New York, Oct 5 (IANS): Want to live long? Ditch that daily glass of wine as it can increase your chance of an early death by 20 per cent, say researchers challenging previous claims of its health benefits.

The findings, conducted by the researchers of Washington University School of Medicine in the US, revealed that any potential health benefits of alcohol were outweighed by other risks including heart disease, diabetes and cancer, resulting in death with its daily consumption.

"It used to seem like having one or two drinks per day was no big deal, and there even have been some studies suggesting it can improve health. But now we know that even the lightest daily drinkers have an increased mortality risk," said lead author Sarah M. Hartz, Assistant Professor of psychiatry from the varsity.

"Consuming one or two drinks about four days per week seemed to protect against cardiovascular disease, but drinking every day eliminated those benefits. With regard to cancer risk, any drinking at all was detrimental," Hartz added.

The new study comes following a recent research published in The Lancet, which concluded that there is no safe level of drinking alcohol.

For the study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, the team focused on two large groups of people -- 340,668 participants, aged 18-85 and another -- 93,653 individuals, aged 40-60.

"A 20 per cent increase in risk of death is a much bigger deal in older people who already are at higher risk. Relatively few people die in their 20s, so a 20 per cent increase in mortality is small but still significant," Hartz explained.