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A study conducted on a global sample of people found that alcohol consumption is not good for anyone under this age.

Alcohol isn’t the healthiest of vices, but many claim that there are certain benefits of consuming with moderation. But a new study has shut down all of our hopes, at least for those under the age of 40, finding that alcohol provided no health benefits for this rather large age group.

The study, published on the Lancet Medical Journal, is a global one and the first of its kind, accounting for factors like geographic locations, sex, ages, and more. It found that males between the ages of 15 and 39 are at highest risk of alcohol’s damage.

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“Using estimates of alcohol use in 204 countries, researchers calculated that 1.34 billion people consumed harmful amounts in 2020,” reads the study’s press release. “In every region, the largest segment of the population drinking unsafe amounts of alcohol were males aged 15–39 and for this age group, drinking alcohol does not provide any health benefits and presents many health risks, with 60% of alcohol-related injuries occurring among people in this age group, including motor vehicle accidents, suicides, and homicides.”

In the case of people over the age of 40, drinking small amounts of alcohol was linked with some benefits, like less risk of heart disease, particularly if these people lived in places where there was a lot of heart disease. There was one caveat: for these people to experience benefits, they had to not have any underlying health conditions.

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“Our message is simple: young people should not drink, but older people may benefit from drinking small amounts. While it may not be realistic to think young adults will abstain from drinking, we do think it’s important to communicate the latest evidence so that everyone can make informed decisions about their health,” said senior author Dr. Emmanuela Gakidou, who is also a professor at the University of Washington.

So, drinking is bad for you, but also, the world is on fire. Researchers should cut us all some slack.

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