A glass of red wine is good for the heart, but... it turns out to be a flawed study.

Canadian research team: "Due to research design errors"... The claimed 'heart disease prevention effect' of a glass of red wine was also an exaggerated statement.

It seems I need to stop drinking.

According to research findings from the University of Victoria School of Medicine in Canada, this common belief is not true and was revealed to be a mistake caused by errors in the research design. The research team analyzed the contents of 107 research papers examining the relationship between drinking habits and lifespan, and as a result of long-term follow-up observations of the involved individuals, they stated that this is the case.

According to research findings, previous studies on 'moderate drinking' mainly focused on the elderly, and it was revealed that they mistakenly included people who experienced health problems due to alcohol and completely quit or significantly reduced their drinking as part of the '(lifelong) abstainer' group. In particular, it was analyzed that most of the previous studies related to alcohol consumption failed to accurately reflect participants' 'lifetime drinking habits.'

Dr. Team Stockwell of Victoria University's School of Medicine, the corresponding author of the study (Drug Abuse Research Institute), said, "In short, studies linking 'moderate drinking' to health benefits have fundamental design flaws."

The research team found that light drinkers (those who consume 1 to 12 drinks per week) had a 14% lower risk of death during the study period compared to lifelong abstainers. However, the team believed this result was not accurate. Using a specific model (a mixed linear regression model), the team evaluated the quality of the study and the risk of death to clearly determine the impact of moderate drinking on health. As a result, moderate drinking was found to have no significant association with a reduction in the risk of death.

According to the research team, high-quality studies focused on individuals aged 55 and under, appropriately distinguishing between those who had previously consumed alcohol and those who drank occasionally as 'lifelong abstainers,' and tracked participants from young adulthood to old age. These high-quality research findings indicate that people who drink small amounts of alcohol have a similar risk of death as those who do not drink at all. It has been revealed that moderate drinking offers no longevity benefits.

According to the research team, 'moderate drinking' is likely not to extend a person's lifespan. Instead, it may pose health risks by increasing the likelihood of developing certain cancers. For this reason, no major health organization has established a safe level of alcohol consumption. Alcohol is associated with seven types of cancer, including oral, pharyngeal, laryngeal, esophageal, liver, colorectal, and breast cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen, placing it in the same category as tobacco and fine dust. Dr. Stockwell emphasized, "There is no such thing as a completely 'safe' level of alcohol consumption."