Alcohol consumption increases the risks of over 60 diseases

Alcohol consumption increases the risks of over 60 diseases in Chinese men, including many diseases not previously linked to alcohol, according to a new study by researchers from Oxford Population Health and Peking University, published in Nature Medicine . Alcohol consumption is estimated to be responsible for about 3 million deaths worldwide each year, and it is increasing in many lowand middle-income countries such as China. The harmful effects of heavy drinking for certain diseases (such as liver cirrhosis, stroke and several types of cancer) are well known, but very few studies have systematically assessed the impact of alcohol use on an extensive range of diseases within the same population. The study shows that alcohol use increases the risks of 61 diseases in men in China, including many non-fatal diseases not known to be alcohol-related due to limited previous evidence. The findings of this study demonstrate the influence that alcohol intake may have on risk of disease in populations around the world. The researchers used data from the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) , a collaborative study of over 512,000 adults recruited during 2004-08 from ten diverse urban and rural areas across China. Study participants were interviewed about their lifestyle and behaviours, including detailed alcohol drinking patterns.