Alcohol consumption can ‘increase risk of developing 60 diseases’

Bad news for boozers - alcohol is linked to more than 60 diseases.

According to new Oxford University research published Thursday in the journal Nature Medicine, even occasional drinkers were at a higher risk for certain conditions, including more than 30 illnesses not previously linked to alcohol.

The researchers studied the effects of alcohol on 512,000 men and women in China for 12 years. 41 per cent of those studied were man and they were all recruited from 10 areas across China and drank at different frequencies.

“Alcohol consumption is adversely related to a much wider range of diseases than has previously been established, and our findings show these associations are likely to be causal,” lead study author Pek Kei Im, a research fellow at Oxford Population Health, said in a statement.

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28 ailments the researches found had already been tied to drinking, such as esophageal cancer, liver disease and diabetes.

The remaining 33 had not been established as drinking-related illnesses, including stomach and lung cancers, gastric ulcers and gout.

“It is becoming clear that the harmful use of alcohol is one of the most important risk factors for poor health, both in China and globally,” said senior study author Iona Millwood, an associate professor at Oxford Population Health.

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