The Canadian government’s low-risk drinking guidelines state that women should consume no more than about 10 drinks per week and men no more than 15. (A drink is 12 oz. of beer, 5 oz. of wine, or 1.5 oz. of liquor.)
These limits are slightly higher than those in the United States and exceed those of most other high-income countries.
But a recent study at the University of Victoria in British Columbia found that it’s not just heavy drinking that’s a problem—even consuming alcohol within weekly low-risk drinking guidelines can cause hospitalization and death.
The study is published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. One author is Adam Sherk, Ph.D. from the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research.
In the study, the team found that in British Columbia, a big portion of alcohol-caused death and disability was experienced by those drinking within these guidelines.
For example, more than 50% of cancer deaths resulting from alcohol use occurred in people drinking moderately.
Further, 38% of all alcohol-attributable deaths were experienced by people drinking below the weekly limits or among former drinkers.
However, for women, alcohol consumption within the guidelines did offer some protection from death from a heart attack, stroke, and diabetes.
Nonetheless, this protective effect did not appear to hold for men, who experienced harm at all drinking levels.
Because of these results, the researchers say that some national drinking guidelines, which are published by many countries to help drinkers make informed health decisions, maybe too high.
This may be particularly true in Canada, where the research was conducted.
The team suggests that guideline limits should be lowered to match those in the Netherlands: “Don’t drink or, if you do, drink no more than one drink per day.”
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