Vodka is the ultimate killer of Russian men, study says

Abuse of alcohol, particularly vodka, as well as accompanying diseases of the liver and the cardiovascular system are the primary factors that cause the largest number of deaths among Russian men. This could be seen in the mortality statistics and the use of alcoholic beverages in the USSR and modern Russia, Russian and British scientists said in an article published in Lancet journal.

Richard Peto of Oxford University in the UK and his colleagues confirmed the widely known association of the role of vodka in the Russian society. They studied the results of social surveys that were conducted in three cities - Biisk, Tomsk and Barnaul. The scientists interviewed 49,000 families of recently deceased men to find out whether they drank vodka. They also asked 151,000 residents how often they drank alcohol.

The authors of the study took account of the fact whether the people were smokers, because tobacco and nicotine can either aggravate or attenuate the negative effects of drinking vodka. Their expectations were justified: a combination of vodka and tobacco was the most life-threatening one for the life of men.