Drink?: The New Science of Alcohol and Health

by David J. Nutt

The evidence on which I based my statement was the most sophisticated and detailed analysis of drug harms ever conducted. Since then, similar studies have been carried out in Europe and Australia, each coming to the same conclusion: that alcohol is the most harmful drug in their societies too.

Unlike tobacco, alcohol also kills quickly, through injury and poisoning.”2 Alcohol causes more than 5 percent of the global disease burden. It’s estimated that alcohol contributes to more than 80,000 premature deaths in the US per year. The big killers include cardiovascular disease, which leads to heart attacks and stroke. Then there are liver disease and various cancers, as well as accidents, especially on the road, and deaths from suicide.

Alcohol used to be a special purchase—you went to a bar to buy it. Now in many US states it’s widely available in supermarkets, and many people see it as part of their standard weekly grocery shopping. It’s not until you think about it that you realize how alcohol is entrenched in every part of our lives.

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The only difference between alcohol and any other drugs, I’ve always argued, is that alcohol is legal. That position has gotten me into trouble—neither the government nor the alcohol industry want alcohol to be treated as a drug, for obvious reasons

Would you take a new drug if you were told it would increase your risk of cancer, dementia, heart disease, or that it shortened your life? You wouldn’t touch it. But alcohol has a special place in our culture.

Pure alcohol tastes repellent, and nobody—except perhaps an alcoholic—would drink it.

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This learning effect holds true in rats too: once a rat has been made to drink enough alcohol, it will continue to drink it, even if it’s not flavored.

A large part of alcohol’s appeal is that, for many people, it fills in the gaps in your personality, making you the person you want to be.

Some people don’t get them at all: between 3 percent10 and 23 percent11 of the population are reported to be hangover resistant. Not surprisingly, these people may be more likely to become heavy drinkers, as they don’t experience the deterrent effect of hangovers.

on balance, no level of drinking is actually beneficial to health.

It’s thought at least one in five cases of dementia is probably due to alcohol.

One 2011 study called the US state prison system the “nation’s largest mental health institution.”

Continually remember the benefits of not drinking. This means that, when you are confronted with the desire to drink, you won’t have to work to remember the drawbacks.

It’s like the play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, where the relationship dysfunction of the main couple is reflected in the amount they drink together. If what you do together is drink, together you’ll have no resistance either. You can often see this in couples who run bars or pubs together.

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You reach a point where if you don’t drink you are too anxious to function. You are now a dependent drinker.