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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

#141

Post by chiefalchemist »

gozur88 wrote: post #125
MarkMc wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's no evidence any of this actually works, There's plenty of evidence that taxing a product reduces demand for that product > and most people aren't interested in a government that tries to dictate what they should eat. That's true, but it just underscores the ancestor comment: Social acceptance can make most any evil the norm. People accept that the government should regulate what we drink and smoke, but not…

People accept that the government should regulate what other people drink and smoke. The smoking prohibitions didn't come into effect until the number of smokers was small enough they couldn't stop them, and alcohol prohibition was always the cause of teetotalers and ex-alcoholics.

Yes. But as things are going it's going to be a long time before over weight ppl are the minority. It's also not politically correct to talk about such things.

Thanks Oprah.

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#142

Post by blubb-fish »

gnulinux wrote: post #137
blubb-fish wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

possibly alcohol will accelerate neural deterioration - so you will still have your Alzheimer and die sooner.

> possibly alcohol will accelerate neural deterioration Citation needed.

you forgot the ... or do you want citation for proving that alcohol is detrimental to your brain? :D

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#143

Post by astura »

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.

Oh, so you're lifestyle is perfect then? You aren't a single pound overweight, you wear sunscreen every day, never miss a workout, you never stay up late or sleep in, and your diet is 100% perfect?

Because if it's not then I guess you don't know how to value your life either.

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#144

Post by astura »

dsnuh wrote: post #135
hyperbovine wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How patronizing. I would happily trade five extra years at the very end of my life in return for fulfillment and enjoyment in the run up. Maybe by some fluke you have not, but I’ve seen advanced old age up close and personal and in most cases, it ain’t pretty. You have the luxury of being young and (presumably) relatively healthy now. Come talk to me in 40 years when you are immobile, incontinent, arthritic and/or de…

I wasn't intending to be patronizing, but I can take that as a fair criticism. I have indeed experienced it up close and personal. My experience is that there is no magical "shaving X number of years off the end of your life". It doesn't work like that, unfortunately. Come talk to me in 40 years when your daughter is due with her first child in a month and you don't want to live to see that. Maybe we have too differe…

I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry that you started an incredibly patronizing post off with "I wasn't intending to be patronizing."

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#145

Post by astura »

dsnuh wrote: post #109
batiudrami wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So why are you projecting that onto other people?

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#146

Post by astura »

freeflight wrote: post #134
ranit wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your argument?

That illegal drug consumption is far more prevalent than many people would assume. That's why it's dishonest to make comparisons along the lines of "If all the people drinking alcohol would instead be taking cocaine/heroine the situation would be worse" because nobody can say with any certainty how many of these people drinking are already also regular users of illegal drugs. It also doesn't say anything about respon…

Nobody has that misconception.

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#147

Post by zeveb »

dsnuh wrote: post #119
robotresearcher wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Schedule 1 drugs are prohibited. Heroin, MDMA, mescaline, GHB, etc.

Correct. "Schedule 1 (I) drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined by the federal government as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule 1 (I) drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence." Which part do you disagree with?

Ethanol has several accepted medical uses.

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#148

Post by wakkaflokka »

reustle wrote: post #63

As someone who has never drank and often has discussions with people about alcohol, it's amusing to see how many people go straight to defending their choice to drink alcohol in this thread.

Is this surprising? I'm pretty sure that any HN story about "x increases risk of y", where x is a popular activity or consumption item, is going to have a flood of people justifying their partaking in x.

As long as the risks of x are acknowledged, people can make their own choice as to whether they confer enough benefit from x to accept the y level of risk.

It'd be dishonest to pretend that alcohol doesn't have any benefits (social or otherwise). After all, it's been used for millennia. We can argue about whether those benefits outweigh the risks, especially as we learn more about what the risks are (i.e. like we did with tobacco). But I don't think it's particularly surprising or amusing. I'm sure you could name an activity in your life that has some amount of risk that you still choose to partake in because you gain benefit from it (and perhaps be inclined to comment on a story about it too - but I could be wrong).

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#149

Post by gozur88 »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #101
gozur88 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

None of that is true except the fat part. Do you really think people don't know when they're fat. Do you think they don't realize other people are fat? And leadership to do what?

Re: Cancer Doctors Cite Risks of Drinking Alcohol

#150

Post by gozur88 »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #139
gozur88 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think what's missing is the general awareness about the connection between excess weight and other ills: diabetes, cancer, etc., etc. Really? I don't know anybody who doesn't realize that connection. It's hard to imagine you wouldn't if you had a television or an internet connection.

You need to get out more ;) I was just at the local supermarket last night and nearly every cart seemed to have soda in it. And I'm not talking about fit ppl the cart. Maybe they know? And they're just in denial? Perhaps. The ends is the same...given the choice ppl will blame anything but themselves.

Of course they know. It's not a question of knowledge.

The problem is evolution designed us to eat more than we need so we don't starve in lean times - for all of human history up to, what, 150 year ago or so the biggest threat to your life was starvation. Of course if you have the willpower you can avoid eating too much. But most people don't.

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