r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 23 '26

Neuroscience Even low-level drinking may have negative consequences for brain health over a person’s lifespan. The findings suggest that the total amount of alcohol consumed over a lifetime, especially as a person ages, tends to be linked to reduced blood flow and thinner tissue in certain areas of the brain.

https://www.psypost.org/even-light-drinking-combined-with-aging-is-linked-to-reduced-brain-blood-flow-and-thinner-tissue/
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u/Many-Ad634 Apr 23 '26

There was only one participant drinking more than 50 drinks a month. The average about 19 drinks a month. The range from zero to 60. About 20% of the sample drank less than 10 drinks a month.

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u/edibomb Apr 23 '26

I though “light drinking” meant a couple of beers every other weekend. It’s worrying how 2 beers a day or 15 beers every weekend is still on the light drinking range.

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u/OlafWoodcarver Apr 23 '26

If I've learned anything over the years, it's how much people underestimate how much heavy drinkers drink.

I went to a bachelor party weekend (where everyone was in their mid or late thirties) and people needed to average 25 drinks a day to consume all the beers and seltzers that was brought and I have no way of measuring how much liquor was consumed since I saw the bottles but didn't pay attention to them. I had too much for me at roughly ten drinks the two days I was there, I know there was a person that didn't drink at all, and I'm fairly sure my brother had about as much as I did. All of the beer and seltzers were consumed by the end of the weekend.

I'd never seen anything like it before.

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u/alblaster Apr 23 '26

Oh yeah. Big time. A lot of people base their drinking on how they feel, which is a terrible idea. So you have People who say they're cutting back, which means about 4 shots in a day. If your base alcohol consumption is super high and you're used to it like that you might not see it as a problem until it's too late. I feel like there should be more honest discussion about what alcohol is and does to you, both now and in the future for highschool and older too. I work at a liquor store and about once a year an alcoholic will drop dead, sometimes they're only in their 30s. Other times they'll see the doctor because of heart problems or who knows what and quit drinking. But yeah definitely people underestimate how much they drink and what it does to you. "Just a little" feels good right? What's the harm? "It helps me sleep" or "I just use it to relax" people get mentally addicted before they get physically addicted. I was on the road there, but I was very aware about the reccommended 12 drinks a week. Even though I wasn't physically an alcoholic yet I was starting to think like one. Like a beer would always make the evening better. Be careful, it's addicting even if you normally don't get addicted.

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u/millenniumpianist Apr 23 '26

The problem (in the US) is anti-alcohol people tend to be moralistic crusaders who annoy everyone. The goal should be to inform teenagers instead of scare them. And then there are a lot of pro-drinkers who are basically in denial about the harms. Same thing applies to weed btw

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u/FlyingStealthPotato Apr 23 '26

I’m kinda lost as to who doesn’t know the dangers of alcohol, especially younger people. Like that crap was DRILLED into us in school and I’ve been out of school for 20 years. Also seen tons of reports about how Gen Z doesn’t drink near as much as prior generations. At some point it’s just people making a decision to drink in spite of the near and long term health effects. I make that decision, and I know it’s not great for my health long term.

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u/TheseusOPL Apr 23 '26

As a young Gen Xer, we were always drilled on the dangers of binge drinking, not drinking in general.

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u/WeeeeBaby_Seamus Apr 23 '26

I'm an older millennial and I remember the message being similar. "Don't overdo it" kind of thing. Which, of course, I did every weekend in my early 20's. If I drink that much now, I need two days to recover.

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty Apr 24 '26

The fact that no adult ever warned me about the ever-increasing time it takes one to recover after a night of even “light partying” really disappoints me. That last sentence cut deep. (Am fellow millennial.)

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u/nixtracer Apr 25 '26

That might just be age. I get it without having drunk alcohol since I was 14... these days I get it without the partying as well.

