Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 250 posts

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#91

Post by eduren »

Cyph0n wrote: post #84

I'm always interested to see how people react to a news article or study that criticizes alcohol. I have noticed over time that alcohol consumption is usually a taboo subject to discuss for some reason, and almost everyone I talk to immediately gets on the defensive when I say that I don't drink and never will. Can anyone shed some light on why exactly people don't like it when someone doesn't drink, especially when…

> almost everyone I talk to immediately gets on the defensive when I say that I don't drink and never will

Choosing not to drink is your choice to make. But if _almost everyone_ you talk to about it goes into defensive mode, that sounds really weird. Are you around people that don't react normally to social situations? "No thanks, I don't drink" is a common thing to hear for anybody.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#92

Post by [deleted] »

scottLobster wrote: post #56
nothrabannosir wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A single shot of hard liquor is explicitly 1 unit. 1 standard serving is 25ml, *40% (standard for whiskey and vodka ) = 10ml = 1 unit. So 14 units is 14 shots. This is not a coincidence. It's why they call it a "unit", and why the standard "single shot size" is 25ml. (The other measurements are fine) Edit: caveat: I'm European. This may be different in the us!

Yeah I was going off Google for that. The closest standard in the US for a shot is 44 mL, which is close to double the UK "single measure". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_glass

[deleted]

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#93

Post by prodmerc »

hellofunk wrote: post #68

I guess you need to decide what is important to you. For example, a few years ago, this was published [0]: > One of the most contentious issues in the vast literature about alcohol consumption has been the consistent finding that those who don't drink tend to die sooner than those who do http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2017200...

Well, that makes sense. It reduces stress for a while and postpones suicides.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#94

Post by dang »

mortenjorck wrote: post #3

Study finds correlation. Article mentions caveat that correlation is not causation. Headline explicitly states causation. This is certainly a very interesting correlation, and demands further study. Perhaps there is a causal link. But it's just (predictably) irresponsible journalism to head such a piece with a factually incorrect headline.

Ok, we replaced 'causes' with 'associated with' above.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#96

Post by SubiculumCode »

marmaduke wrote: post #61
SubiculumCode wrote: post #51

In my phd work I was heavily involved in hippocampal segmentation, and I can say with confidence that FSL FIRST is not a state-of-the-art segmentation method. It belongs to an earlier generation of segmentation methods with poorer reliability, which have contributed to a lot of contradictory results in my field of hippocampal development. I would not use it in my research. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273…

What software would you suggest for subcortical reconstruction then? What do you think of FreeSurfer v6's?

I have some experience with FreeSurfer. As a whole, FreeSurfer is pretty terrible at hippocampal/subcortical segmentation, but very good at cortical surface reconstruction. One of the links I posted in grandparent presents a validation experiment on Hongzhi Wang's method employing Adaboost learning to vastly improve FreeSurfer segmentations. It is impressive and useful for researchers used to FreeSurfer.

However, the state of the art for image segmentation is dominated by a class of methods called multi-atlas segmentation, which I am using for a large longitudinal study I am currently writing up.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1361841515... for a review.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#97

Post by dukoid »

Cyph0n wrote: post #84

I'm always interested to see how people react to a news article or study that criticizes alcohol. I have noticed over time that alcohol consumption is usually a taboo subject to discuss for some reason, and almost everyone I talk to immediately gets on the defensive when I say that I don't drink and never will. Can anyone shed some light on why exactly people don't like it when someone doesn't drink, especially when…

Alcohol itself is not a taboo subject. People like to brag about what kind of stupid things they did when drinking. After that, not drinking is kind of like saying "I don't do that kind of stupid things".

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#98

Post by bradjohnson »

unit91 wrote: post #48
mothers wrote: post #21

would you give a 5 year old a beer? no? exactly. everyone knows drinking is bad for you. they do it anyway, because "reasons" [1] anyone who disagrees is just being irrational. [1] which may include partying and hooking up, as well as removing any awkwardness they have.

Man I really wish I could like what you've said here. I too wish people would choose to stay in their right minds (vs. drunk or high), and think hookups are bad. But I also wouldn't give a 5 year old a circular saw, so that can't be the proper rationale. And you've got to be more winsome or you're doing more harm to your view than good.

Can I ask why you wish people would stay sober and stop hooking up?

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#99

Post by mothers »

0xffff2 wrote: post #71
mothers wrote: post #21

would you give a 5 year old a beer? no? exactly. everyone knows drinking is bad for you. they do it anyway, because "reasons" [1] anyone who disagrees is just being irrational. [1] which may include partying and hooking up, as well as removing any awkwardness they have.

would you let a 5 year old drive a car? no? exactly. everyone knows driving is bad for you. they do it anyway, because "reasons" [1] anyone who disagrees is just being irrational. [1] which may include needing to get to work and not having good public transit available

all other things equal, yes driving is bad for you. what's your point? all of things being equal alcohol is also bad for you. have a drink.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#100

Post by gozur88 »

hellofunk wrote: post #68

I guess you need to decide what is important to you. For example, a few years ago, this was published [0]: > One of the most contentious issues in the vast literature about alcohol consumption has been the consistent finding that those who don't drink tend to die sooner than those who do http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2017200...

It's a safer bet that healthy people are more likely to be moderate drinkers than it is to assume moderate drinking will extend your life.
Post reply on HN