Liver holiday reduces death risk

Regular and heavy drinkers should take a break from alcohol for a couple of days every week for good health. Researchers from the National Cancer Centre in Tokyo, Japan studied 89,000 middle-aged men and women and followed them for up to 13 years. They found that at study entry 68 percent of the men and 11 percent of the women were regular drinkers. The analysis was confined to the men because of the less number of female drinkers in the study group. They also found that men who drank relatively heavily on most days of the week had a greater risk of dying from any cause. In contrast, men who drank roughly the same amount of alcohol each week but less frequently, showed no increase in their mortality risk. The findings, give some credibility to the widespread social belief in Japan that a liver holiday, i.e. a few days off from drinking each week helps counter the ill effects of alcohol. However, the findings don't mean that one can drink a lot as long as one has a liver holiday. There was no evidence, that a liver holiday protected the heaviest drinkers - downing more than 750 grams of alcohol per week - the equivalent of about 50 glasses of wine each week. In addition, numerous studies have pointed out the hazards of binge-drinking, which is typically defined as having five or more drinks in one sitting. Among men who reported being heavy drinkers - defined as 300 grams or more of alcohol per week, only those who drank on at least five days out of the week had a higher risk of dying during the study period. Compared with their peers who drank a few times per month, these men were up to 55 percent more likely to die. Men who drank just as much, but took a few days off each week, had no increase in mortality risk, unless their drinking reached excessively high amounts. It's not clear why those few alcohol-free days each week might make a life-or-death difference. One possibility is that heavy drinkers who drink every day may be more persistently exposed to acetaldehyde, a byproduct of alcohol metabolism that is thought to promote cancer. In addition, about half of Japanese individuals are believed to be deficient in an enzyme that processes acetaldehyde in the body, which would increase their exposure to the harmful product.