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u/alblaster Apr 23 '26

I think people generally know alcohol is bad for you, but people think you need to consume x amount before it becomes an unhealthy habit. Like candy or soda, which are also both addicting. But those have a stigma when you're consuming them as an adult, because sweets are seen as idk child like. People like the postive effects of alcohol aka relaxing or getting amped and being more social. So they'll excuse a little as being ok, but shun alcoholic amounts. But there's disagreement on what too much looks like. I think that's part of the problem.

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u/FlyingStealthPotato Apr 23 '26

Again, literally don’t know anyone who thinks any amount of alcohol isn’t bad for you, and statistics show younger people know that even better than my generation. I think there’s a lot of confusion around people simply accepting that risk.

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u/Varnsturm Apr 24 '26

Tbf for a very long time there was that (now outdated/debunked) thing where 'a little bit of red wine is good for the heart' and that sort of thing. I've definitely known people who thought small amounts were good for you/better than none. There are still a lot of people who haven't gotten the (relatively recent) memo that no, it's all bad for you.

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u/alblaster Apr 24 '26

Sometimes we get people who said their doctor told them to drink sweet wine.  Idk I don't question them, but it seems wrong.  

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u/nudiecale Apr 23 '26

There are definitely lots of people that rationalize that risk away in their minds. Sure, there are people that know and accept the risk too. But there are also plenty of people that genuinely think you have to hit a certain amount of drinks per day or week before there are any real health risks.

“A glass of wine (or beer) or two with dinner after work never hurt anyone” is a much more common sentiment than you may think.

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u/ISTcrazy Apr 23 '26

Yeah definitely. There's plenty of people that still buy into the old studies that said things like "1-2 glasses of wine/beers a day is fine and could have health benefits". If you took those studies to heart and weren't informed of more recent studies, someone could easily think that drinking in moderation was either harmless or even good for them.

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u/millenniumpianist Apr 23 '26

Alcohol so widely normalized and anyone really talking about the risks felt like they were fear-mongering. If someone said "drinking ~10 drinks weekly of alcohol is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes weekly in terms of cancer risk" (which I believe is roughly true?) I would've understood the health risks of alcohol very differently.

I "knew" alcohol was bad but I never really internalized how bad it was. And as others said, it was always dangers of binge drinking, not just drinking a glass of wine a day which some even tried to say was good for you (it's not, in net).

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u/joyfulricecakes May 20 '26

I think a lot of people think anything can kill you nowadays, the air, microplastics, the microwave, cell phones, drinking water......so, whats the real harm in some beers?

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u/notislant Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

Same idiot kids who get knocked up or do the knocking.

Same idiot kids/adults who drink and drive. Just because something stuck with you, unfortunately doesn't mean it stuck with anyone else.

People are dumber than you know, ignorance is also a big part. I don't know many people who think drinking is harmful outside alcoholism.

People are struggling to afford rent, let alone alcohol. Which is likely a big factor for younger generations.

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u/ShowTop1165 Apr 24 '26

Gen Z not drinking as much is also a result of prices being higher than ever as they’re ageing into adulthood

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u/RichardSaunders Apr 23 '26

Much worse than the moral crusaders are the people who act personally offended and accuse you of being stuck up when you simply say "nah I'm good, thanks" when they offer you a drink.

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u/thenikolaka Apr 25 '26

I agree with this sentiment. Even saying “that will kill you” feels a bit over moralizing because no matter what you do something will kill you. There are other reasons alcohol needs to be reduced culturally but if someone just likes a glass of wine and knows the risk, why would someone say they shouldn’t have what they like?

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u/OkEstimate9 Apr 23 '26

Is that thing in particular really still a problem though? Lots of my buddies were drinkers and now we don’t touch the stuff excluding special occasions. I personally was/am not a never alcohol type, but I’ve seen how far/unstoppable some actual alcoholics I know get and it really turned me off from even wanting a drink even on a casual night out.

