Relationship between alcohol consumption and hospitalization

According a a report published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, there is a relationship between alcohol drinking and hospitalization. The researchers from various universities in Glasgow and Bristol studied 5,772 Scottish men started from early 1970s for up to 35 years and found that men who drank eight to fourteen units (equivalent to 4 pints of beer or eight shots of spirits or eight small glasses of wine) were more likely to be hospitalized as compared to those who don't drink or drink less. The risks are even higher for those consuming between 14 and 21 units. They found a correlation between alcohol consumption with risks of hospitalization and length of stay increasing with increasing alcohol consumption.

Alcohol caused 1 in 25 deaths

Photo courtesy of Brian Rosner

Alcohol is definitely not "food as medicine". In fact it may be labeled as a drink of death. According to a team from the University of Toronto who published the results of a study in a 3-parts reports at The Lancet, Alcohol: a global health priorit, Action needed to tackle a global drink problem and A case study in how harmful alcohol consumption can be, one in 25 deaths worldwide are linked to alcohol consumption. That is 4% of deaths around the world are related to alcohol consumption. The figures for Europe is worst at 1 in 10 deaths being attributable to consumption of alcohol. Those are figures not to be sneered at.

Not only is 4% of deaths are alcohol consumption related, another 5% of years lived with disabilities are also attributable to alcohol consumption. Looks like the benefits of moderate drinking are overshadowed by its detrimental effects such as liver cirrhosis, mouth and throat cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, depression and stroke, etc.