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Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

nytimes.com

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Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#101

Post by chiefalchemist »

gozur88 wrote: post #11
chiefalchemist wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the impact is greater because the availability is much wider. Social acceptance can make most any evil the norn. Just look at obesity/diabetes. Now there's a killer no one REALLY wants to talk about.

People talk about obesity all the time. The problem is nobody knows what to do about it.

It's VERY clear what to do about. Change our diets and change our lifestyle. The problem is, "America you're fat" is as politically toxic as "Let's raise taxes." Add in Big Food and Big Pharma profits and we have most people believing we don't know what to do about.

We have the knowledge. What we lack is the will (and the leadership).

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#102

Post by dsnuh »

batiudrami wrote: post #98
dsnuh wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How old are you? I'm just a touch over 40 and even at this age the poignancy of life really starts to reveal itself to you. You would trade 5 years of your life for being able to drink wine? Because it's that delicious, right? Sorry, but this is either hyperbole to the point of silliness or you have no idea the value of your life.

It depends on what you value. a lot of my life's highlights are those spent over beers with my friends. I'm unlikely to have kids. The way I've seen my relatives struggle in the later period of their lives doesn't appeal to me at all. But you do have a decade on me and I am certain that adds some perspective. I am much wiser than I was when I was at 20. And I am certainly not pretending that it isn't doing damage.

My apologies if that came off too aggressively. It is a subject that I get emotional about due to events in my own life and the lives of my loved ones that were absolutely alcohol related.

Thinking back 10 years, I would have said exactly the same thing (about whisky or tobacco), so I see where you are coming from. I'm sure it seems hypocritical for me to be so anti-alcohol after my earlier behaviors. I think having kids made me open my eyes to it. I wasn't a heavy drinker by that time, but there were still a number of Sundays where "Daddy really feels sick today, baby. Is it okay if I just lay down and you watch a show?".

It's just no longer conducive to constructive living in my view now. To each their own, YMMV, etc.

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#103

Post by chiefalchemist »

gozur88 wrote: post #58
mobilefriendly wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eat less and be more active.

Spectacularly unhelpful as a policy prescription. People know what they need to do to lose weight. They just don't do it.

Yes and no.

I think what's missing is the general awareness about the connection between excess weight and other ills: diabetes, cancer, etc., etc.

Most people believe extra weight is natural, (socially) acceptable, and just a basic modern inconvenience. It's just not wise for established leaders to say "stop drinking soda or die young."

Not to get off topic but look at Obama and healthcare. He could have tied personal health to civic duty. Instead he let the healthcare system take the blame. "You're unhealthy and you're hurting all of us" just isn't a great campaign slogan.

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#104

Post by dsnuh »

bretthoerner wrote: post #100
dsnuh wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How old are you? I'm just a touch over 40 and even at this age the poignancy of life really starts to reveal itself to you. You would trade 5 years of your life for being able to drink wine? Because it's that delicious, right? Sorry, but this is either hyperbole to the point of silliness or you have no idea the value of your life.

Don't forget that the X years always come off the back end. If you'd speak to my 90 year old grandmother about the poignancy of life right now I think she might have a thing or two to teach you about how great it is at the end. You've also chosen wine as the enemy here, I bet for any given person earth (including you) we could find something you could have done more of (or not done at all) to improve your lifespan. V…

Point taken. I was too aggresive in my dismissal and you are absolutely correct that I have the same flaws as any human. Apologies if my tone seemed condescending. As I mentioned in my reply below, I have a lot of feels when it comes to booze.

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#105

Post by chiefalchemist »

gozur88 wrote: post #56
maxxxxx wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop subsidizing junk food. Stop advertising junk food to children (if it's not ok for children to hear he f word it's also not ok to for them to hear about junk food). Subsidize healthy foods. Tax sugary drinks. Do you want more?

There's no evidence any of this actually works, and most people aren't interested in a government that tries to dictate what they should eat.

Perhaps. But the irony of this statement is the gov's food pyramid is a direct contributor to the current obesity epidemic. It's too heavy on carbs, and too light on fats.

