Drink less or no alcohol
After consuming 100 g of pure alcohol per week (roughly 2.5 L of beer), the more you drink, the earlier you are likely to die. For people aged 40, those drinking 100–200 g per week lose about half a year of life expectancy; those drinking 200–350 g lose 1–2 years; and those drinking over 350 g lose 4–5 years. Overall, the healthiest choice is to abstain completely. A total of 64 drinkers were included in these analyses.
There is no cost at all — it saves money and time. The onl…
A pooled analysis of 83 longitudinal studies involving 600,000 drinkers shows that the lowest mortality risk o…
There is no cost at all — it saves money and time. The only difficulty is handling social pressure to drink in gatherings.
A pooled analysis of 83 longitudinal studies involving 600,000 drinkers shows that the lowest mortality risk occurs at a weekly intake of no more than 100 g of pure alcohol — equivalent to about 2.5 L of beer or 300 mL of 40% alcohol. At this level, 40-year-olds lose roughly 6 months of life expectancy; higher intakes lead to greater losses. The Global Burden of Disease Study 2016 also identifies zero alcohol consumption as the safest level. One adjusted analysis found that daily intake of 1.3–24 g of alcohol is linked to a 7% lower mortality risk (RR 0.93), while intakes above 65 g per day increase risk by 35% (RR 1.35).
Wood AM 等 (2018). Risk thresholds for alcohol consumption: combined analysis of individual-participant data for 599 912 current drinkers in 83 prospective studies. Lancet. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30134-X；GBD 2016 Alcohol Collaborators (2018). Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31310-2；Zhao J 等 (2023). Association Between Daily Alcohol Intake and Risk of All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-analyses. JAMA Network Open. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.6185；Di Castelnuovo A 等 (2006). Alcohol dosing and total mortality in men and women: an updated meta-analysis of 34 prospective studies. Archives of Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.22.2437（争议方）
Open source linkThis topic remains debated. One major review of 34 long-term studies suggests that moderate drinking can reduce overall mortality by up to 17–18% for men drinking up to 4 drinks per day and women up to 2. Critics argue that non-drinkers in such studies often include people who quit drinking due to illness or who were already in poor health; when these factors are accounted for, any protective effect disappears. The safest interpretation is that moderate drinking offers little benefit, while excessive drinking clearly harms longevity. There is no evidence to support starting to drink for health reasons. For tips on cutting back, see Section 22; those already drinking daily should not attempt to quit abruptly — see Section 21 for guidance.