(TheWestAustralian) - The widely accepted belief that a small amount of alcohol is good for you is based on flawed studies and should be urgently withdrawn, an analysis of the research has revealed.

At a major conference in Perth today, leading alcohol researcher Tanya Chikritzhs will argue that reviews of the observational studies that led to the findings found the evidence was significantly weaker than thought.

Professor Chikritzhs, from the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University, said that there was a “growing likelihood that widespread bias and confounding ... epidemiological literature has underpinned spurious protective associations, warranting an urgent repositioning of the status of ‘moderate’ alcohol use as a protective agent for health”.

The view that a small amount of alcohol was healthy, including for blood thinning, had been broadly accepted in the scientific community, leading some doctors and medical commentators to recommend it as an aid to heart health.

At the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs conference, Professor Chikritzhs will argue that this advice should no longer be given.

The observational studies that made the link were less reliable and since they were carried out, the science had evolved to “increasingly cast serious doubt on the veracity of the protective hypothesis”.

The chemical in red wine that had been linked to anti-inflammatory properties was only present in sufficient quantities in wines from south-west France and Sardinia, Professor Chikritzhs said.

“The evidence has got to be really strong in my mind before you start recommending people do something for health and the evidence is becoming weaker,” she said.

“If there is a protective effect, it has been overestimated and is smaller than we thought. If it exists, you can get it from much less, half a standard drink a day, and you can probably get the same effect from drinking grape juice, without the downsides.