AlcoBalance Blog
Long-form guides and research on mindful drinking, BAC, and healthier habits.
Drinking with dinner may cut stroke risk by 43%, a genetics study suggests
Mendelian randomization links alcohol with meals, dried fruit, and cheese to lower stroke risk. The 43% figure for the alcohol habit is the surprising part.
Two in three heavy drinkers already wanted to change. The app worked only for them.
A digital alcohol tool cut high-intensity drinking, but only among users who had set a change goal. What an RCT on 156 young adults found.
The most intoxicated people were the worst at estimating how drunk they were
At high BAC, people underestimate their intoxication the most. A new RCT shows that estimate - not felt impairment - predicts the decision to drive.
Your alcohol peak can arrive 76 minutes after your last drink - or before it
A controlled study found alcohol peaks vary more than 2.5x between people, and can arrive up to 76 minutes after the last drink.
Visual feedback on your drinking beats text. The gap shows in how often you drink.
Image-based drinking feedback reduces drinking frequency more than text, per a 90-day study of 222 young adults.
Most young adults who drink to dull anxiety know exactly what they're doing
Young adults who drink to cope with anxiety can name exactly why - and told researchers what a useful mobile alternative would look like.
Three in four Americans have tried no-alcohol drinks. Higher-risk drinkers are the most likely users.
A US survey of 1,464 adults finds 75% have tried no- or low-alcohol drinks - and higher-risk drinkers are the most likely to reach for them.
70% of European alcohol products carry a health warning. 0.3% mention health harms.
A store audit across 13 European countries found that only 0.3% of alcohol labels warn about health harms. Most focus on pregnancy and driving.
What turns binge drinking into a lasting alcohol problem
A two-year cohort study of 192 students shows emotion regulation and emerging mental health symptoms as the factors that make binge drinking serious.
One gene puts East Asian men at liver risk below what Western guidelines allow
A 1-million-man Korean study found East Asian men with fatty liver face liver risk at lower alcohol thresholds than Western guidelines, due to ALDH2.
One conversation with a peer, 3 fewer drinks a week, a year later
A Spanish RCT found a single peer-led BASICS session cut weekly drinking by 3.4 drinks, with effects holding at 12 months.
The low-dose benefit of alcohol didn't hold up. What 49 studies actually found.
An umbrella review of 49 studies finds any drinking raises injury odds by 2.8x and that apparent low-dose health benefits don't survive bias-aware analysis.