The Study: Drinking a little wine is better than drinking too much, but also not drinking at all

There are hundreds of studies both for and against alcohol consumption. Now, though, a definitely curious one has come from Italy, which studied the relation between moderate consumption of wine and the number of hospital admissions. The study revealed that those who consume the classic one glass of wine a day, and the Mediterranean diet, have fewer hospital admissions compared both to those who, of course, drink too much, but also to the teetotalers. This is the picture that has been drawn from the epidemiological study “Moli Sani”, authored by the Italian Department of Epidemiology and Prevention of the research and healthcare institute, IRCCS Neuromed of Pozzilli in Isernia, in collaboration with the Harvard Department of Nutrition T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, which was published in the scientific journal, “Addiction”. The study was comprised of 21.000 participants, who were followed for over 6 years, relating to their habits on alcoholic beverages and the number of hospital admissions.
“We have observed”, said Simona Costanzo, head author of the study, who spent a period of research in this field at the University of Harvard, thanks to a grant from the Veronesi Foundation, “that a high level of alcohol consumption is accompanied by a higher probability of hospitalization, especially for tumors and alcohol-related illnesses. This confirms that excessive drinking causes serious damage to health. On the other hand, those who drink in moderation present a lower risk of hospitalization in all cases and for cardiovascular diseases compared to abstainers and ex-drinkers”.

“Data on hospitalizations”, commented Licia Iacoviello, Head of the Laboratory of Molecular and Nutritional Epidemiology of the IRCCS Neuromed and Professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the University of Insubria in Varese, “is very important when we are considering the impact of alcohol on public health. Hospital admissions are not only a serious problem for the life of the individual citizen, but have a strong impact on the budget of the Health System. Our study confirms how much excess alcohol consumption weighs on healthcare facilities, and the urgency of tackling the problem, but it also confirms and extends our previous observations that moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a reduction in mortality risk regardless of the type of disease”.

“We are absolutely not saying”, underlined Giovanni de Gaetano, President of the IRCCS Neuromed, “that a teetotaler should start drinking to protect his health. This study, however, reaffirms that there is no scientific basis for totally demonizing alcohol, as a component of the Mediterranean diet, which is also part of a social lifestyle. Alcohol in moderation, once again, has proven to not be a negative factor”.