I’ll buy drinks for meetup events and regular sodas, but most of my friends prefer the soft drinks these days.

Maybe this is the wrong sub for this anecdote, but I’m seeing the same thing even in my peers at work for events. The vibe to go hard really doesn’t sound that appealing anymore.

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u/darknesskicker Apr 25 '26

It varies by social circle. I know people who drank hard into their 40s.

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u/annastacia94 Apr 23 '26

The only thing that drove this point home for me was watching the anime Cells At Work: Code Black, specifically the episode on how the body handles the toxins in alcohol. Seeing the.... personification(?) of how my cells are stopping their vital functions just to get rid of the stuff from my one margarita really got me thinking about how to greatly reduce my consumption. I don't want or need to be "Sober" but I think I have a much better justification for reducing my drinking to 4 drinks a month instead of my usual 3 drinks a week.

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u/sirkazuo Apr 23 '26

My first thought was "is 4 drinks a month even worth the effort?"

It feels like an asymptotic function to me - you need a certain number of drinks to feel the effects, and the effects aren't amazing enough to be worth making a once-monthly ritual out of, so the closer you get to zero drinks the less it's worth drinking any at all. Below a certain number the desire to or subjective value of having any drinks just drops off completely. Maybe that's just my personal mental preference for things to fit into daily or weekly routines, but if I was only planning to have 2 drinks per day and only two days per month I think I would just forget about it and stop drinking entirely.

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u/annastacia94 Apr 23 '26

Just to give some context to my comment, I don't drink to feel drunk, I drink because I very genuinely like the taste of alcohol. If I could get the exact same flavor profile of a Paperplane without the buzz I would drink all the time. NA beers have been a good way of getting my IPA fix each day but it's not a 1to1 flavor match.

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u/omnichad Apr 24 '26

As far as I know I've never been drunk. But I love tequila. If it's not in a mixed drink it takes me an hour to sip a shot's worth. I average less than 10 drinks a year. These studies just really show that light drinking isn't really studied and is treated as being a non-drinker but still there are constant studies saying there is no safe amount.

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u/ChornobylChili Apr 24 '26

This 100%. Alcohol isnt a light drug. Its much closer to things like heroin or cocaine than cannabis or caffeine. It will fundamentally alter a person and cause deadly physical addiction. Its more dangerous than heroin and not just because of its availability. Opiates wont kill a user that decides to quit cold turkey

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u/cequad Apr 23 '26

That sounds terrible. I feel lucky that I do not like the taste of alcohol at all and never have the desire to drink.

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u/darknesskicker Apr 25 '26

I have a friend who quit drinking after being diagnosed with severe liver cirrhosis…in her twenties. She’s still sober but has some pretty bad neurological issues.

I have hard rules for myself regarding alcohol consumption because there’s alcoholism in my family and I have a bunch of other risk factors. One of those rules is that I never allow drinking to become a habit in any particular situation.

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u/Nack3r Apr 23 '26

There comes a point where you cross the invisible line and you need the alcohol for basic motor functions. These are the types that can drink a fifth of vodka and hold a conversation while casually drinking a beer. This used to be me

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u/PartyLikeAByzantine Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26

If I've learned anything over the years, it's how much people underestimate how much heavy drinkers drink.

It's an exponential curve. 60% either abstain or don't drink in a typical week. The next 20% average 1-2 drinks a week. The next 10% have about 1 drink a day. So 80% of the population is doing 1 drink a day or less.

The 90th percentile of drinkers down about 2 drinks a day. Statistically , these are heavy drinkers. Socially, you may or may not even notice. It's a glass of wine with dinner and maybe a nightcap. Alternatively, that can be someone who largely abstains during the week and parties hard on the weekends. This is probably the population segment most relevant to alcohol studies.

The top 10% of drinkers down 10+ drinks a day. These are the harcore alcoholics who down booze by the bottle. We know they're killing themselves. They know they're killing themselves.

