds. They should not exceed 100 grams of alcohol per week, the equivalent of ten standard glasses, to reduce the risk of premature death related to alcohol.
Health authorities must review their recommendations for alcohol consumption according to a study published last week in The Lancet. This research focuses on the consumption of alcohol in developed countries, and the thresholds at which this consumption becomes particularly dangerous. The researchers recommend not to exceed 100 grams of alcohol per week. Ten grams of alcohol correspond to a standard glass of 25 cl of beer, 10 cl of wine or 3 cl of strong liquor.
Each country makes its own recommendations. In the United States, for example, the threshold is 196 g per week for men and 98 g for women. In Belgium, it is 210 g for men per week, and 140 g for women.
The World Health Organization (WHO) considers that consumption becomes particularly harmful when it is above 40 grams of alcohol per day for women and 60 g for men.
For this research, the scientists studied the cases of 599,912 alcohol drinkers, who had no history of cardiovascular disease. Alcohol use is associated with increased risk of heart attack, coronary heart disease, stroke, fatal hypertension, etc. According to their results, people who consume between 100 and 200 g of alcohol a week, have a reduced life expectancy of six months when they reach 40 years; for those who consume between 200 and 350 g of alcohol a week, life expectancy is reduced by one to two years.
Finally for those who exceed 350 g per week, life expectancy is reduced by 4 to 5 years. This is why these researchers recommend not to exceed 100 g of alcohol per week. In fact, they found that for men consuming 196 g of alcohol a week, reducing the rate to 100 g meant that one to two years of life expectancy could be gained by the age of 40.