WEEKLY ALCOHOL ISSUES
October 04, 2021 – October 08, 2021
This week’s Special Feature: Alcohol and Cardiovascular Disease – Understanding the Scientific State of the Art
A common misconception related to alcohol use is that low dose use protects the heart. It is a misconception the alcohol industry perpetuates through funding biased research, spreading misinformation, and misrepresenting the evidence base. The alcohol industry also promotes low dose alcohol consumption in their “moderate” and “responsible” alcohol use campaigns.
The evidence is growing stronger and stronger, showing that any amount of alcohol use is bad for cardiovascular health. Even low dose alcohol increases health risks such as for the heart, compared to not having alcohol at all.
Alcohol issues from our Policy Newsfeed:
- Sweden: New web portal with support tolls about children from households with substance use problems;
- New Zealand: New report exposes human rights violations of people with FASD;
- UK: New study shows millions affected by FASD; and
- Australia and COVID-19: Alcohol deaths increased during pandemic.
Our Big Alcohol Watch exposes:
- How alcohol industry funding distorts science about alcohol and heart disease; and
- Big Alcohol abuses the alcohol-free trend to promote its major alcohol brands.
Alcohol issues from our Science Digest:
- Estimating the need for alcohol treatment in Ireland; and
- Gender and regional pattern of alcohol use and projection of the alcohol problem in India.
Our Special Event Alert highlights:
- Global Alcohol Policy Alliance virtual event, October 12 – 14, 2021; and
- The World Health Summit, October 24 – 26, 2021.
Alcohol Policy News
Latest Science Digest
Big Alcohol Watch
Special Feature – No. 31
Alcohol and Cardiovascular Disease – Understanding the Scientific State of the Art
A common misconception related to alcohol use is that low dose use protects the heart. It is a misconception the alcohol industry perpetuates through funding biased research, spreading misinformation, and misrepresenting the evidence base.
The alcohol industry also promotes low dose alcohol consumption in their “moderate” and “responsible” alcohol use campaigns.
The evidence is growing stronger and stronger, showing that any amount of alcohol use is bad for cardiovascular health. Even low dose alcohol increases health risks such as for the heart, compared to not having alcohol at all.
The alcohol industry funds social aspects and public relations organizations to mis-represent the evidence on cardiovascular effects of low dose (“moderate”) alcohol consumption.
Another, very recent, study found that systematic reviews done by authors with histories of alcohol industry funding exclusively reported Big Alcohol-favorable conclusions, that is cardioprotective effect of alcohol.
The cardioprotective hypothesis for ‘moderate’ alcohol consumption is plagued by confounding, selection bias and increasingly implausible biological mechanisms, and the scientific pillars on which it is based are not holding up.
The findings of the Mendelian Randomization Study challenge the concept that low-dose alcohol is cardioprotective.
The upshot is that the research literature suggesting cardioprotection is largely based on studies of healthy survivors who have not died from other competing causes.
Special Event Alert
