Drinking alcohol: how much is too much?

For alcohol consumption, how much is too much? Clearly, prolonged heavy drinking or heavy binge drinking is bad; there are a range of negative effects–health, disease, neurological, and behavior. But, occasional, “social” light to moderate drinking? There have been studies that purported to show some health benefits. Is that true? Or, is all alcohol consumption bad? Does it have anything to do with how the research studies are structured?

Featured articles: 

**updated February 2024**

*GBD 2016 Alcohol Collaborators. (2018). Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016: A systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2016. The Lancet, 392(10152), 1015-1035.

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*Burton, R., & Sheron, N. (2018). No level of alcohol consumption improves health. The Lancet, 392(10152), 987-988.

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*Meyerhoff, D. J., Bode, C., Nixon, S. J., de Bruin, E. A., Bode, J. C., & Seitz, H. K. (2005). Health risks of chronic moderate and heavy alcohol consumption: How much is too much? Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 29(7), 1334-1340.

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*Toma, A., Paré, G., & Leong, D. P. (2017). Alcohol and cardiovascular disease: How much is too much? Current Atherosclerosis Reports, 19(3), 13.

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*Kiviniemi, M. T., Orom, H., Hay, J. L., & Waters, E. A. (2021). Limitations in American adults’ awareness of and beliefs about alcohol as a risk factor for cancer. Preventive Medicine Reports, 23, 101433. 

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For additional research on the impacts of alcohol consumption, please see the —

Science Primary Literature database

Questions? Please let me know —

engelk@grinnell.edu