NDRI Seminar: Alcohol in moderation, health benefits and low-risk drinking guidelines
Presented by Dr Tim Stockwell, Director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR) and NDRI Adjunct Professor
Wednesday 11 December 2019, 1pm - 2pm
Technology Park, Building 603, Level 2 Seminar Room (Room 213), Sarich Way, Bentley, WA (map)
A scientific controversy has raged over decades regarding the status of the hypothesis that low-volume alcohol use might reduce risk of heart disease, diabetes and some forms of stroke. There are increasing grounds for scepticism regarding the veracity of these claims. In this presentation, analyses will be presented that illustrate the main implications that different assumptions regarding the health benefits of moderate alcohol use have for a) estimates of alcohol’s contribution to premature mortality and b) definitions of “low-risk drinking” that would inform the development of national drinking guidelines. Implications for national alcohol monitoring systems and drinking guidelines will be discussed.
Tim Stockwell is Director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR) and Professor of Psychology at the University of Victoria, Canada. He has published over 400 research papers, reports and books on substance use epidemiology and policy. He was a clinician and researcher in the UK before joining Curtin’s National Drug Research Institute as Deputy Director and then Director. Moving to Canada in 2004, he established the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research BC (now CISUR) as a multidisciplinary research enterprise investigating the determinants of harmful substance use and also effective harm reduction strategies. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, recipient of the international 2013 E.M Jellinek Memorial Award for alcohol research, a recipient of the inaugural national award from Research Canada in 2014 for health research leadership and advocacy, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He lives in Victoria, Canada with his wife Paula and daughters Caitlin and Matilda.
Note Dr Adam Sherk, Dr Tanya Chikritzhs and Dr Tim Stockwell are co-authors of research informing this presentation: Adam Sherk, William Gilmore, Samuel Churchill, Eveline Lensvelt, Tim Stockwell and Tanya Chikritzhs: Implications of cardioprotective assumptions for national drinking guidelines and alcohol harm monitoring systems (submitted).
The video recording of this seminar can be viewed on YouTube at https://youtu.be/1h2yUOUZdzk
Posted on: 1 Nov 2019
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