#312 - Is Moderate Drinking Actually Healthy? | Dr. Tim Naimi & Mike Haney

<p>Alcohol has spent the last 40 years bouncing between two health narratives: a little is good for your heart, or any amount is dangerous. The science doesn’t really support either slogan.</p><p>Dr. Tim Naimi has spent decades studying the health effects of alcohol and, just as importantly, why the research is so difficult to interpret. His read of the evidence is less dramatic but more useful: there’s no good reason to start drinking for your health, very low intake may carry little measurable added risk, and risk rises as consumption does. Understanding why earlier studies made moderate drinking look protective helps explain a lot of the whiplashing headlines.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Free course: Improve your metabolic health</strong></p><p>Get our free email course on how glucose, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and measurement can help you build habits that support better energy and long-term health: <a href="https://www.levels.com/partner/multimedia?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=link&utm_content=wnl&partner=naimi" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠</a></p><p><br></p><p><strong>What We Cover:</strong></p><ul><li>Why alcohol is a Group 1 carcinogen causally linked to at least seven cancers</li><li>Whether small amounts of alcohol really protect your heart</li><li>Why researchers still don’t have a definitive randomized trial of drinking and long-term health</li><li>How the “sick quitter” problem, selection bias, and confounding made moderate drinkers look healthier</li><li>Why two major recent reviews of alcohol and health produced such different headlines</li><li>How the risk changes with dose, including Naimi’s estimate of a 1 in 25 lifetime risk of an alcohol-caused death at 14 drinks per week</li><li>Why alcohol consumption is falling, and whether GLP-1 drugs could be contributing</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>🎙️ About the Guest:</strong></p><p><strong>Dr. Tim Naimi</strong> is a physician and alcohol epidemiologist who directs the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria, where he is a professor in the Division of Medical Sciences.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>📍What Dr. Tim Naimi &amp; Mike Haney discussed:</strong></p><ul><li>00:45 — Why the science on alcohol is so confusing</li><li>05:48 — How alcohol damages DNA and raises cancer risk</li><li>09:43 — Is alcohol actually good for your heart?</li><li>14:22 — Why we still don&#39;t have a definitive randomized trial</li>