just-drinks authors and correspondents

Columns by International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research

Critiques from the International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research

The International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research hosts forums that look at research conducted around the world on the relationship between alcohol consumption and health.

Articles by International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research

Alcohol & hypertension - What role does your diet play? - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 243 19 October 2020

The authors of a recent study tested the hypothesis that overall diet quality influences the association between alcohol consumption and the risk of hypertension. The report was based on data from the National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey in the US and two further studies in China.

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Latest research into alcohol and cancer has too many holes - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 242 5 October 2020

In an attempt to assess the relationship between light alcohol consumption (less than 12.5g per day) and the risk of a number of types of cancer, a recent report conducted a review of meta-analyses published within the last 15 years.

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Can alcohol consumption accelerate breast, ovarian cancer? - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 241 22 July 2020

The latest study to be considered by the International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research used a 'Mendelian Randomisation' (MR) approach to try to determine if alcohol consumption is causally associated with the risk of female hormone-dependent cancers.

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Should worldwide alcohol consumption guidelines be reduced to one drink per day? - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 240 8 July 2020

A recent study to have been reviewed by the International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research used very questionable data to suggest that drinking guidelines for all countries should be lowered to no more than one drink per day.

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Does the funding of research by alcohol companies lead to sponsorship bias? - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 239 28 May 2020

A recent study set out to evaluate sponsorship bias in observational alcohol research by focusing on a spectrum of health outcomes related to moderate alcohol consumption.

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Alcohol and cardiovascular heart disease - The impossibility of standardising confounders - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 238 8 April 2020

In a recent meta-analysis into alcohol consumption and the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), the authors compared earlier studies for the number of potential confounding variables included in each paper.

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Will your alcohol consumption help or hinder you from reaching 90? - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 237 3 March 2020

An interesting and well-done study from a cohort of ageing men in the Netherlands that evaluated how alcohol consumption data collected at 68-to-70 years old related to the risk that the individual would survive to age 90.

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Why studies into the link between alcohol and breast cancer have produced different results - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 236 21 February 2020

The relationship between alcohol consumption and the risk of breast cancer has been the subject of innumerable epidemiologic studies over many decades, with most showing a slight increase in risk even for light drinking. However, it has been shown that this relationship is attenuated when certain potential confounders are adjusted for, including folate levels, frequency of binge drinking and the use of post-menopausal hormonal therapy.

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What effect does alcohol have on consumers with a lower socio-economic status? - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 235 16 January 2020

In recently-released research, the authors aimed to investigate whether - and to what extent - consumption by beverage type, BMI, smoking and other factors explain inequalities in alcohol-related harm evidenced through wholly-attributable alcohol-related hospital admissions (ARHA).

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How good for you is red wine? - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 234 18 November 2019

The latest research to go under The ISFAR's microscope supports earlier research relating wine consumption to gut microbiota and its relationship with obesity as well as with cardiovascular and other diseases.