Serpent wrote:Cavesa wrote:It is very simple, a study made totally in today's fashion. Choose a subject and results someone will surely pay you for, choose the methods and sample to get such results, write the paperwork to get money, and publish.
As they claim,
Our hypotheses were twofold: light drinking (<7 units weekly) is protective against adverse brain outcomes and cognitive decline and heavier drinking (above recommended guidelines) is associated with adverse brain and cognitive outcomes.
Also, one unit of alcohol is 8g or 10ml, so that a glass of wine is 2.4 units, while a pint of strong beer/lager/cider is 3 units.
As their claim, they didn't try to prove anything new or noteworthy. Yes, it can be a nice tiny bit of puzzle for some metaanalysis, but nothing more.
I find the sample questionable, and the goal too. The light drinking is already proven to slightly protect the brain by protection from atherosclerosis (vascular dementia is probably the most common one these days). The heavier drinking's effects are already documented well.
A glass of wine varies between countries or even restaurants (from 100 mm to 250 ml, not sure about the British standard), beers too (a strong beer can be a 14° or 22°). But anyways, we need to talk in these common terms with patients, as no normal person is ordering 2 units in a restaurant, and the restaurant doesn't put the relevant units to the individual beverages. I think this communication problem may affect all such studies.
If we take these examples as the standard the study participants were drinking, it was:
1.very hard to drink whole glasses or pints and stay within the 7 units/week limit. It would mean drinking 1 glass or pint twice per week.
2.weird the researchers chose a different and more strict moderate drinking defition than the one widely officially used (which is 14 units per week for both men and women, with maximum of 3 units within one day for a man and 2 for a woman).
3.almost impossible to both be a moderate consumer by the study's definition AND profit from any protective effects of alcohol, as that is linked to small everyday doses.
I would find it much more interesting, if the study followed today's trend and studied or compared the effects of individual alcoholic beverages. The effects of wine and beer are being studied these days, and definitely not only with focus on alcohol. In these two cases, positive effects of some of the chemical components on various aspects of health are being studied and documented, with a lot of promise for the future. I find it highly probable that the future recommendations on alcohol consumption will take these into account at some point and will define the norms with several groups of beverages on mind.
