What’s best for longevity: Working out or not drinking?

 My longevity is going to be fun and my social connections will get me there.

(Sunday is music at Red Cedar, Tuesday is music at Moriarties, Thursday is trivia at Moriarties; all are bars, so alcohol is involved, there will be no condemnations of that.) All part of my plan to exponentially expand my social connections to prevent dementia. 

What’s best for longevity: Working out or not drinking?

We know that drinking alcohol is probably not the best thing you can do to extend your lifespan. And research has shown that activities like strength training and improving your V02 max can help add years to your life. But if you had to focus your energy on just one of these—in other words, saying goodbye to the bar or getting underneath one a few times a week—which would do the most to extend your longevity?

That’s what a new study aimed to uncover—and the results may surprise you. In a good way! That is, if you’re not ready to give up drinking. No, alcohol is not suddenly healthy. And fitness is still the best investment you can make in your health. But the relationship between the two isn’t as simple as previously thought. And, depending on your current fitness level, hitting the gym might be a better new year’s resolution for improving your longevity than attempting to give up or cut down on your drinking.

What the study found

The Trøndelag Health Study, also known as the HUNT study, is one of the largest ongoing health studies ever conducted. Established to analyze the health and wellbeing of a large population—including the impact of various lifestyle factors like, including diet and exercise—over an extended period of time, the study began in 1984 in the Norwegian county of Trøndelag with a sample size of about 75,000 people.

Related video: Key to longevity? Experts say it’s these 2 factors (Las Vegas Review-Journal)Since then, researchers have reconvened every 10 years to record new data—gathered from a range of inputs, including biological samples, questionnaires, and interviews—and enlist new participants. Four decades in, the study has collected data from well over 100,000 subjects, serving as the basis for hundreds of independent research papers.

This latest study, published last month in the journal Sports Medicine, sought to investigate how changes to a person’s fitness level and alcohol consumption might increase or decrease their risk of dying from various causes. Using data from two rounds of the HUNT study, collected a decade apart, the researchers focused on a sample of about 25,000 healthy adults, which they segmented by fitness level and alcohol usage, allowing them to observe changes to both variables over the 10-year span.

While the analysis produced some expected results (namely, that subjects who increased their alcohol intake, or started drinking, raised their mortality risk, as did those who reported a decrease in fitness level), the most notable insights emerged when these behaviors were viewed together, rather than in isolation. For instance, subjects with a fitness level in the bottom 20 percent had a considerably higher risk of dying—regardless of the amount of alcohol they reported drinking. And among participants who increased or even just maintained their fitness, mortality risk was much lower, even when they increased the amount of alcohol they drank. In other words, fitness noticeably attenuated the risk of mortality associated with drinking alcohol.

Improving fitness is better for longevity than drinking less

The study shows, unequivocally, that, if improving longevity is your goal, then improving your fitness will give you more bang for your buck than reducing your alcohol consumption. “And it's not even close,” says Jordan Weiss, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Precision Medicine and Optimal Aging Institute at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

“The HUNT study shows us that being in the bottom 20 percent for fitness is more dangerous than moderate drinking, and a fit person who drinks moderately will likely outlive an unfit non-drinker,” he says. “If the average person can walk 30 minutes a day and cut drinking from five nights to two, then both are achievable. But if I had to pick one to move the mortality needle, I would always pick exercise.”

Of course, on paper, the best thing you could do for your health would be to stay fit and abstain from alcohol altogether. But that’s not realistic for most people—a fact that was not lost on the study’s authors.

“Personally, I think that, as humans, we will keep drinking. I don't see a future where everyone is abstaining from alcohol—I don't think that will ever happen,” says Javaid Nauman, PhD, associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, associate professor at the College of Medicine at United Arab Emirates University, and the study’s lead author. “So how can we counter some of the negative impacts of alcohol? Through improvements in fitness, or the maintenance of fitness.”

