Physical Fitness Reduces Risk of Death from All Causes for Moderate Drinkers

Maybe the World Health Organization has it all wrong. Maybe instead of warning that just one drink can result in you developing cancer, maybe the notoriously anti-alcohol WHO should be promoting the idea that physical fitness + moderate alcohol consumption reduces your risk of dying from all causes.

That, at least, is what it looks like to us after reading a new study involving 37,069 Norwegians over a 10-year period.

Maintaining cardiorespiratory fitness above the lowest 20% for one’s age and sex lowers the mortality risk associated with alcohol intake, the study found. And a 10-year change in fitness is a better predictor of mortality than contemporary changes in alcohol intake, it says.

Still, the study also seems to support the statement that if you don't drink alcohol, don't start for health reasons. It also found a 20% higher risk of mortality among former abstainers who increased their alcohol intake between two examinations 10 years apart.

But cutting back can also be a problem, the study suggests. Mortality risk increased 44% among those who reduced their alcohol intake from above to within the recommended drinking levels of two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women.

However,  those participants who reduce their alcohol intake from within the recommendations to abstinence were not at an increased risk of mortality any more than those persistently abstaining from alcohol.

Participants who remained unfit (those who CRF measures in the bottom 20% of one’s age and sex) at both examinations had an increased risk of mortality regardless of changes in alcohol intake. For instance, persistent abstainers who remained unfit had a 65% increased mortality risk than their peers who remained fit. 

Comment: The study appears to be good news for the alcohol industry in that it suggests that physical fitness can reduce the risk of death from all causes for physically fit moderate drinkers compared to abstainers.

The study, "Running from Death: Can Fitness Outpace Alcohol’s Harm? Changes in Alcohol Intake, Fitness and All-Cause Mortality in the HUNT Study, Norway," can be found at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13124876/