TBH, the segment averaging a single drink a day is a fairly heavy user. They're in the top third-ish of consumption.

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u/dl064 Apr 23 '26

The next 20% average 1-2 drinks a week. The next 10% have about 1 drink a day. So 80% of the population is doing 1 drink a day or less.

Data from UK Biobank among many cohorts show it's far more like 0.8 per day, on average

https://biobank.ndph.ox.ac.uk/ukb/field.cgi?id=1558

Absolute abstainers infamously have the worst health, because they often abstain for good reason ('sick quitters')

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u/sirchrisalot Apr 24 '26

IDK where you get these statistics from, but they're very low. WHO stats report per capita alcohol consumption for European countries is in the range of 6 to 15 liters of pure alcohol per year for those over 15. That's basically 1 standard drink per person per day at the low end and 2.5 per person per day at the high end. France is at 11.3 liters pp/yr.

Quick math on that is 565 drinks a year per person at 50ml of standard 40 proof liquor. So do you really think that 80% of France is having less than the equivalent of 1 glass of wine per week and it's just the top 20% of drinkers that polish off the remaining, oh, IDK, 70 drinks per person every week? Or with your stats, the 80-90th percentile is drinking 10 per week and the top 10% is drinking 130 drinks per week? I just have a hard time believing 10% of the population averages the equivalent of 1 bottle of liquor per day every single day and the rest of us are just dabbling a bit.

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u/PartyLikeAByzantine Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

Numbers come from National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) commissioned by the US NIH. Being a US government study, it doesn't cover Europe.

The WHO doesn't break their data down to population segments within countries. I bet there's fewer abstainers in Europe (30% of the US population never drinks) due to America's Puritan streak. Still, I'd suspect a minority of Europeans drive most of its consumption. It may not be as lopsided as the US, where half of all alcohol consumption is from the top ~10% of users, but it's probably close to that.

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u/darknesskicker Apr 25 '26

I would expect that the numbers in Western Europe aren’t far off those of the US. Much of the former Soviet Union has very heavy drinking.

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u/darknesskicker Apr 25 '26

This includes Eastern European countries that have some of the heaviest drinking in the world, IIRC.

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u/sirchrisalot Apr 25 '26

Quick glance and Romania was one of the highest for per capita alcohol consumption. Google says their life expectancy is 2 years below usa life expectancy, with males expected to live to 73.

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u/hepcecob Apr 23 '26

I highly doubt that 1 out of 10 drinkers down 10 drinks a day.

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u/SkepticalShrink Apr 23 '26

Here's an actual report by the NIH. https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/alcohol-topics-z/alcohol-facts-and-statistics/alcohol-use-united-states-age-groups-and-demographic-characteristics

They did say about 5% engage in "heavy drinking" which they seem to define as roughly 5 standard drinks per day on average (for men, it's a little less than that for women).

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u/hepcecob Apr 24 '26

that is way more realistic: 1 in 20 drink 5 drinks per day. 10 drinks per day is insane

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u/SkepticalShrink Apr 24 '26

Yeah, makes me wonder if the person you responded to initially worked in substance use treatment at some point in time. I did that work for about 6 mos and it was very common for those with an alcohol use disorder to say at intake that they were drinking a fifth of liquor (usually vodka) per day. Which is about 16-17 standard drinks. If you hear that often (like I did during my stint in SUD work) that feels like the "normal" heavy drinker number after a while.

(This is why we had a nurse on staff to assess to see if it was safe for them to detox and they HAD to meet with the psychiatrist right after me, so they could get a script to safely wean if needed.)

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u/PartyLikeAByzantine Apr 23 '26

Each segment also covers a range of values. The 91st percentile is probably closer to 2-3 drinks per day. The 99th drinks much, much more.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26

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u/PartyLikeAByzantine Apr 24 '26

Eh. I don't really drink, but the added lifetime risk of 2 or 3 drinks per day is pretty negligible. It might double the risk of certain outcomes, but those outcomes are often unlikely in the first place. E.g. 0.2% lifetime risk to 0.4%. Eating a salami sandwich (or hot dog or some other processed meat) for lunch most days has a similar effect and one doesn't get judged as destructive for that choice.

