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No safe level of alcohol for brain health: observational cohort study [pdf]

medrxiv.org

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Re: No safe level of alcohol for brain health: observational cohort study [pdf]

#41

Post by driverdan »

mettamage wrote: post #5
flemhans wrote: post #2

Is there a safer alternative?

Alcohol is drugs such as weed, mdma and heroine. One is more dangerous than the other, but they have one thing in common. Drugs damage the body and/or to some extent in some way, shape or form. Don't do alcohol. If you have social pressure, fake it. Like order a beer and don't actually drink it, pretend to sip. I think people need to take this more seriously and start to think for themselves. I know it's hard, we hav…

The dose makes the poison. Drinking too much water can kill you. Abstinence is not necessarily safer or better than moderation.

Re: No safe level of alcohol for brain health: observational cohort study [pdf]

#42

Post by moshmosh »

dsr_ wrote: post #19

Median alcohol intake was 13.5 units ( 102g) weekly That was among people who drank at all; for reference, that's just under two standard drinks per day, which is apparently what the UK considers the threshold of "low risk".

For those playing along at home, regulator "drinks" always seem to convert to 0.25-0.75 actual drinks a normal person might call "one drink". I'm not sure why they do that, unless it's to confuse people on purpose so they drink more.

Re: No safe level of alcohol for brain health: observational cohort study [pdf]

#43

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

kelnos wrote: post #34
hesdeadjim wrote: post #7

Haven’t had a drop in fourteen years after being a weekend binge drinker. I don’t begrudge the substance, but it has been transformative being this far removed from it. The downside? Dear god have I missed the taste of beer. La Croix and other products don’t fill the gap. There has thankfully been an explosion in the NA craft beer scene in the last few years, and some of them are good enough that I’ve had friends who…

> he cop became immensely excited when she thought she'd get me for a DUI That alone is pretty messed up. A cop should be annoyed and disappointed to be in that situation. Arresting and booking someone should be a big hassle that they shouldn't want. And let's say you had been drinking alcohol; who knows how long you might have been drinking before you got pulled over... who knows who you might have killed. And a cop…

Your narrative still makes it seem not unreasonable for the cop to be happy. After all, arresting a drunk driver before they manage to kill someone is the kind of goal that should motivate cops to get out of bed in the morning. I'd personally rather have them excited to take an intoxicated driver off the street than letting them go because the paper work is a hassle.

Re: No safe level of alcohol for brain health: observational cohort study [pdf]

#44

Post by numpad0 »

mettamage wrote: post #5
flemhans wrote: post #2

Is there a safer alternative?

Alcohol is drugs such as weed, mdma and heroine. One is more dangerous than the other, but they have one thing in common. Drugs damage the body and/or to some extent in some way, shape or form. Don't do alcohol. If you have social pressure, fake it. Like order a beer and don't actually drink it, pretend to sip. I think people need to take this more seriously and start to think for themselves. I know it's hard, we hav…

I used to be a hardcore non-drinker and what I was rewarded with was somewhat relaxed sanity and reality perception as a substitute for regular alcohol consumption.

Now I feel a similar effect limited by physical substance intakes would have been a better alternative to that. After all our societies are built with alcohol in mind, including irrecoverable brain damages from it.

Re: No safe level of alcohol for brain health: observational cohort study [pdf]

#45

Post by robrenaud »

hesdeadjim wrote: post #7

Haven’t had a drop in fourteen years after being a weekend binge drinker. I don’t begrudge the substance, but it has been transformative being this far removed from it. The downside? Dear god have I missed the taste of beer. La Croix and other products don’t fill the gap. There has thankfully been an explosion in the NA craft beer scene in the last few years, and some of them are good enough that I’ve had friends who…

There is still a small amount of alcohol in those n/a beers. Athletic brewing co is amazing though, especially the coffee porter.

Re: No safe level of alcohol for brain health: observational cohort study [pdf]

#46

Post by elliekelly »

hesdeadjim wrote: post #7

Haven’t had a drop in fourteen years after being a weekend binge drinker. I don’t begrudge the substance, but it has been transformative being this far removed from it. The downside? Dear god have I missed the taste of beer. La Croix and other products don’t fill the gap. There has thankfully been an explosion in the NA craft beer scene in the last few years, and some of them are good enough that I’ve had friends who…

When I was in Amsterdam just before Covid I went to the Heineken factory and they gave us samples of their Heineken 0.0 which is brewed entirely without alcohol rather than the usual “non-alcoholic” beer approach of brewing it and then removing the alcohol. It was surprisingly good! Unless you do a side by side comparison of the regular and the 0.0 I doubt you’d ever know.

Tangentially related, I wish I could remember the name of the Dutch tech company that created the “experience” (and have done several others throughout Europe & the US) because they’re really cool and did a great job.

Re: No safe level of alcohol for brain health: observational cohort study [pdf]

#47

Post by kstrauser »

Welp, that does it. I'm definitely not getting smarter, and can't afford to lose what little I'm still holding onto.

I live in a US state where weed is legal, and I was discussing this with a friend: it's starting to seem like a terrible idea to drink at all if weed is available and has lesser harmful effects. For me personally, it comes down to that I'd hate for my kids to see me using weed, but I acknowledge that's pretty silly because they've seen me drink (small amounts of) alcohol. I've got a case of good beer in the fridge that I've whittled down over the last 6 months, and in all objective ways I can think of it sets a worse example for me to drink one of those every couple weeks than to use a similarly moderate amount of weed. My upbringing still insists that weed is a much worse example because it's a "drug".

Re: No safe level of alcohol for brain health: observational cohort study [pdf]

#48

Post by moshmosh »

driverdan wrote: post #39
dsr_ wrote: post #19

Median alcohol intake was 13.5 units ( 102g) weekly That was among people who drank at all; for reference, that's just under two standard drinks per day, which is apparently what the UK considers the threshold of "low risk".

Two drinks a day, every day of the week is a lot of alcohol.

I make 102g of alcohol about 1 bottle of 14% abv wine (so, strong-ish, but not exceptionally so) per week, or about 3 cans of 10% stout. Unless my math's wrong (1ml ~= 1g [not quite since it's not pure water, but close enough], 750ml * 0.14 = 105ml ~= 105g)

Re: No safe level of alcohol for brain health: observational cohort study [pdf]

#49

Post by sabellito »

flemhans wrote: post #2

Is there a safer alternative?

Well, there's this newish hangover-free thing: https://www.sentiaspirits.com/

Has some reviews floating around the internet: https://metro.co.uk/2021/01/22/alcohol-free-spirit-sentia-pr...

The creator, David Nutt, has a long history of trying to bring attention to the problems alcohol brings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Nutt

Re: No safe level of alcohol for brain health: observational cohort study [pdf]

#50

Post by aspaviento »

ivraatiems wrote: post #22

I need some more context in order to understand the actual risks being suggested here. I fall into the "low to moderate" drinking category described in the study. First, when we say 0.8% of gray matter, over what time period does that loss occur? The authors don't seem to know. Second, what sort of effects does losing, say, 1% of gray matter integrity have? Increased risk of stroke, seizure, etc.? Effects on intellec…

> in exchange for thousands of hours of happiness resulting from moderate drinking

I would be concerned if my happiness depends in any way on how much alcohol I consume.

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