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Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

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Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#11

Post by carbocation »

sp332 wrote: post #6
carbocation wrote: post #4

This is a restatement of what we've puzzled over for some time now: that those who consume modest amounts of alcohol have a reduced risk of mortality. It's an epidemiologic association, so this isn't something you can exactly hang your hat on and encourage people to do. But it has been observed that cardiovascular risk is lowest for women who have just under 1 drink per day, and men who have 2 or fewer per day. This…

What's new is that, in this study, heavy drinkers outlived abstainers. Very unexpected, even though I knew that moderate drinkers had some health benefits.

Yes, good point. I agree that this part is a new finding; thank you.

Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#13

Post by garret »

jamesseda wrote: post #12

Did they verify non drinkers are non drinkers? My Doctor friend tells me that she is amazed at how many people when asked if they drink, emphatically say "Never".

I would guess that the more a person drinks, past a certain point, the more likely they are to lie about it.

Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#14

Post by c00p3r »

Nothing to see here. Abstinence is a much more stress and discomfort than drinking, especially when you suddenly stop after years of a heavy daily consumption. It is extremely difficult thing to change your habits because you will face a completely different, unfriendly (literally - you will lose most of your connections when you stop - no one need a stressed/depressed and sick neurotic) world, which you need to learn to comprehend and love again. The same type, but more intensive struggle awaits you after a sudden withdraw from a dope addiction - the world will be alien to you. The problem with a booze or dope isn't about chemistry or organic damages, it is all about losing a connection with reality and the shock and discomfort to rediscover it after withdrawal. Abstinence is worse than drinking, every drunkard or doper will tell you. Even after years, if you can stay away from it, each day will be a new challenge, new struggle. And each regression will drop you back below the zero. This is the thing that kills you faster than booze itself.

btw, the only way out which may work more or less is about getting your mind stimulated and busy - traveling to the different part of the world (India and Muslim countries are the best), some hobby or business. There are a lot of life-beaten people who are traveling - running away from their past and from themselves. Especially in India.

Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#16

Post by kscaldef »

jamesseda wrote: post #12

Did they verify non drinkers are non drinkers? My Doctor friend tells me that she is amazed at how many people when asked if they drink, emphatically say "Never".

Many of the surveys I've seen in doctors offices & similar don't distinguish well between "almost never" and "never". I know a fair number of people in my family are in the "almost never" category. They might have a glass of wine at Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, but that's about it. I don't know what they tell their doctors, but given the usual checkboxes for frequency of alcohol consumption, "never" is probably what I'd select.

Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#17

Post by maxawaytoolong »

jamesseda wrote: post #12

Did they verify non drinkers are non drinkers? My Doctor friend tells me that she is amazed at how many people when asked if they drink, emphatically say "Never".

Cognitive dissonance is widespread. An old roommate once informed me she had given up drinking, because she switched from vodka crans to wine. It's similar to vegetarians who sometimes eat chicken and people who "don't watch TV" because all the shows they watch are on Hulu.

Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#18

Post by dododo »

jamesseda wrote: post #12

Did they verify non drinkers are non drinkers? My Doctor friend tells me that she is amazed at how many people when asked if they drink, emphatically say "Never".

they used self-reported but cite four studies case where in slightly older populations self-reporting is deemed accurate.

see section "Materials and methods" subsection "Baseline Alcohol consumption" in the linked paper.

Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#19

Post by GFischer »

jamesseda wrote: post #12

Did they verify non drinkers are non drinkers? My Doctor friend tells me that she is amazed at how many people when asked if they drink, emphatically say "Never".

Well, some of us actually -never- drink.

I personally don't like the taste, nor the side effects - I wish alcohol was the social grease it's touted as, but for me it's only bad side effects.

Nobody in my family drinks (as in, you won't find a single alcoholic beverage at a Christmas party or weekend barbecue for example), and my current girlfriend was a very casual drinker and has quit since she started dating me.

Re: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers

#20

Post by sounddust »

Sorry to post this is off-topic, but am I the only one who is incredibly annoyed by the way Time slips in promotions for other content in the middle of their articles? It's quite jarring and makes it difficult to keep one's attention on the content. And the fact that it happens on almost every paragraph just makes me more and more frustrated until I have no desire to read the article anymore. Unfortunately, readability doesn't help here; anyone know of a user script or other way to easily fix this?
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