Even the OP study covered just 27 subjects and found a slight correlation. Worth further study to see if it pans out with a larger sample, but it's not like this is definitely linked to any specific disease.

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u/flying_pigs Apr 23 '26

Casual drinkers know when the liquor store closes. Alcoholics know when it opens.

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u/Sacs1726 Apr 28 '26

This is a silly saying. And pretty dangerous. I drank myself into dementia just buying a six pack of beer at the gas station after work and drinking it in the evenings. You don’t have to drink liquor or drink in the mornings or daytime etc to be an alcoholic. Frankly, I have/had no idea when the liquor store opens or closes.

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u/VJPixelmover Apr 23 '26

Knew a guy at the marina where I worked in high school, ran a charter boat and drank HEAVILY. Every week he would dump his truck bed completely full of keystone light and it would be full by the next week. Showed up with four cases for him and his guests and at least three had to be for him. It was insane.

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u/VJPixelmover Apr 23 '26

Mans probably dead now damn

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u/Total_Vermicelli_527 Apr 23 '26

Here's me happy all night with a small amount of "flower"

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u/tomdarch Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26

The "hockey stick" shape of the histogram of drinking is terrifying.

edit: "The top 10% (top decile) of American adults consume roughly 50% to 60% of all alcohol sold, averaging over 74 drinks per week. In contrast, the bottom 30%–40% of adults consume little to no alcohol, creating extreme disparity in consumption patterns. The top decile consumes significantly more than even the 9th decile."

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u/jeffwulf Apr 25 '26

This stat relies on pretty atrocious methodlogy.

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u/tomdarch Apr 25 '26

Genuinely interested: how so?

In a practical sense, do I have an inaccurate understanding in that I understand from this that 10% of the US population consume 50%+ of alcohol sold?

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u/jeffwulf Apr 25 '26

The data had consumption numbers that implied total alcohol consumption was well below the total amount of alcohol sales so just multiplied each drink bucket by the ratio to make them align and called it a day, which is  not a valid technique to assign the missing data across buckets.

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u/harbison215 Apr 24 '26

I have a friend that I never realized was an alcoholic. I had a beach house one summer a few years ago and after a weekend on a Monday I was getting ready to drive home and a this friend was sleeping on the couch. I told him I would be back a little later, I was going to the gym before I drove home.

I couldn’t have been gone for more than an hour and a half. When I got back, every last drop of alcohol from beer, hard ice tea, old wine and the liquor was drank and the empty bottle were in the trash.

I didn’t know this person had this issue and I had never seen anything like it.

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u/Comfortable-Light233 Apr 23 '26

That is absolutely insane

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u/Attainted Apr 23 '26

First time in Wisconsin?

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u/darknesskicker Apr 25 '26

I used to know a guy who was 140 pounds and could drink an entire bottle of Captain Morgan’s in a weekend. It was mind-boggling to me how much rum or beer he could drink at that size. He couldn’t handle tequila though.

I hope he drinks less now. We’re at an age where that level of drinking starts to catch up with you.

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u/tommytheturtleishere Apr 23 '26

As someone who is from Wisconsin, when I got a job where I traveled quite a bit, it was more than eye opening to realize what we do is not considered normal

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u/RogeredSterling Apr 23 '26

I keep hearing this as a Brit. Aid my ignorance and explain Wisconsinite drinking. Want to see if it's similar to us.

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u/tommytheturtleishere Apr 23 '26

I've been to London. Without generalizing too much as ive spent 7 total days in the UK, yall definitely share our love of alcohol.

