Heavy drinking ‘kills you quicker than smoking’

Heavy drinking kills you more quickly than smoking, a study suggests.

Researchers found that alcoholics die about 20 years sooner on average than the general population, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

People dependent on alcohol live shorter lives on average than smokers. Academics in Germany studied data spanning 14 years in relation to 149 adults with alcohol problems.

They found that the death rate among alcohol-dependent women was 4.6 times higher than average. The death rate for men with alcohol problems was almost double the level for men who did not rely on drink.