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

U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 312 posts

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#301

Post by vasilipupkin »

DanBC wrote: post #296
vasilipupkin wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I addressed this elsewhere in this thread. Even this study finds benefits for heart disease and the all in mortality is affected by accidents, which doesn't apply to a moderate drinker who doesn't drink and drive. Also, this study inexplicably includes tuberculosis as the leading cause of death caused by alcohol. Perhaps this is the case in some countries, but seems irrelevant for those of us moderate drinkers who li…

The study is very clear. > Previous research has analysed all-cause risk due to alcohol use by either investigating all-cause risk in particular cohorts and survey series, or through meta-analyses of those studies.26,27 Past findings subsequently suggested a persistent protective effect for some low or moderate levels of alcohol consumption on all-cause mortality. However, these studies were limited by small sample s…

Yes, it’s very clear but people interpret it incorrectly nonetheless. For example, since population as a whole drinks and drives, alcohol would reduce longevity in population as a whole. Which has nothing to do with a personal decision to drink or not, since you can drink and not drive. The point about communicable diseases is simply irrelevant for most readers of this website.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#302

Post by TurkishPoptart »

retrac wrote: post #105
apta wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite an eye opener. Yet, due to the enormous amount of money generated by the alcohol and smoking businesses, no one dares to go after them. Who care about people dying when there's so much money to be made?

Given the way most countries have moved against tobacco advertising, it's kind of fascinating that alcohol advertising is both allowed at all, and in many countries it is essentially totally unregulated. When Canada legalized cannabis, the enabling legislation prohibited nearly all cannabis advertising. Producers are pretty much restricted to propagating their brand name. They most certainly can't have an ad that por…

Anec-data here: in Russia, there are ads (TV and print) for beer, but only non-alcoholic beer.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#303

Post by RaceWon »

qaq wrote: post #178
RaceWon wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My father died in July of 2015 from alcohol My adoptive father also died of alcohol abuse. I am Much older than you are though. He served in WWII, also most of his friends drank heavily--I suspect it was due to combat war related PTSD; but that is merely a guess. I am very careful about how much I drink, and I do have an addictive personality. I just had a talk, tonight in fact, with my 20 year old about drugs--and…

Not suggesting one does it but coke unlike alcohol causes only psychological addiction.

Maybe, but when you do anything to get it--Even when you hate doing it... its a huge lifestyle problem.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#304

Post by throw_this_one »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #149
randlet wrote: post #7

Alcohol is really weird. It's unquestionably a pretty hard drug and yet it's (ab)use is completely normalized in our culture. It's also a drug who's abuse regularly kills people other than those using it.

The reality is that most of us can drink pretty regularly and enjoy it and not really experience any adverse effects. About 20% of the population develops serious problems related to alcohol consumption, but that leaves 80% of us.

It's still a stressor and a carcinogen. So if you're drinking regularly, you will still have a negative effect long term.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#305

Post by throw_this_one »

murph-almighty wrote: post #65
opportune wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people are able to moderate drinking after periods of binge drinking but if you find you can’t moderate after multiple attempts to do so, your best strategy is to just quit. It can be hard to not have anything to drink when everyone else is, but it’s better than making a fool of yourself somewhat frequently

Honestly if this latest attempt of moderation fails I don't see an option other than quitting. This period has held up decently well so far though.

I pretty much failed because I would just let it rip after a few drinks in a "high energy" atmosphere. So I just decided to stop, at least for Dry Jan but probably for 2020. Just feels so clean and also forces you to man up and "just do it" socially.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#306

Post by Red_Leaves_Flyy »

dpark wrote: post #258
Red_Leaves_Flyy wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's important to note that he describes a functional alcoholic. He seems to be managing his responsibilities and dependents without egregious carelessness. This is distinction is important to note so friends and families can identify regressions earlier and thus better manage the resulting behaviors. I don't support strict abstinence or the 12 stepsbut every addict needs a system thatcatches them well before…

> I don't support strict abstinence This is a strange statement. Is this poorly phrased or do you actually think recurring alcoholics should continue endlessly drinking and relapsing rather than abstaining? I also don’t think addicts should expect friends and family to be their guardrails. If you cannot drink in moderation without slipping into alcoholic behaviors, then it’s on you to stop rather than expect others t…

You misunderstand me.