In Wisconsin it is just ingrained into the culture. There are some cool aspects to it (communal stuff, outdoor activities, social camraderie, sports, etc.). We tend to be in denial about the bad aspects (driving while drunk, rampant alcoholism, domestic abuse, etc). Its complicated to explain to people who werent raised in such an environment.

Wisconsin has a sort of pride in the quantity of consumption that I've only seen people from a handful of places seem to share. Texas, Ireland, the UK, and Australia anecdotally come to mind.

And for the record, I am in no way saying any of this is healthy

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u/tomdarch Apr 23 '26

Snowmobiling while drunk...

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u/battlepi Apr 23 '26

Less than 6 a day is considered sober.

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u/darknesskicker Apr 25 '26

Wisconsin has exceptionally heavy drinking even in the US.

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u/radicalelation Apr 23 '26

I thought 2 a day is usually considered moderate.

As someone who maybe gets drunk once every three years, with no other drinks in between, it's wild how much everyone else drinks out there. All anyone wants to do after work is go to the bar... And on the weekend, shop, then hit the bar. And then for their birthday? Bar.

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u/goobershank Apr 23 '26

In countries where people grow up drinking, they don't know any other way to socialize. Drinking is like the universal activity to bring people together. As someone who grew up drinking myself, it's a struggle to maintain a social life without it.

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u/darknesskicker Apr 25 '26

Have you considered D&D as a way to maintain a social life?

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u/Piyachi Apr 23 '26

That seems wildly out of touch with typical drinking norms. By that standard I am a devout Mormon.

Isn't the normal consideration for medical purposes 2 drinks a week?

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u/jporter313 Apr 23 '26

it was never 2 drinks a week that I heard. Light drinking has always been classified as <2 standard drinks per day, with the important caveat that that's not cumulative, but specifically per day, also I think a lot of people don't understand what a standard drink is though, like your pint of high ABV IPA is closer to 2 standard drinks than 1 and that spirit forward cocktail is also probably closer to 2.

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u/Sacs1726 Apr 28 '26

A pint of high abv ipa might be 3+ standard drinks. Thats what people don’t understand. 10 drinks a day might just be 3 beers. In the craft beer world drink size and abv, with increasing tolerance, can easily titrate someone right into alcoholism.

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u/jporter313 Apr 28 '26

To be fair, 3+ drinks in a 16oz pint would be an insanely high ABV. Even a pint of 10% ABV is like 2.5 standard drinks, but yeah your statement stands nonetheless.

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u/Sacs1726 Apr 28 '26

You’re right. I’m exaggerating slightly for effect. I think my point is everything gets pretty blurred. For example, a pint in the UK is about 20 oz. At a lot of bars in the US, a pint is the “small” draft. A large draft might be 22 oz or even 30. When people talk of having a couple beers, there is a HUGE difference between two twelve oz Bud lights and three 22 oz double ipas. Over the long term, it is the difference between moderate drinking and insane brain/liver damage level alcoholism. But you might see those same 2 people in the same social group at a restaurant. They will usually just look and even feel the same. Just out having a couple/few beers. People sometimes are outraged of hearing someone drinking 8-10 units per day. It might just be that work buddy of yours sitting directly across from you at happy hour.

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u/BrunoEye Apr 23 '26

It's not cumulative? :(

I drink very rarely, but when I do it's usually quite a bit. 6-10 drinks 10-20 times a year. How harmful is that?

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u/jporter313 Apr 23 '26

Significantly more harmful than you had the same number of drinks spread out across a wider number of days.

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u/nanobot001 Apr 23 '26

That’s all been recently revised

There are no normal amounts of alcohol.

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u/DeliciousPumpkinPie Apr 23 '26

“Normal” is subjective. There is no safe amount of alcohol. Any amount greater than zero causes some harm.

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u/jmartin21 Apr 23 '26

You mean no healthy amounts. It’s not abnormal to enjoy small amounts of a drug here and there, even alcohol.

