Why alcohol may be less harmful to middle classes

DRINKERS are constantly warned of the potentially devastating health risks posed by as little as one glass of wine in an evening.

But while government guidelines now warn that there is ‘no safe level’ of drinking, it seems this advice may not apply to the middle classes.

New research says that the richer you are, the more likely it is you can drink and not suffer as badly as those less well-off.

Affluent middle-class drinkers tend to lead otherwise healthier lives than their poorer counterparts, says a report in the journal BMC Public Health.

Wealthier tipplers are less likely to smoke, be overweight and have a poor diet – traits more associated with people on lower incomes.

This means that their bodies are, as a result, more resilient to drinking alcohol.

The researchers also found that the other factors of unhealthiness do not simply add up on top of each other, but potentially have a ‘multiplicative’ effect on the body when mixed with alcohol.

The findings – drawn from telephone interviews with 6,000 adults – suggest that the risks of alcohol are not spread evenly among the population, and can be counter- balanced by maintaining an otherwise fit and healthy lifestyle.

Explaining the ‘multiplicative’ effect, the researchers said those who smoke, are overweight or live unhealthy lifestyles may suffer greater harms from similar levels of alcohol consumption than those with otherwise healthy lifestyles.

Mark Bellis, of Bangor University, said: ‘When you are overweight you do not just get the risk of being overweight… you get those added and effectively doubled as well. The effects may be even greater when you add three or f our types of [unhealthy] behaviour in.

‘We need on an individual level for people to understand that being overweight and having an unhealthy lifestyle may carry additional risk when you’re drinking alcohol.

‘This in no way suggests that you can avoid the risks of alcohol by changing the other things in your life. What you can do is bring down some of the overlap and multiplicative effects.’

James Nicholls, of Alcohol Research UK, said: ‘This highlights the importance of wider social, economic and behavioural factors in understanding alcohol-related harm. It suggests health risk from alcohol are much greater when combined with smoking, poor diet and lower levels of physical activity.’

Earlier this month, official guidelines on the recommended levels of alcohol consumption were sharply reduced in the biggest shake-up for 30 years. Men were urged to cut their intake from 21 to 14 units a week – about seven pints of beer – in line with the guidelines for women.

Both sexes were also told to have a number of teetotal days a week to let the body recover. But Professor Theresa Marteau, who helped draw up the rules, said official advice is ‘unlikely to have a direct impact’.

The professor, who runs a Cambridge research unit, said in the BMJ that drinkers are likely to ignore advice in the short term as it is a ‘weak driver of change’.

‘Alcohol consumption is strongly influenced by environmental factors such as price, availability and marketing,’ she said. ‘Strengthening one negative association with alcohol may weaken the influences of the many positive associations forged by alcohol marketing.’