NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Light drinking is not a universal health booster, and its effects on health and mortality appear to vary by gender, UK researchers report.

Flying in the face of previous research that suggested light drinking could lower the risk of certain diseases, Ian R. White and colleagues from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that death rates for young adults and middle-aged women increased with the amount of alcohol they consumed.

Importantly, the risk of death began to climb when people consumed as little as one drink per week, the authors note.

Researchers have often represented the relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of death as a U-shaped curve, with no drinking and heavy drinking associated with higher risks of death from all causes.

However, White and his team found that the U-shaped curve relationship between imbibing and health appears to apply only to men over 34 and to women older than 54. And for people of other ages, even light drinking can increase the risk of death, the researchers caution.

"Substantially increased risks of all-cause mortality can occur even in people drinking lower than recommended limits, and especially among younger people," White and colleagues write.

Previous research has suggested that light drinking--defined as a couple of drinks each day--can protect people from certain cardiovascular risks, such as heart disease and stroke. While the mechanism by which alcohol may lower heart disease risk is not clear, investigators speculate that it may increase HDL ("good") cholesterol, thereby keeping arteries clear.

Alcohol may also help keep the blood thin and prevent blood clots, which can lead to stroke. Finally, alcohol may help lower blood levels of insulin, which may in turn cut the risk of heart disease.

However, the current research, presented in the July 27th issue of British Medical Journal, suggests that the benefits of alcohol vary with age.

White and his team base their results on a review of previously gathered data on alcohol consumption and death rates. In their analysis, the researchers included deaths resulting from a variety of cancers, cardiovascular diseases, liver disease and injuries.

The investigators found the amount of alcohol consumption associated with the lowest death rates was no alcohol at all for men and women under 35, and 3 and 8 drinks per week for women and men, respectively, older than 65.

Each drink was defined as a "unit" containing 8 to 10 grams of alcohol. This is roughly equivalent to one glass of wine.

Currently, in the UK, the government recommends that men and women consume no more than 4 and 3 units of alcohol per day, respectively. However, based on these results, White and his team say these recommendations should be lowered for young adults and middle-aged women.

"Women would be advised to limit their drinking to 1 unit a day up to age 44, 2 units a day up to age 74, and 3 units a day over age 75," they write.

"Men would be advised to limit their drinking to 1 unit a day up to age 34, 2 units a day up to age 44, 3 units a day up to age 54, 4 units a day up to age 84, and 5 units a day over age 85," White's team adds.

SOURCE: British Medical Journal 2002;325:191-194.

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