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Editorial

These are the negative side effects of wine consumption

  • PublishedApril 22, 2018

It is a norm for many to take a glass of wine after dinner to help in digestion but it may lead you to an early grave sooner or later. A United Kingdom varsity contradicted the idea that a glass of wine a day is good for your health.

The Cambridge University has been doing a research they released on 4th April 2018, that revealed how daily consumption of alcohol and wine is unhealthy. From the study, men and women who consume more than 2.8 liters of beer or six glasses of wine in a week are more likely to shorten their lives.

Too much information out there including myths and misconceptions about the health benefits of taking wine after meals could be misleading you. Getting one for the road is the language that makes alcohols seem harmless to our health. Others will boldly claim that it is allowed in the Bible to take wine for the sake of the stomach.

The research concluded that those who take one for the road could possibly shorten their lives by six months in the long run. Those who take 10 or more and 18 or more drinks in a week are at risk of shortening their lives with two and five years respectively.

The published study on risky threshold for alcohol consumption showed that there is a connection between high blood pressure, heart related diseases and the amount of alcohol consumed.

Dr. Angela Wood who led the study found that alcohol consumption was closely associated with a higher risk of stroke, coronary disease, heart failure, fatal hypertension and fatal aortic aneurysm. The study was conducted in 19 high income countries comparing drinking habits of 599,912 people.

The participants had information recorded about their alcohol consumption and status, age, sex, smoking status, baseline history of diabetes and no baseline history of known cardiovascular diseases.

Out of 599,912 people who went through the test, incidents of death were recorded at 40,310 and 39,018 incidents of cardiovascular diseases were recorded according to the research. Revealed from the research of regular drinkers, only 44% of them were women.

Long term reduction of alcohol consumption from 196g per week to 100 g per week was associated with about 2 years longer life expectancy at the age of 40. Spirits and beer drinkers were noted to have a high mortality rate.

The recommended alcohol consumption in the UK is 112g/week for both men and women, 196g/week and 98g/week for men and women respectively in USA and 140g/week and 70g/week for men and women respectively in Uruguay.

Drinking guidelines regulate the amount of alcohol to be consumed by both men and women and varies from one country to another. In Kenya, the regulations have not been set but are currently underway.

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