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Having a single glass of wine with dinner every night could cut your life expectancy by about two years, according to an international study linking increased alcohol consumption with a higher risk of developing fatal diseases.
The research, published in the medical journal The Lancet, found that people who drank the equivalent of about six glasses of wine a week or more increased their risk of stroke, heart disease, heart failure, fatal hypertensive disease and fatal aortic aneurysm.
The researchers analyzed data from 600,000 people included in 83 studies on alcohol consumption from 19 high-income countries, PBS News reports. The studies spanned nearly 50 years.
David Spiegelhalter, a risk expert at Britain’s University of Cambridge, told NBC News that drinking at levels above the guidelines could shorten the lifespan of a 40-year-old man by about 15 minutes a day, about the same result as smoking a cigarette, resulting a two-year shorter lifespan.
"The key message of this research for public health is that, if you already drink alcohol, drinking less may help you live longer and lower your risk of several cardiovascular conditions," said head researcher Dr. Angela Wood of Cambridge University.
Researchers also wrote that exploratory analyses suggested that drinkers of beer or spirits, as well as binge drinkers, had the highest risk for all-cause mortality
The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans define moderate drinking as up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men. A drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5-ounces of distilled spirits or liquor.