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#106

Post by batiudrami »

dsnuh wrote: post #102
batiudrami wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on what you value. a lot of my life's highlights are those spent over beers with my friends. I'm unlikely to have kids. The way I've seen my relatives struggle in the later period of their lives doesn't appeal to me at all. But you do have a decade on me and I am certain that adds some perspective. I am much wiser than I was when I was at 20. And I am certainly not pretending that it isn't doing damage.

My apologies if that came off too aggressively. It is a subject that I get emotional about due to events in my own life and the lives of my loved ones that were absolutely alcohol related. Thinking back 10 years, I would have said exactly the same thing (about whisky or tobacco), so I see where you are coming from. I'm sure it seems hypocritical for me to be so anti-alcohol after my earlier behaviors. I think having…

Oh, no I didn't read it aggressively. It's strange for me to be defending behaviours which, if they aren't slowly killing me, are certainly edging the percentages the wrong way. I'm also at an odd spot in my life at the moment where I am keen to eek out joy wherever I can. I wouldn't be surprised if my perspective changes.

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#107

Post by erasmuse »

gozur88 wrote: post #11
chiefalchemist wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the impact is greater because the availability is much wider. Social acceptance can make most any evil the norn. Just look at obesity/diabetes. Now there's a killer no one REALLY wants to talk about.

People talk about obesity all the time. The problem is nobody knows what to do about it.

I suspect the answer will turn out to be the same for food and alcohol: have periodic breaks from both to allow the body to recover. In the case of food this is now called intermittent fasting but it applies to both. In particular to allow the immune system, which captures many incipient cancer growths, to reset. One of the reasons that smoking is so harmful I think is that people do it continuously whereas most drinkers don't drink every day.

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#108

Post by robotresearcher »

dsnuh wrote: post #95
hyperbovine wrote: post #3

It would be better to know at what age this increases risk. If a lifetime spent drinking delicious, delicious red wine ends up taking me out 5yrs before Alzheimer's would, so be it.

How old are you? I'm just a touch over 40 and even at this age the poignancy of life really starts to reveal itself to you. You would trade 5 years of your life for being able to drink wine? Because it's that delicious, right? Sorry, but this is either hyperbole to the point of silliness or you have no idea the value of your life.

The problem is that the trade off is probabilistic. It’s not 5 fewer years, it’s a slightly increased chance of 40 fewer years, a larger chance of 20 fewer years, or a larger still chance of 5 fewer years.

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#109

Post by dsnuh »

batiudrami wrote: post #106
dsnuh wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My apologies if that came off too aggressively. It is a subject that I get emotional about due to events in my own life and the lives of my loved ones that were absolutely alcohol related. Thinking back 10 years, I would have said exactly the same thing (about whisky or tobacco), so I see where you are coming from. I'm sure it seems hypocritical for me to be so anti-alcohol after my earlier behaviors. I think having…

Oh, no I didn't read it aggressively. It's strange for me to be defending behaviours which, if they aren't slowly killing me, are certainly edging the percentages the wrong way. I'm also at an odd spot in my life at the moment where I am keen to eek out joy wherever I can. I wouldn't be surprised if my perspective changes.

I hear you on that. I guess for me, when I look back and am honest with myself, what I thought was joyous excess at the time was really me being in a dark spot and excusing many of my behaviors because alcohol. When I think back on things I have done that I feel twinges of regret about or that were blatantly disgusting in hindsight, probably 80% of the time liquor was involved in some fashion.

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#110

Post by [deleted] »

cvsh wrote: post #97
dsnuh wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol is shilled so hard in America. It's disgusting. I honestly don't know why it isn't more strictly regulated. I used to binge drink every few nights when I was younger. Like most people that have drank more than they should have, I have lots of stories of mischief and questionable (at best, sometimes straight illegal) behavior. And these are the stories I used to trade with friends and coworkers. Oh man, they w…

>I honestly don't know why it isn't more strictly regulated. Because we tried that once and it didn't work out so well

[deleted]
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