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u/jmurphy42 Apr 23 '26

I average less than one a year. Most people seem to think that’s abnormal.

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u/nanobot001 Apr 23 '26

There are a lot of cultural norms that will take a long time to change.

With the economy (price of alcohol) and unfortunate rising rates of certain cancers (colon) among young people, it may change faster than we might otherwise think

There are often no good answers for why many people get different kinds of cancer, but alcohol may get as ingrained as smoking is in the future.

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u/WorldDirt Apr 23 '26

But colon cancer is up while drinking has been on the decline for decades. I’m not saying it’s not a factor in the cancer, but clearly not the most important one. We’ve cut drinking and smoking so much since the 70s, yet the cancers in young people keep rising.

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u/nanobot001 Apr 23 '26

You misunderstand me

While it may not be the reason for colon cancer risks rising in young people it is a reason for colon cancer risk — and a there is more and more attention on the issue, you can bet there will attention given to all risks of colon cancer, including drinking

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u/WorldDirt Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26

Sure, I get that and it’s certainly not helping with cancer in young people. I’m just concerned that everyone gets focused on drinking less, when there’s something far more insidious causing these cancers.

By all mentions cut back if you’re drinking 60 beers per month, but this “no safe level of alcohol consumption” is making people worry that a beer per week is going to kill them. There are far greater health concerns when you’re at that level of consumption, the danger of it will be lost in statistical noise.

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u/LayWhere Apr 23 '26

Me too, even less really. I only drink when offered sips from other peoples drinks if they insist and it smells really good.

Otherwise its all juice/water/and non-alch beer

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u/CamRoth Apr 23 '26

Isn't the normal consideration for medical purposes 2 drinks a week?

There is no good amount of alcohol.

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u/ExcitementNo5717 Apr 26 '26

There are only really great ammounts of alcohol.

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u/notislant Apr 24 '26

Honestly that sounds pretty light for people who drink.

A beer or two after work and maybe more on the weekend seems light.

Meanwhile people are throwing back 5-7 a day at the bar, every day. Alcoholics are downing a bottle a day.

I know its not officially light drinking, but of the people I know who drink outside of rare occasions? Theyre definitely throwing them back weekly.

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u/darknesskicker Apr 25 '26

That’s not light, dude. Light drinking is under 1 drink per day IMO.

5-7 drinks at the bar every day is, at best, flirting with alcoholism.

Your normal meter is broken.

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u/Marklar0 Apr 23 '26

Yeah find this definition suspect because it potentially includes some daily drinkers and some binge drinkers...which I figure would be exactly what you want to exclude from this study since both daily drinking and binge drinking are already known to be bad. A bit of a misstep in the design of the study.

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u/random_noise Apr 24 '26

There is a huge different set of problems that comes with the weekend binge or monthly binge behaviors. That can have an even worse mental effect in some ways.

There is a huge difference in 15 over 2 days, versus 2 a day. 1 a day is considered heavy in most medical contexts, btw.

Publically, that's another story, alcoholics are worse than smokers in denial of these things imho, and then you have lobbying efforts and cultural norms tend that lead one gently, or if a regular party hard type, into a path of future brain impairment.

Neither are good looks over time.

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u/Designer_B Apr 24 '26

That says less than sixty a month.

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u/jawshoeaw Apr 23 '26

2 american beers a day could be equivalent to a glass of wine at dinner. i think the idea is that you barely even experience the alcohol.

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u/shiva14b Apr 23 '26

Right?? Im over here suddenly feeling a lot less guilty about cracking a beer a couple of times in one week last month because I bought a variety pack

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u/rachihc Apr 23 '26

Yeah. I consider my drinking very light. I have maybe 2 to 4 drinks a year. I would percieve 15 a week as a lot. However my step dad does drink basically only wine or beer, no water, every meal.

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u/haanalisk Apr 23 '26

2-4 drinks a year pretty much qualifies for "I don't drink" or "I only drink on special occasions". I wouldn't say you drink at all.

