WRITTEN BY GABE TOTH
A deeper look at the federal study that contradicts “no safe level” alcohol guidance
RETHINKING
RISK & ALCOHOL A
s the American public digests a set of government-sponsored studies on the impact of alcohol consumption that were released back-to-back and appear to reach conflicting results, the chair of one of the studies spoke with Artisan Spirit to discuss his work. He shared the analysis he oversaw, the results he and his team reached, and how the two studies’ divergent goals and methodologies made differing results a near-inevitability. The study that made a bigger splash publicly was conducted by the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking, which echoed recent guidance from the World Health Organization and the thenUS Surgeon General that any level of alcohol consumption increases mortality risks. This was a departure from the longtime understanding that low levels of alcohol consumption provided small but statistically
W W W . ARTISANSPIRITMAG . C O M
identifiable benefits — the J-curve that shows a slightly decreasing risk of mortality at low levels and increasing risk at higher levels. That study, released in draft form in January, was preceded by about a month by a separate study commissioned by Congress through the USDA, which directed the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct a review of existing data around alcohol and health. This study reinforced the existence of the J-curve, an apparent contradiction to the ICCPUD report. (Both studies are still in draft form but will be used to draft federal guidelines.) Ned Calonge, associate dean for public health practice and professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health and professor of family medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, chaired the committee that produced the NASEM study, the Review of Evidence on Alcohol and Health. The
committee’s directive, or Statement of Task, was to examine the following questions and provide a report with conclusions based on the strength of the recent evidence:
1) What is the relationship between alcohol consumption and growth, size, body composition, and risk of overweight and obesity?
2) What is the relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of certain types of cancer?
3) What is the relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease?
4) What is the relationship between alcohol consumption and neurocognitive health?
5) What is the relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of all-cause mortality?
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