Alcohol - Individual Risks and Benefits. Ulf Rydberg, Professor, Karolinska Institute, Dept. of Clinical Neuroscience, Section on Clinical Alcohol and Drug Addiction Research, S-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden, telephone +46.8.517.70.000, fax +46.8.32.63.69, e-mail: urydberg@mhk.ks.se
The goals of assessing the benefits and risks associated with alcohol consumption is to provide recommendations that promote a healthy lifestyle and thus extend people's lives. In risk research it is well known that measuring risk, assessing risk and perceiving risk are quite different dimensions - very obvious in the alcohol area. Alcohol is an old and "grey" risk which we too often neglect. Fetal damage, neurological disorders, psychiatric disorders, suicide, cancer, cardiovascular disease and violence are factors which must be taken into account in relation to alcohol. People below 40 years of age do not benefit from alcohol intake from a health point of view. For certain groups of people, alcohol consumption is associated with a net health risk, and thus abstinence is the safest course. These groups include women who are pregnant or trying to conceive, recovering alcoholics, people about to operate a motor vehicle or other demanding machinery, and people having medical contraindications or taking medications that interact with alcohol. Middle-aged and older adults who do not fall into any of the above mentioned exclusionary categories, who enjoy consuming alcohol in moderation and do not belong to special genetic risk groups are likely to experience net health benefits. Heavier drinkers likely will benefit from moderating their consumption.
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