A new study from Japan suggests that giving up booze might increase your levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol, and reduce your levels of ‘good’ cholesterol compared with people who continue to drink. Although improving your heart health might sound like a good reason to have another glass of red, are these findings too good to be true?

The study looked at data from almost 58,000 people who were going for their annual health check-up in Japan, and studied both the results of blood tests for cholesterol levels and self-reported alcohol consumption habits.

The authors found that that drinking alcohol was associated with decreased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), while ceasing alcohol consumption showed the opposite effect.

HDL cholesterol is often referred to as ‘good’ cholesterol as it helps remove excess cholesterol from the bloodstream, while LDL cholesterol is referred to as ‘bad’ cholesterol as it increases plaque build-up and contributes to heart disease.

According to Dr Rachel Visontay from The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use at The University of Sydney the study could be too good to be true, based on potential issues with the study design.

“This new research should be interpreted with some caution – particularly as it looked at people who chose themselves to start or stop drinking.”

“These decisions often accompany other major lifestyle or health changes which could be responsible for the observed cholesterol changes,” she told an AusSMC Expert Reaction.

According to Dr Visontay, this could be due to the phenomenon of ‘sick quitting’, in which people stop drinking after their health has already started to decline.

Dr Visontay did suggest that the findings in the new paper are consistent with some past studies, which have found a link between moderate alcohol consumption and increased LDL-C as well as reduced HDL-C.

Dr Stephen Bright, Senior Lecturer of Addiction at Edith Cowan University, told the AusSMC that such previous studies have largely been disproven.

“A range of health claims have been made about alcohol, often stemming from research that has been sponsored by the alcohol industry.”

“Many of these claims, such as the idea that wine could have cardiovascular benefits, have now been disproven, with subsequent research demonstrating that such findings are often quirks of the methodology employed in the research,” he told the AusSMC.

Dr Visontay also stressed that other serious conditions are exacerbated by alcohol consumption, which would outweigh potential benefits.

“For other serious conditions like cancer, we know that every drink increases risk.”

“For these reasons, it’s really important that people don’t interpret this new research as a reason to start drinking or to maintain unhealthy drinking patterns,” she said.

See the full AusSMC Expert Reaction here.
This article originally appeared in Science Deadline, a weekly newsletter from the AusSMC. You are free to republish this story, in full, with appropriate credit.

Contact: Steven Mew

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Email: info@smc.org.au