Doctor Sermed Mezher warned that it is a group one carcinogen linked to at least seven cancers
A doctor warned that there is no safe amount of this drink you can consume(Image: Getty)
A doctor has issued a stark warning that a drink enjoyed by millions of Brits has been classified as a cancer-causing substance. The expert cautions that there is “no safe” amount of alcohol to consume.
Drinking remains a deeply ingrained habit across Britain, with a YouGov poll indicating that around 82 per cent of Britons admit to drinking alcohol. Statistics from 2022 show that six per cent of British adults drink every day, while a further four per cent indulge five or six days a week.
On top of this, roughly one in seven (14 per cent) have a drink three or four days per week, 23 per cent drink once or twice a week, and a third (33 per cent) drink less frequently but still partake. Despite this, one medical expert has made it clear that even drinking in small amounts carries serious health risks.
In a video posted on TikTok, Doctor Sermed Mezher expanded on the issue. He said: “The Government says drink less than 14 units of alcohol per week. They’re not saying that is a safe limit, so what are they saying?”
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He continued: “Let’s look at the facts. The consumption of alcoholic drinks is intertwined with human history, stemming back likely thousands of years across multiple cultures from far east to west.
“But our modern-day lens shows us that not all traditions are good for us. In fact, with alcohol, it is quite the opposite.
“And in 2023, the World Health Organisation published a position statement that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. But why? Well because alcohol is one of the most studied substances on the planet.
“And for us to say that there is a safe level of consumption, there needs to be a point of regular drinking that does not have negative health consequences. And the research cannot support that.”
Delivering a serious warning, he emphasised the well-documented connection between drinking alcohol and cancer. “What it does support is that alcohol is a group one carcinogen,” he said. “It is linked to at least seven cancers.
Current NHS guidelines recommend drinking no more than 14 units of alcohol a week(Image: Getty)
“And around half of the cancers caused by alcohol consumption are done by light to moderate drinking.” He then questioned the commonly-held view that alcohol can provide certain health advantages.
Dr Mezher said: “You may then say, what about the health benefits of alcohol – antioxidants like resveratrol in red wine? While the early studies which showed a benefit actually were flawed because those who were in the abstinent group had been previous drinkers, not abstinent their whole lives.
“And there’s a big difference between somebody that is and someone who’s only not been drinking for a week, but had a pint a day before that.” He added: “When the government says drink less than 14 units per week, what they’re saying is that this is a realistic target for many people considering how intertwined alcohol is with culture.
“If you’re really wanting to maximise your health, then we cannot recommend a safe drinking level at all.”
The WHO classes alcohol as a carcinogen(Image: Getty)
What the World Health Organisation says
In a 2023 update, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said: “To identify a ‘safe’ level of alcohol consumption, valid scientific evidence would need to demonstrate that at and below a certain level, there is no risk of illness or injury associated with alcohol consumption. The new WHO statement clarifies: currently available evidence cannot indicate the existence of a threshold at which the carcinogenic effects of alcohol “switch on” and start to manifest in the human body.
“Moreover, there are no studies that would demonstrate that the potential beneficial effects of light and moderate drinking on cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes outweigh the cancer risk associated with these same levels of alcohol consumption for individual consumers.”
Public health expert Dr Carina Ferreira-Borges said on the WHO website: “We cannot talk about a so-called safe level of alcohol use. It doesn’t matter how much you drink – the risk to the drinker’s health starts from the first drop of any alcoholic beverage. The only thing that we can say for sure is that the more you drink, the more harmful it is – or, in other words, the less you drink, the safer it is.”
Existing NHS guidance recommends that people should not drink more than 14 units of alcohol per week, which equates to six pints of beer or six small glasses of wine.