Diseases like coronary heart blockages, ischemic paralysis and diabetes, that moderate alcohol intake prevents, are the diseases of the elderly, men, and people with coronary heart disease risk factors. Only in this group moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a substantial mortality benefit relative to abstention or limited drinking.
For young to middle aged adults, especially women, moderate alcohol consumption can increase the risk of the most common causes of death such as trauma and breast cancer.
Women drinkers should take folate supplement to reduce the risk of breast cancer.
Younger men under age 45 experience more harm than benefit from alcohol consumption. In them moderate alcohol use is unlikely to provide any mortality benefit. However if no contraindication consumption of less than one drink a day is safe provided they are not in a job of operation of dangerous equipment.
In patients with established contraindications to alcohol use, even this level of alcohol use is dangerous. For them no level of alcohol consumption is safe. These people include pregnant ladies, personal or strong family history of alcoholism, past hemorrhagic paralysis, liver or pancreatic disease and operation of potentially dangerous equipment or machinery. There are some who can take but under a limit and they are if they have active gastritis, esophagitis, premalignant gastrointestinal lesions such as Barrett's esophagus, or a strong family history of breast cancer.
Men can tolerate more alcohol than women. The ideal safe “medicinal dose” of alcohol for men is 6 grams per day (app. 18 ml 80 proof whisky) or one drink taken every other day, in whom not contraindicated. The dose associated with lowest mortality in woman is 4 gm/day (One drink every 4th day).
Medicinal safe dose is different from safe dose in absence of contraindications. The safe limit is no more than two drinks (each drink id 45 ml of 80 proof whisky) daily for men and one drink daily for women.
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