Fitness does not completely cancel out the risks of drinking alcohol

An important point to highlight is that, while improving fitness is a more powerful longevity strategy than reducing alcohol consumption, and may even blunt some of alcohol’s negative effects on your health, the walls of the weight room won’t shield you from all of the risks associated with drinking.

"Some people interpret attenuation as permission, but I would interpret it more along the lines of, your fitness gives you some resilience, but you're still better off minimizing alcohol consumption for optimal health,” says Dr. Weiss. "Fitness primarily protects against cardiovascular mortality, while alcohol has a cancer risk,” he says. “They operate through completely different mechanisms, in terms of DNA damage and hormone disruption, so fitness likely can't protect against that.”

"I would say, don't feel like you're offsetting drinking,” says Pablo Prichard, MD, board-certified reconstructive surgeon, longevity expert, and host of NBC’s Forever Young. “You should always consider those two as separate, because there are very, very different risks with alcohol and fitness. Your cardiorespiratory fitness affects a lot of different things, including your heart and your lungs. But when you're talking about your cancer risk mitigation, that's a totally separate area of longevity that you're affecting.”

That said, according to Dr. Nauman, while the two behaviors each come with their own unique risks, there is some common ground at the center of the Venn diagram. “In terms of the mechanisms through which fitness [and drinking less] improve overall health, there are many shared or overlapping mechanisms,” he says. Hence physical activity’s ability to attenuate some of the mortality risk associated with drinking. Just don’t expect the benefits of one behavior to completely eclipse the risks of the other.

Watch Now: GQ Video.

The higher your fitness, the lower your risk—up to a point

If you’d rather not give up drinking, the study’s message is clear: Improve your fitness to dull alcohol’s impact on your health—especially if you’re not already exercising regularly. “If you're in that bottom 20 percent of cardiorespiratory fitness, the best thing you can do—by far—is to get out of that,” says Dr. Prichard. “That's going to be better than not drinking.”

“And even better—although this data doesn't show it, because they didn't look at it—if your fitness level is in the top 20 percent, that's going to be even better for your longevity than being somewhere in the middle,” he says.

However, beyond that point, the protective benefits of hitting the gym start to top out. “Once you're moderately fit, you get diminishing returns as you start pushing towards elite performance,” says Dr. Weiss. “If you're already competing in Hyrox, cutting alcohol is going to be more beneficial than adding an extra six miles to your run every week.”

“I think the main takeaway is it totally depends on your starting point,” Dr. Weiss says. “If you're sedentary and drinking one to two drinks a day or per week, then fix the sedentary part first; being in the bottom 20 percent for fitness carries around a 65 percent higher mortality risk, which overwhelms moderate drinking. But if you're already fit and drinking heavily, then alcohol is probably your primary target.”

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Alcohol’s Health Myth Is Over. How to Tell Patients

 

 I'm not concerned. What about all this? Your competent? doctor won't do a bit of thinking, just state; no alcohol!

Men must drink with male friends twice a week to stay healthy, study finds

 Do not bring this to your doctor's attention, you don't want to be responsible for an exploding head.

An occasional drink doesn't hurt coronary arteries

Smarter People Tend To Drink More Alcohol March 2019

Can alcohol make men smarter? Study suggests yes April 2012 

But what if you are using Guinness for blood thinning?

Guinness could really be good for you

A pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as a low dose aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.

Don't do this on your own, you know how deadly even one glass of alcohol is.

Why Do Moderate Drinkers Live Longer Than Abstainers? 

Man Dies Aged 107, Thanked Red Wine For Long Life - 3 liters a day, no water

So I'm looking at this 107 year old drinking 3 liters of wine a day and want to emulate him. Does your doctor have any proven scientific reason not to do this?

Here is what your doctor will use, no thinking required:

Safest level of alcohol consumption is none, worldwide study shows

The latest here:

Alcohol’s Health Myth Is Over. How to Tell Patients

or nearly 30 years, the media and many physicians promoted the belief — fueled by the French paradox and bias-ridden observational studies — that a drink or two a day could be good for many adults.

