Moderate alcohol consumption inversely correlated with all-cause mortality

My roommate recently sent me a review article that LW might find interesting:

Conclusions: Low levels of alcohol intake (1-2 drinks per day for women and 2-4 drinks per day for men) are inversely associated with total mortality in both men and women. Our findings, while confirming the hazards of excess drinking, indicate potential windows of alcohol intake that may confer a net beneficial effect of moderate drinking, at least in terms of survival.

Personal observation says that LWers tend not to drink very much or often. Perhaps that should change, to the degree suggested by the article?

Full article here.

My roommate recently sent me a review article that LW might find interesting:

Conclusions: Low levels of alcohol intake (1-2 drinks per day for women and 2-4 drinks per day for men) are inversely associated with total mortality in both men and women. Our findings, while confirming the hazards of excess drinking, indicate potential windows of alcohol intake that may confer a net beneficial effect of moderate drinking, at least in terms of survival.

Personal observation says that LWers tend not to drink very much or often. Perhaps that should change, to the degree suggested by the article?

Full article here.

Why wouldn't I experience placebo effects if I started drinking as the result of controlled trials which suggest that drinking will reduce all-cause mortality?

I want to know the effectiveness of the combination of chemical effects and placebo effects from the treatment I take, not the effectiveness of an outwardly similar treatment that has had significant changes made for the purpose of getting results different from the results I should expect.

Ah. I believe we have interpreted shminux's top-level comment differently. I think shminux was stating that establishing the direct causal effects of alcohol consumption requires a blinded randomized controlled trial (RCT), which is true. However, blinding is indeed not required if one wishes to include the effects from the intervention method.

I am undecided on whether blinded RCTs are more cost-effective at the moment (obviously, it depends sensitively on what one wants to find out). In any case, I think we'll agree that any interventional study – blinded... (read more)