Positive attitudes about 'moderate' drinking may weaken efforts designed to reduce alcohol misuse and its terrible consequences. For many, it is dogma that alcohol is good for the heart, if not one's overall health.
The study by McCaul et al. about the relationship between alcohol consumption, mortality and coronary heart disease (CHD) death among older Australians will not change those convictions.
Although studies about drinking and mortality are mixed, this study's findings for CHD are generally consistent with those from other studies; and although it is rarely emphasized, this study is also consistent with others in demonstrating that, among drinkers, drinking less alcohol generally results in better health outcomes than drinking more.
However, this study suffers from the same limitations that afflict other observational studies about average alcohol consumption and chronic disease outcomes.
While these limitations are sometimes overlooked or dismissed, they are worth reviewing in depth and with a frequency matching the feverish publicity heralding new alcohol studies. > > > >
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