Drinking alcohol weekly could be connected to 61 different diseases, study finds

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Alcohol use has been linked to 61 different diseases, most of which had not been identified as having drinking-related outcomes by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to a new study. 

Beyond the more widely known conditions — such as liver cirrhosis, stroke and gastric cancers — a new study identified links to diseases including gout, cataracts, ulcers and some fractures, according to a press release announcing the findings.

Researchers from the University of Oxford in England and Peking University in Beijing analyzed self-reported data from more than 512,000 adults in China related to 207 total diseases.

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One third of the men and just 2% of the women said they drank alcohol regularly (at least once a week). 

Among the men, researchers looked at 12 years of hospital records, as well as genetic information, to determine whether alcohol consumption was linked to any of the diseases they developed.

Alcohol use has been linked to 61 different diseases, most of which had not previously been flagged by the World Health Organization, a new study has found. (iStock)

Higher amounts of consumption correlated to a higher risk of disease and hospitalization, according to the study, published in the journal Nature Medicine on June 8.

For every four drinks per day, the risk of alcohol-related diseases increased by 14%, while it rose 6% for diseases that hadn’t been previously linked to alcohol.

"Alcohol drinking adversely affects a wide range of diseases, more than what we previously knew," said lead author Dr. Pek Kei Im, an intermediate research fellow at Oxford Population Health, in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

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"Furthermore, the association of alcohol consumption with the overall risk of these diseases is likely to be causal in a dose-response manner (i.e., the more you drink, the higher disease risk), and our findings do not support the belief that there are health benefits of moderate drinking."

"Harmful use of alcohol is one of the most important risk factors for debilitating health."

Consumption of alcohol causes more than 140,000 deaths in the U.S., per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and three million worldwide each year, according to WHO.

Alcohol use has been on the rise in China in recent decades, increasing from 59% to 85% between 1990 and 2017, the study findings stated.

"Based on this research, it’s clear that the harmful use of alcohol is one of the most important risk factors for debilitating health throughout the world," said one medical expert. "Such evidence warrants a wider scope of education, prevention and treatment." (iStock)

Dr. Chris Tuell, clinical director of addiction services at the Lindner Center of HOPE at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, was not involved in the new research but reviewed the results of the study and found them to be "significant." 

"With over 512,000 participants, data from such a study should be taken with notice," he told Fox News Digital. 

"Based on this research, it’s clear that the harmful use of alcohol is one of the most important risk factors for debilitating health throughout the world. Such evidence warrants a wider scope of education, prevention and treatment."

Limitations and caveats

The study did have some limitations, Im noted.

"There are some diseases [for] which we were unable to investigate their relationships with alcohol because few of them were recorded in our study context, such as dementia," she explained. 

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Further investigation is also needed to confirm whether alcohol is a cause of some of the other newly identified alcohol-associated diseases, Im added. 

"Also, since our study participants predominantly consumed spirits, we could not investigate the effects of specific alcohol types, such as red wine," she said. 

"We really can’t know our true risk for any disease," said one medical expert. "That’s why we need to encourage everyone and reinforce the idea that less is healthier when it comes to our health and alcohol." (iStock)

Additionally, the study showed that genetics plays a significant role in how alcohol consumption can increase the risk for specific diseases, noted Dr. Adam D. Scioli, medical director and head of psychiatry at Caron Treatment Centers in Pennsylvania. He was not involved in the new study.

"This means we really can’t know our true risk for any disease," he told Fox News Digital. "That’s why we need to encourage everyone and reinforce the idea that less is healthier when it comes to our health and alcohol."

Puja Darbari, managing director of the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking in London, also reviewed the study findings and provided feedback to Fox News.

"For most adults, any risk posed by the moderate consumption of alcohol is low; everyone should avoid drinking to excess."

"The study has a significant limitation, as it does not differentiate between light or moderate drinking and heavy drinkers and doesn’t include a comparison with abstainers," she said.

Higher amounts of alcohol consumption correlated to a higher risk of disease and hospitalization, according to the study. (iStock)

"In further analyses, the author’s own findings support the hundreds of peer-reviewed studies since the 1970s reporting that light and moderate drinkers tend to live at least as long as non-drinkers, and generally live longer than those who drink heavily," Darbari continued. 

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"For most adults, any risk posed by the moderate consumption of alcohol is low; everyone should avoid drinking to excess, and for some people, the better choice may be not to drink at all," she added.

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Anyone with questions about their drinking should speak to their health care professionals to better understand the impact of drinking on their individual health, Darbari advised.