This is what emerges from a new study whose results were published in the scientific journal The Lancet, for which researchers followed 151,000 adult men in the cities of Barnaul, Byisk and Tomsk from 1999 to 2010. In the United Kingdom the percentage of men who do not reach the age of 55 years is 7%, while in the United States is less than 1%.
Killer vodka in Russia. 25% of Russian men die before the age of 55 and the main cause of death is abuse of the alcoholic beverage. This is what emerges from a new study whose results were published in the scientific journal The Lancet, for which researchers followed 151,000 adult men in the cities of Barnaul, Byisk and Tomsk from 1999 to 2010. In the United Kingdom the percentage of men who do not reach the age of 55 years is 7%, while in the United States is less than 1%. The men involved told the authors of the study about their habits related to the consumption of vodka. Eight thousand of them died during the research period and the causes of death were monitored by scientists. The risk of dying before the age of 55 for those who drink three or more half-liter bottles of vodka per week is 35%, the researchers revealed.
Life expectancy for men in Russia is 64 years, among the lowest in the world. It is not clear how many Russians drink three or more bottles of vodka a week. One of the authors of the research, Sir Richard Peto of Oxford University, said that a Russian man drinks on average 20 litres of vodka a year, while a British man consumes on average about 3 litres of spirits.
"The Russians clearly drink a lot, but the really dangerous thing is this pattern of getting so drunk and then continuing to drink," explained Peto. "The rate of men dying prematurely in Russia - he said - is not at all in line with the rest of Europe. Even in Finlanda and Poland there is a culture of heavy drinking, but there is still nothing like the risk of dying that there is in Russia". Peto finally explained that some evidence indicates that there is a similar effect on Russian women who drink a lot, but there is not enough information to make a broader thesis.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)62247-3/fulltext