Yes, it appears that social factors are almost certainly to blame. If you compare the former/never drinkers with everyone else, they are older, fatter, and poorer
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What this means is that there are likely many confounding variables that this observational research did not pick up on, what's known as residual confoundingpic.twitter.com/M1MVWismMY
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Since this study was a bunched-together analysis of several observational studies, there are always going to be factors that could not be included in the analysis
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And, to their credit, the authors acknowledge this cheerfully:pic.twitter.com/2zXvFpgTvs
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In fact, the authors recommend caution generally, because of the weird association with heavy drinking that they foundpic.twitter.com/GGz0KivsHv
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The other thing to note is that, while the hazard ratios look impressive (50% more heart disease in the non-drinkers!), the absolute risk differences were very small - between 1 and 2 percent
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So Moderate drinking isn't good for you This study found a weak and strange association between drinking and a reduced risk of heart disease It is ALMOST CERTAINLY explained by social differences between the groups they looked at
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What's even worse, the main finding of the study wasn't even about moderate drinking per se. The authors were really looking at whether INCONSISTENT - i.e. heavy/moderate/heavy/light - drinking was problematic And they found that it was
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Now, this finding suffers from the same issues as the other ones, but still, that's a really interesting result that deserves further investigation Not at all "Moderate drinking is good for you"
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Bottom line: moderate drinking is almost certainly harmful to your health Don't drink to be healthy, because it isn't That's not a great story, but it's the truth
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Also, as has been pointed out, heavy drinking is DEFINITELY BAD FOR YOU 21+ drinks a week (3+ bottles of wine) is bad, don't do it, get help if you need it to stop
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