According to a review of decades of research, moderate drinking has no positive effects on health.

 The analysis concluded that many earlier studies' methodologies were defective and that, for women and men respectively, the risk of a wide range of health issues increased noticeably after just two drinks per day.

Scientific research has long demonstrated that drinking in moderation can improve most people's health and even lengthen their lives.

A recent review of more than 40 years of study came to the opposite conclusion, finding that many of those studies were erroneous.

According to the review, women who use 25 grams of alcohol per day—less than two normal cocktails with 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, two 12-ounce beers, or two 5-ounce glasses of wine—have a considerably increased chance of dying young. When men consume 45 grams of alcohol each day, or slightly over three drinks, the risks to them considerably increase.

The purpose of the current research, which examined more than 100 studies involving nearly five million adults, was to address methodological issues that afflicted many of the older observational studies rather than to make drinking recommendations. These studies repeatedly discovered that moderate drinkers had a lower risk of passing away for any reason, including those unrelated to alcohol consumption.

The majority of the research was observational, which means they could have been deceptive and did not establish cause and effect, but they could still find linkages or associations. Scientists claimed that older research had overlooked the numerous other beneficial behaviors and benefits that light and moderate drinkers had and that the comparison group of abstainers frequently included former drinkers who had stopped due to health issues.

"It makes the current drinkers look more healthy and like they have lower mortality when you compare this unhealthy group to those who go on drinking," said Tim Stockwell, a scientist with the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and one of the authors of the new study, which was published in JAMA Network Open last week.

After making these and other corrections, Dr. Stockwell stated, "Lo and behold, the alleged health benefits of drinking shrink dramatically, and become non-statistically significant."

According to Dr. Stockwell, there are a number of problems with comparing moderate drinkers and non-drinkers. Few people totally avoid alcohol, and those who don't for religious reasons are more likely to have ongoing health issues, have a disability, or come from lower-class families.

In general, moderate drinkers are also moderate in other areas. They are typically wealthier, more likely to engage in physical activity and consume a nutritious diet, and less likely to be overweight. Scientists claim that they even have better teeth.

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They benefit from many factors that safeguard their health and are unrelated to their alcohol use, according to Dr. Stockwell.

The first evidence for the potential health benefits of moderate drinking was published in 1924 by Raymond Pearl, a biologist at Johns Hopkins University. In this graph, the low point in the middle represents the moderate drinkers, who had the lowest rates of mortality from all causes.

The J's highest point reflected the well-known dangers of excessive alcohol use, including liver disease and car accidents. Abstainers were indicated by the hook on the left.

After news reports highlighted its high quantity of resveratrol, a beneficial antioxidant also present in blueberries and cranberries, red wine in particular gained a reputation for having health benefits in more recent decades.

However, as the alcohol industry's role in funding research has come to light, the moderate alcohol hypothesis has come in for increasing criticism. Furthermore, more recent research has found that even moderate alcohol consumption, including red wine, may be linked to cancers of the breast, esophagus, head, and neck, high blood pressure, and dangerous heart arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation.

Canada released new recommendations in January cautioning that no level of alcohol intake is healthy and advising consumers to limit their consumption as much as possible. The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction released new instructions that marked a significant divergence from its 2011 recommendations, which advised men and women to consume no more than 15 standard drinks per week.

According to the Canadian organization, even two ordinary drinks per week are now linked to health problems, and seven or more entail a significant amount of risk.

Current U.S. dietary recommendations advise males to restrict their alcohol consumption to two drinks or less per day and women to one drink per day.

However, recommendations on alcohol use made by a number of health organizations now stipulate that people shouldn't drink alcohol specifically to advance their health.

A scientist with the Distilled Spirits Council reiterated that warning, but she disagreed with the latest report's conclusions.

Although the new research continues to "suggest that those who drink in moderation live longer than those who do not," Amanda Berger, vice president for science and health at the Distilled Spirits Council, added that "no one should drink alcohol to obtain potential health benefits and some individuals should not drink at all."

However, the current analysis reveals that there is no statistically significant difference in longevity between moderate drinkers and lifelong abstainers, according to the study's authors.