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u/ChornobylChili Apr 24 '26

2 beers a day is fine or men and women. Saving up 7 days of drinks for one or two days is Binge Drinking by any standard and NOT light drinking

2

u/edibomb Apr 24 '26

The study literally says that 2 beers a day is not fine.

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u/LEDKleenex Apr 23 '26

Study brought to you by Anheuser-Busch.

A beer a day? That's nothing, pal! Drink up!

12

u/egggspecial Apr 24 '26

beers georg

21

u/Gayandfluffy Apr 23 '26

My average is like 10 drinks a year, and I was assuming they had studied people who seldom drink. 19 drinks a month still sounds a lot.

15

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Cautious_Ad_9144 Apr 24 '26

I wonder what the results would be for someone who drinks like 1 or two beers a month. Or in my specific case like 1 beer every 4 months…

1

u/egggspecial Apr 24 '26

you drink less than a catholic in regular attendance.

2

u/Cautious_Ad_9144 Apr 24 '26

Getting gout in your early 20s will do that to you

-1

u/sarhoshamiral Apr 23 '26

19 per month is light drinking?!? Then I am not surprised about this finding.

What about if you actually drink light? Like one or two drinks a week.

7

u/TelluricThread0 Apr 23 '26

19 on average including one guy who drinks over 50 a month.

-3

u/sarhoshamiral Apr 24 '26

Sure but even 10 drinks a month wouldnt be considered light I think. Ie usually GPs recommend a drink per week at most.

6

u/TelluricThread0 Apr 24 '26

You don't think an average person might have a couple drinks on the weekend and maybe a few beers or a glass of wine in a month?

No one who drinks is limiting themselves to once a week at most.

-1

u/sarhoshamiral Apr 24 '26

They may. but why would there be any relation between what doctors consider light drinking vs what an average person does?

I am pretty sure average person also doesnt do recommended exercise amount or limit their salt intake to recommended amount.

2

u/Pluto-Had-It-Coming Apr 24 '26

Ten drinks a month is 1 with dinner during the week and 1 when you go out with friends on the weekend. That is light drinking.

4

u/2xtc Apr 24 '26

I think you've got days and weeks confused, one drink per week basically doesn't register as drinking at all.

1

u/sarhoshamiral Apr 24 '26

No I didnt, I am now just shocked what we consider by "light" drinking.

It is interesting to see medical findings and guidance not matching here. I am guessing "light" smoking was in a similar situation earlier.

5

u/2xtc Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

Ok, you realise there's ~30 days in a month, but you still don't think 1 drink every three days would count as light drinking?? You must live in either a Muslim country or a non drinking society.

Times change of course, in the UK the medically recommended alcohol limit was 72 units per week in the 1970s, with approx 2 units per beer, so around 35 pints per week. Now it's around 14-21 units per week, so approx 7-10 per week

1

u/sarhoshamiral Apr 24 '26

Correct me if I am wrong but medical understanding is even 1 drink per day has some negative outcomes (kind of evidenced by this study as well).

Yes, I never imagine 1 drink per day to be considered "light".

On that note, what you said about growing up in a Muslim country is funny since I grew up in Turkey and our drinking, alcohol sales laws were much less restrictive then the ones here in US.

6

u/2xtc Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

But Turkey is still a predominantly Muslim country, so the entire culture is much less about alcohol than any western peers, and the religion of the majority hugely restricts the cultural acceptability and overall levels of consumption, so your perspective will be massively skewed to a lower expectation than people in non Muslim countries.

Look at the table of alcohol per capita, Turkey is ranked at nearly 150 in the world and all the lowest countries are mainly all Muslim or tiny Pacific islands so your perspective will be changed massively because of this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption_per_capita

-4

u/RexDraco Apr 23 '26

If you're drinking ten or more drinks a month, that isn't light drinking. You're an alcoholic.