Now, better-designed research has uncorked a new truth: Even one drink a day can raise the risk for cancer, cardiovascular problems, liver disease, and early death. The government-commissioned Alcohol Intake and Health Study, published in June, found a level of drinking once considered potentially protective — a glass of red wine with friends, a beer on a summer night, a brunch-time cocktail — have no meaningful health benefits.

The study joins a growing body of research presenting physicians with a challenge: How to explain to patients, even light drinkers, that older studies were flawed, and the healthiest drink is none at all.

“The science is evolving in front of our eyes. That can be deeply unsettling, but it’s an opportunity to engage our patients in the conversation,” said oncologist Noelle LoConte, MD, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, Wisconsin, and lead author of the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s most recent statement on alcohol and cancer.

Key Points

• Newer data: even 1 drink/day ↑ cancer, CV, liver disease, and all-cause mortality risk.
• No meaningful health benefit found for red wine/light-moderate alcohol.
• Prior J-shaped curve likely biased by sick-quitters + healthier drinker confounding.
• Alcohol counseling is impactful; explicit clinician discussion ↑ awareness of cancer risk.
• Patient discussions: nonjudgmental, collaborative, motivational interviewing; cancer risk = zero alcohol.

How does alcohol cessation affect blood pressure longitudinally?

Which confounders bias moderate alcohol observational studies?

What is alcohol's dose-response cancer risk threshold?

Hearing the message from a physician makes a difference. A 2021 study of 4549 US adults found just 44% remembered a clinician talking with them about alcohol’s harms in the past year, and only 35% thought there was a link between drinking and cancer risk. That rose to 52% when their doctor explicitly discussed it. Silence is risky: Cardiology patients who thought alcohol was heart healthy were 67% more likely to drink excessively, while adults who viewed alcohol as neutral or even beneficial for the heart were less than half as likely to recognize its cancer risks.

“We know that physicians’ recommendations about alcohol are extremely impactful,” LoConte said. “We should be talking with patients about alcohol at least periodically.”

Sick Quitters and Unhealthy Abstainers: The Bias in Alcohol Studies

On a Sunday night in 1991, America watched as 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer raised a glass of red wine at a French bistro, suggesting it explained why France had lower heart disease rates despite a high-fat diet. Within a year, US red wine sales rose 40%. Meanwhile, large epidemiologic studies — including the Framingham Study in 1983 and the Physician’s Health Study in 2000 — found a reduced risk for coronary artery disease with light-to-moderate drinking. By 2011, a major review of 84 studies concluded that the debate was essentially over.

But doubts were emerging, and for good reason: The widely reported “J-shaped curve” — graphs showing higher heart risks for abstainers, lower risks for moderate drinkers, and highest risks for heavy drinkers — turned out to be wrong.

Abstainer groups often included many “sick quitters” — former drinkers who’d stopped due to health problems — and never-drinkers who avoided alcohol because of life-long poor health, reported Canadian researchers in a 2016 analysis. Meanwhile, low-to-moderate drinkers typically enjoyed other major health advantages like higher incomes, healthier diets, more exercise, and less obesity, according to a 2023 follow-up analysis. Adjusting for these biases reduced alcohol’s survival protection to a statistically meaningless 3%.

Suggestions that light drinking benefits cholesterol or blood pressure have also lost out to newer data. In a 2025 Japanese study of 58,943 adults, light-to-moderate drinkers who quit saw blood pressure fall by their next annual check-up. Slight changes in cholesterol are not clinically significant, noted the American College of Cardiology.

“The science doesn’t lie — alcohol isn’t good for us,” said Douglas Spotts, MD, a family physician in Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania, and spokesperson for the American Academy of Family Physicians. “Physicians and scientists know enough now to confirm that the old adage about red wine is nothing more than a myth. No amount of alcohol is safe — full stop.”

Talking to Patients About Alcohol

Recent trends may be on the physician’s side: alcohol use among US adults dropped to 54% in a July 2025 Gallup poll, the lowest in its 90-year-history. But alcohol remains deeply embedded socially. “Alcohol helps people socialize,” said LoConte. “It’s culturally normed. Adults enjoy it. These all make it hard for doctors to bring up with patients.”

