Alcohol & Health

Scientific studies have reported associations between alcohol consumption and various health outcomes. According to the CDC, “[o]ver time, excessive alcohol use can lead to the development of chronic diseases and other serious problems . . . By not drinking too much, you can reduce the risk of these short- and long-term health risks.”¹

While many studies have found an association with positive health outcomes and alcohol consumption, no one should drink alcohol to obtain potential health benefits. Legal age adults who choose to consume alcohol should follow the recommendations of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines and discuss their consumption with their health providers.

Research has shown that it is the ethanol in the product that is associated with the reported outcomes, so whether you drink beer, wine, or spirits, “it is the amount of alcohol consumed that affects a person most, not the type.”²

To help track the amount you are consuming, try this drink calculator.

DrinkInfo includes information on alcohol and health for topics with large bodies of scientific literature. The potential relationship between alcohol and health has been studied extensively over the course of many decades, and this website is not intended to be an exhaustive list of topics. Research on these and other topics can be explored further on PubMed.gov, a government database of scientific research containing more than one million results on the topic of “alcohol.”