When it comes to drinking, many people will say, "Doctor, I just drink a little every day, and I don't drink a lot of alcohol, so it shouldn't be harmful to my health, right?"
In the eyes of many people, drinking a little wine every day will not only not harm health, but is more beneficial to health, and even people generally believe that moderate drinking is conducive to vascular health, because alcohol can dilate blood vessels. But is that really the case?
In 2019, a study published in the European Journal of Cardiology found that in terms of heart health, regular regular drinking of small amounts of alcohol is actually more harmful than alcohol abuse, and it is more likely to increase the risk of atrial fibrillation.
The study, which involved 9.78 million people who did not have atrial fibrillation, followed up on the drinking habits of the participants and found that the number of alcohol consumed per week was the greatest risk factor among those diagnosed with atrial fibrillation:
Those who "drank a little bit of alcohol" every day had a greater risk of atrial fibrillation than those who occasionally "drank a little alcohol", while those who drank alcohol ≤ once a week had the least risk.
According to everyone's usual theory, people who drink alcohol regularly, because alcohol can dilate blood vessels, should have a better heart and brain, but in fact, even if you drink a little alcohol, it is easy to induce atrial fibrillation, as we all know, atrial fibrillation is a relatively serious arrhythmia, and its biggest risk is that it is easy to cause thrombosis.
Long-term drinking is also criticized for increasing the incidence of cancer.
A new global study led by The Lancet Oncology from IARC provides an updated assessment of the global cancer burden of alcohol consumption showing that 740,000 new cancers were attributable to alcohol consumption in 2020, and even moderate alcohol consumption (about two drinks a day) caused more than 100,000 new cancers a year.
In terms of cancer types, the largest absolute number of alcohol-related new cancers were esophageal cancer (189,700) and liver cancer (154,700), followed by breast cancer (98,300 cases), colon cancer (91,500 cases), lip and oral cancer (74,900 cases), rectal cancer (65,100 cases), pharyngeal cancer (39,400 cases), and laryngeal cancer (27,600 cases).
The main reason why alcohol causes cancer is that acetaldehyde, an intermediate metabolite of alcohol, will induce DNA mutations, and the harm of alcohol to the body shows a cumulative effect.
In addition, different wines contain different amounts of alcohol, and some wines don't seem to drink much, but according to the amount of alcohol, then the amount of alcohol ingested is quite a lot.
As a simple example, if you drink a glass of liquor and a glass of beer every day, the amount of alcohol consumed is completely different, alcohol (grams) = alcohol consumption (ml) × alcohol content (%) × 0.8.
Some people just drink two or three glasses of liquor every day, it seems that the amount is not much, maybe only two or three taels, many people will say, and those who drink a pound of wine at every turn, two or three taels is really not much, but in fact, you have consumed a relatively high amount of alcohol, so drinking, not only easy to form alcohol addiction, over time, will also cause great harm to the body.
Some people drink alcohol, although the amount is relatively large, but throughout the year, the number of times they drink is very small, very few, so they will not form an alcohol addiction, a large amount of alcohol, will only induce acute pancreatitis, acute gastric mucosal lesions These risks, as for chronic risks such as cancer, they will basically not appear.
Since there is no safe dosage for drinking, it is best not to drink at all.
For many drinkers, alcohol addiction has emerged due to the development of long-term drinking habits, and for these people, it is easy to drink alcohol and difficult to quit. So how can you quit drinking scientifically?
1. Don't get into other bad habits in order to quit drinking
Many people have an addiction to alcohol, and in order to quit drinking, they use one addiction instead of another, such as smoking in order to quit drinking, which is very undesirable, even if they succeed in quitting drinking, but they are infected with another addiction.
2. Maintain a good attitude
Quitting alcohol requires long-term persistence, one day or two days of successful abstinence, not considered success, a month or two months can not be considered successful, theoretically, at least more than half a year to be called a successful abstinence.
Due to the existence of alcohol addiction, you may experience repeated failures in the process of quitting alcohol, but keep a good attitude, do not be discouraged, and build confidence that you will succeed.
3. Family support
In order to successfully quit drinking, it is necessary to obtain the support and understanding of the family, the process of quitting alcohol is very painful, and the patient may experience both physical and psychological discomfort during the withdrawal process, which requires the care of the family.
4. Keep away from alcohol
If you want to quit drinking successfully, you must stay away from the drinking environment, remove all the alcohol at home, this is the first step, no longer participate in the drinking party, do not go to KTV, bars and other places where you often have to drink, if there are people around you who often drink, you must firmly refuse their invitation.