Overall health effects of alcohol consumption
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released its global status report on alcohol and health for 2011. Forum members largely agree with the discussion in the report of the serious health and societal problems associated with the misuse of alcohol, which contributes to accidents, many diseases, and premature deaths. On the other hand, Forum members were disturbed that the report was limited almost exclusively to abusive drinking, was based primarily on out-dated information, and suggested bias against alcohol. The report ignored a massive amount of scientific data indicating that in all developed countries, moderate consumers of alcohol are at much lower risk of essentially all of the diseases of ageing: coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, diabetes, dementia, and osteoporosis. And conspicuously absent from the WHO report is a description of the decrease in total mortality among middle-aged and elderly people associated with moderate alcohol consumption, a...