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Abstaining from alcohol does not after all increase your risk of dying early,
compared with moderate drinkers. A team led by Kaye Fillmore of the University
of California, San Francisco, reanalysed previous research, separating reformed
drinkers from lifelong teetotallers—a shortcoming of many studies. The
researchers also allowed for other factors that might affect mortality, such as
smoking, income and depression. “When these factors are statistically accounted
for, abstainers of either type are not at higher risk,” says Fillmore. The first
of three papers from the study appears in the latest Addiction(vol 93,
p 183).