Cardiologist Columbus Batiste, MD, agrees. “We get the head nod of ‘Ok, Doctor’ just to appease us, and you know the patient will do something completely different when they leave,” said Batiste, Chief of Cardiology at Kaiser Permanente in Moreno Valley, California.

Finding the right approach to discuss alcohol could be lifesaving, Batiste said. Acknowledging flawed older research starts with a positive, nonjudgmental attitude.

1. Shift the Focus From ‘Harm’ to ‘Health Promotion’

Flip the script from ‘alcohol is bad’ to a discussion of achieving health goals. “If the question is ‘How do I achieve health?’ then we’re talking about whether alcohol consumption is health promoting, which is a different question than ‘Will it harm you?’” Batiste said.

That moves alcohol into a healthy lifestyle context. “Alcohol is one component, along with a healthy diet, exercise, stress relief,” Batiste said. “When we look at a recipe for life, for health, sometimes those small ingredients matter a lot — a pinch of salt, a pinch of baking powder. It’s the same with alcohol and health.” If patients are relying on a few drinks to relax, feel comfortable in social situations, or numb physical or psychological pain, it’s time to talk about healthier options, he added.

2. Put the Patient in the Driver’s Seat

Batiste recommends framing the dynamic collaboratively. He tells patients: “You’re the CEO of your body. If you want it to flourish, here’s my advice as your professional advisor. You have the right to accept, veto, or ask for more supporting information.” The American Heart Association recommends this approach for supporting healthy lifestyle changes for patients — beginning with asking the patient for permission to give advice; providing clear, specific, and customized advice that increases patient knowledge about their health; and then asking the patient what actions they want to take.

3. Use Motivational Interviewing and Tracking

Rather than simply telling patients to drink less, experts said it can be more effective to start with a conversation about their habits and concerns. LoConte recommends asking whether patients are worried about their drinking and encouraging them to track when and how much they drink before discussing the results at a follow-up visit. While reducing alcohol is a positive step, she said it’s important to be clear about the evidence: “The number is zero for cancer.”

That doesn’t mean every conversation should sound the same. Batiste said recommendations should be tailored to a person’s overall health and drinking patterns. Someone who already has cardiovascular disease, heart failure, or an irregular heartbeat may face different risks than someone who drinks occasionally. But even for lighter drinkers, he said, patients should understand that “even light alcohol on a consistent basis could be harmful” over time.

4. Actively Debunk Common Patient Myths

Mistaken beliefs about alcohol include “red wine is healthier”, “beer is safer because it’s lower in alcohol by volume”, or “drinking is only a problem if you have an addiction” and “My friend’s aunt drank whiskey every day and lived to 100.” “I see patients every week with these beliefs,” LoConte said.

5. Confront ‘Nutritional Whiplash’ Directly

Experts said it’s worth acknowledging that patients may feel confused by yet another shift in health advice. Explaining that scientific recommendations evolve as stronger evidence emerges can help put the change in context.

“As we saw with COVID, seeing science as iterative, the back-and-forth process can be deeply unsettling,” LoConte said. “It’s an opportunity to talk about research and health.” She also reminds patients that alcohol is different from many foods that seem to swing in and out of favor. “Alcohol isn’t like those,” she said. “It’s always been a Class 1 carcinogen-like ultraviolet light, tobacco, and the human papillomavirus. And now, we’re solidifying the risk.”

Batiste takes a similar approach by encouraging patients to explore the evidence themselves. He shows them how to find trustworthy information online — including using AI tools that surface authoritative sources — and revisits the conversation at future appointments. “If I tell people they can’t do something, it will drive them toward doing it,” he said. “I try to give them the why and show them where to find more good information.”

The experts cited in this article had no relevant disclosures.

Nightly glass of wine may not be as harmless as many people think, study suggests

 I'm not concerned. What about all this? Your competent? doctor won't do a bit of thinking, just state; no alcohol!

