Dr Erik Skovenborg on the many potential health benefits of drinking with friends. Drinking with friends is a sociable activity, so a bottle of wine is an investment in future amiability in company with others, since wine promotes conviviality and helps people break the ice and reach out to each other. But should they?
The authors of the new guidelines ignore the benefits of alcohol, such as its role as a social lubricant, arguing that they are inconsequential to healthβbut they turn a blind eye to the importance of social relations. Full social participation is such a fundamental human need that research since the s has found the lack of social connections increases the odds of death by at least 50 percent. The magnitude of this effect is comparable to that of smoking and exceeds those of many other known risk factors of mortality, such as obesity or physical inactivity.
Social engagement is particularly important for older people, since many of the formal social roles that provide a catalyst for social integration are lost as people age, due to retirement, living alone, or restricted mobility, for exampleβfactors that may increase their risk of social isolation.
There is, however, a significant minority who are not. The reasons given for consuming alcohol, and the social context, vary between lower-risk and higher-risk drinkers.
While 92 percent of lower-risk drinkers drink with someone else, only 62 percent of higher-risk drinkers do. While one percent of lower-risk drinkers say they drink when feeling down or depressed, this increases to 36 percent for higher-risk drinkers.