I don't support forcing strict abstinence on people. For example, the fake marijuana crisis that ravaged Florida and the rest of America years ago wouldn't have occurred had marijuana been legal. Instead every impoverished broken person on probation had a new fix available to them. This time it was dangerous untested drugs made in sketchy Chinese labs.

If someone swears off (x) then that's their decision. If I tell you to never eat meat, drink milk, or travel via any method that consumes fossil fuels you'd rightly think I'm crazy. Just the same, telling addicts to stop drinking or drugging when just about everyone they know does is crazy. Do I need to explain why?

The expectation is not to have addicts rely on their family to keep them from falling off the wagon. Instead, when you accept the fact that strict abstinence is a pipe dream you have to start actually planning how you live around an addict instead of blithely thinking they'll never relapse you can help them get back on their feet. If that's too much to ask of you then you aren't their friend and should warn them that you're not going to help them when they're struggling. Because there's a solid chance that if someone is relapsing a lot of other shit went wrong. And if you're a close friend or family then you carry some responsibility for not helping them.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#307

Post by nkrisc »

bradlys wrote: post #122

My father is an alcoholic. (in his case, he went to rehab and doesn't drink much anymore but he is still an alcoholic) I used to think that I was going to drink at one point. I remember thinking, "if I was of age I'd like to buy that lady a drink." But by the time I turned of age and could, I decided I wouldn't touch it. I'd never really been offered alcohol growing up - so maybe that helped settle in the habit. But,…

> (I have suffered incredible emotional and physical pain over the last decade but I have never shed a tear in that time. Hell, I watched a lot of Disney movies and I still didn't. I do it just to prove that I still have control). You lose some of that control when you drink alcohol (from what I've been told).

This sound less healthy than drinking alcohol occasionally. It sounds as if you're glorifying some kind of stunted emotional capacity.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#308

Post by non-entity »

throw_this_one wrote: post #304
vasilipupkin wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is that most of us can drink pretty regularly and enjoy it and not really experience any adverse effects. About 20% of the population develops serious problems related to alcohol consumption, but that leaves 80% of us.

It's still a stressor and a carcinogen. So if you're drinking regularly, you will still have a negative effect long term.

So is much of the food I eat. Should we consider banning processed food / fast food/ meat as well?

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#309

Post by pstuart »

tigershark wrote: post #217
0x8BADF00D wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It would be a huge benefit to society if we could find a (relatively safe from abuse) mechanism to treat people who are "functional" yet too mentally ill to stop their self-destructive behaviors. I'm not sure how that would/could work, but it's a worthwhile goal. There is a way. When I was lost, dealing with my own problematic issues with drinking, I found another path. Taking a single dose of LSD-25 made me examin…

Great, let’s give LSD to everyone instead of alcohol. /s

Absolutely not, and definitely not on a regular basis. Pro-tip: frequent usage has diminishing returns according to SWIM :-)

But has a therapeutic tool, I'd advocate for most people to have a (safe) psychedelic experience at least once in their life. It can profoundly change the way you see the world and yourself, and that has ramifications in how we cope with pain. Using alcohol for that is not a good thing.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#310

Post by pstuart »

0x8BADF00D wrote: post #145
pstuart wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so sorry. I've been there too and that powerlessness is devastating. It seems like the pendulum swung too far in the opposite direction from how we treated mental illness in the previous century (aggressively locking people up in institutions). It would be a huge benefit to society if we could find a (relatively safe from abuse) mechanism to treat people who are "functional" yet too mentally ill to stop their sel…

> It would be a huge benefit to society if we could find a (relatively safe from abuse) mechanism to treat people who are "functional" yet too mentally ill to stop their self-destructive behaviors. I'm not sure how that would/could work, but it's a worthwhile goal. There is a way. When I was lost, dealing with my own problematic issues with drinking, I found another path. Taking a single dose of LSD-25 made me examin…

I absolutely agree and we are not alone in this assessment. The MAPS project is doing wonderful work to advance this: https://maps.org/.

That said, my point was about how to get a loved one into treatment against their will. That's dangerous territory because of abuse, but it's a topic worth continual exploration.

Post reply on HN