Canadian Researchers Say Their Tool Calculates Impact of Alcohol on Lifespan

A calculator developed by researchers at the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR) aims to determine how a person’s drinking habits impact his or her body over time. VDB Photos/Shutterstock

A group of Canadian researchers say they’ve developed a tool that can calculate the impact of alcohol consumption habits on overall health and lifespan.

Dubbed the Know Alcohol tool, the calculator was created at the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR) to determine how a person’s drinking habits are impacting his or her body.

The tool can calculate how many minutes of life a person could reclaim by cutting alcohol intake based on the scientific findings presented in Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health, a university press release says.

Researchers say the calculator can also determine the risk of premature death and the likelihood of developing conditions such as cancer or heart disease based on the user’s age, sex, and weekly alcohol consumption.

“When Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health was released two years ago, it started the first national conversation on alcohol consumption,” CISUR director Dr. Tim Naimi said in the release. “We wanted to take it a step further and make a tool that showed people personalized results so they could make evidence-informed decisions about their drinking habits.”

Know Alcohol aims to reinforce the message that drinking less is best while also providing reliable information about the health implications of alcohol consumption, Naimi said. He noted that minimal information is available to consumers about alcohol.

“A can of peas has more information on it than a can of beer,” Naimi said. “We wanted to provide credible information about alcohol with this site and calculator. People have the right to know.”

Risks Based on Age, Gender, and Consumption

The calculator asks the user to input their age, gender, and weekly alcohol intake based on standard drink sizes. Results include how a person’s current drinking habits impact his or her health as well as how many extra calories they are drinking and the estimated cost of those drinks.

The user can also enter the number of drinks they would like to cut back to in order to discover what he or she would gain and save from drinking less.

A 40-year-old woman who has one standard glass of wine each evening is losing 4.8 minutes off of her life with every drink, according to the calculator. While she has only a 1 percent chance of dying early, her chances of developing breast cancer are more than 12 percent higher than those of a non-drinker.

The amount she drinks is the equivalent of smoking three cigarettes and adds an extra 1,150 calories to her week.

Increase that amount to two glasses of wine each evening and the same 40-year-old woman would lose 8.6 minutes off of her life with every drink and have a 4.6 percent chance of dying prematurely.

Her chances of developing breast cancer increase by 27.9 percent, while her chances of having heart disease rise by 13.2 percent. She is consuming an extra 2,100 calories, and those drinks are the equivalent of smoking eight cigarettes per week.

Standardized Sizing

A realistic appraisal of weekly alcohol intake is crucial for the calculator to give users an accurate picture of their health risks.

Many Canadians commonly underestimate how much they drink because they aren’t aware of what a standardized drink actually is, the Know Alcohol website says.

A typical glass of red wine, for instance, is six ounces. But the level of alcohol in that glass actually exceeds standardized serving measurements, according to the site’s standard drink calculator.

The definition of a standard drink in Canada is 17.05 millilitres or 13.45 grams of pure ethanol, the active ingredient present in alcoholic beverages, the site says.

That means a typical glass of red wine or a pint of beer is actually the equivalent of 1.6 standardized drinks.

Those who want an accurate picture of how much they are drinking should measure each glass or can by its alcohol volume percentage. This measures the strength of alcoholic drinks based on the pure ethanol contained within them.

“Alcohol strengths vary between products, so be sure to check the % ABV listed on your drink containers,” the site says. “If your pour is large or contains a high % ABV, your ‘one drink’ is likely more than one standard drink.”

Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health rates consuming one or two standard drinks per week as low risk and three to six standard drinks per week as medium risk. Drinking seven or more is considered high-risk behaviour that increases the possibility of injuries and health issues.

Drinking less or abstaining altogether lowers a person’s risk of developing cancer, liver cirrhosis, high blood pressure, and diabetes, the guide notes. It also improves mental health and sleep patterns and cuts back on empty calories.