Men must drink with male friends twice a week to stay healthy, study finds

 Do not bring this to your doctor's attention, you don't want to be responsible for an exploding head.

An occasional drink doesn't hurt coronary arteries

Smarter People Tend To Drink More Alcohol March 2019

Can alcohol make men smarter? Study suggests yes April 2012 

But what if you are using Guinness for blood thinning?

Guinness could really be good for you

A pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as a low dose aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.

Don't do this on your own, you know how deadly even one glass of alcohol is.

Why Do Moderate Drinkers Live Longer Than Abstainers? 

Man Dies Aged 107, Thanked Red Wine For Long Life - 3 liters a day, no water

So I'm looking at this 107 year old drinking 3 liters of wine a day and want to emulate him. Does your doctor have any proven scientific reason not to do this?

Here is what your doctor will use, no thinking required:

Safest level of alcohol consumption is none, worldwide study shows

The latest here:

Active people more likely to be heavy drinkers because they reward exercise with alcohol

The latest here:

Nightly glass of wine may not be as harmless as many people think, study suggests

A new study is challenging the conventional wisdom that a small, daily dose of alcohol might be good for your health.

The research, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, suggests that the safest amount of alcohol to consume is actually none at all. If adults do choose to drink, the team of scientists recommends setting a limit of one per day.

This challenges older guidelines, which often suggested that up to two daily drinks for men was a safe limit.

ALCOHOL DEATHS HAVE MORE THAN DOUBLED IN RECENT YEARS, ESPECIALLY AMONG WOMEN

"While the new U.S. Dietary Guidelines contain a useful ‘less-is-best’ message, they provide no quantitative framework," study co-author Timothy Naimi, director of the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, said in a press release.

"Our study was designed to do just that across the drinking spectrum."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Researchers analyzed data on alcohol-related injuries and illnesses and compared it with large national health and demographic databases. iStock© iStock

Researchers reached their conclusions by analyzing data on alcohol-related injuries and illnesses and comparing it with large national health and demographic databases, according to a press release.

Using statistical models, they examined how regular alcohol consumption is linked to life expectancy.

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"Even low levels of alcohol use come with health risks," lead study author Kevin Shield, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, in the same press release. "And that risk continues to increase the more someone drinks."

After evaluating the cumulative risks for conditions like liver disease, stroke and certain cancers, the study suggests that the assumed benefits of drinking are heavily outweighed by the potential dangers.

Even low levels of alcohol use come with health risks, according to the researchers. iStock© iStock

For those looking to protect their long-term health, researchers emphasized that cutting back to one drink or giving up alcohol entirely appears to be the best strategy.

Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, noted that this was an observational Canadian study looking at U.S. census data.

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"It is massive, but still not proof," cautioned Siegel, who was not involved in the study. "I am impressed with the endpoint, which is to assess alcohol-specific mortality," he added.

The doctor called the research "convincing" in terms of showing that even lower levels of drinking carry mortality risk.

For those looking to protect their long-term health, researchers recommend cutting back to one drink or giving up alcohol altogether. iStock© iStock

"We are in the process of debunking previous research and public health statements that a small amount of alcohol is actually good for you, and replacing it with the more realistic and accurate notion that no amount of alcohol is good," he told Fox News Digital.

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Alcohol affects multiple systems throughout the body, acting as a toxin that can compromise vital organs over time, according to the doctor.

Siegel warned that "alcohol is bad for the heart, the liver and the brain, and it increases inflammation and certain cancers, all of which lead to increased mortality risks."

Alcohol affects multiple systems throughout the body, acting as a toxin that can compromise vital organs over time, according to a doctor. iStock© iStock

While the research offers an overview of public health trends, it is an observational study based on U.S. census data, meaning it can only show strong correlations and cannot prove direct cause and effect, the researchers acknowledged.

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Additionally, because the study relies on self-reported drinking habits, it is subject to the common limitation of individuals underestimating or misreporting their actual alcohol consumption.

Original article source: Nightly glass of wine may not be as harmless as many people think, study suggests