MetalBoar
Black Belt
I'd love to see their research (and pass it on to a friend). Said friend is a truly world class expert in statistical analysis and data science (PHD and 25+ years of experience, recognized and respected in the field, etc.), is a profound health nut, and also likes to drink. He wanted to know how much his drinking hurt his health and what the optimal level of consumption might be (zero, some, lots, unknown). He did a very thorough meta-analysis of a huge number of studies on alcohol consumption and came to the conclusion, that to the extent that we had good data on the subject, in the case of moderate consumption*, the impact on all cause mortality and overall health was very small and that, depending on which studies you trusted, low to moderate consumption probably reduced risk of overall mortality.
This was 10-ish years ago, so we may have better and different data now, but based on some of the other things he had to say I kind of doubt it. We're looking at almost entirely, or entirely, observational studies, the data is often (almost always?) self reported, the studies are frequently funded by entities with a clear bias (both alcohol producers or those favoring abstinence), and there are often confounding variables (heavy alcohol consumption is correlated with other drug use, etc.). On the matter of self reported data, one of the funny things my friend pointed out was that if you looked at the data for alcohol sales in the UK and compared it to self reported consumption in the UK there were only two conclusions you could come to, 1) people are lying about how much they drink or 2) people are pouring more than half the alcohol they buy down the drain.
Now, hepatologists are a bit focused in their outlook. They see people who are sick or dying with liver problems, and alcohol consumption may simply be bad for your liver. Whether it's always bad for the liver or not, my friend found no evidence that moderate consumption was bad for your longevity nor overall health, so while it may harm the liver it may have benefits that outweigh or at least balance that impact. I don't really want die of liver disease, but I don't really want to die of heart disease, brain cancer, or pneumonia either.
Overall I don't have much investment in the issue, but I do find it interesting. I think I'll email my friend and ask him if his opinion has changed. I don't really drink very much any more but I do like a glass of wine or a beer with a meal now and then and I also enjoy the occasional scotch or cocktail on a night out. Something is likely to get me sooner or later, so I'm not going to sweat the occasional drink. On the other hand, I've found that alcohol can disrupt my sleep and I have sleep issues, so my consumption is pretty low these days. Going a month without drinking probably happens about as often as not and it's the rare month that I have more than a handful of drinks in total.
*I don't remember what qualified as moderate consumption, but I do remember that it was more than I expected.
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