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

Drunk as a Lord: the Regency Bottle Men

about1816.wordpress.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 46 posts

Re: Drunk as a Lord: the Regency Bottle Men

#21

Post by Kosirich »

sgt101 wrote: post #6
Kosirich wrote: post #2

I found out recently from my dad that one of his business associates/friend is on the list for a liver transplant due to liver cirrhosis. When my dad found out he couldn't believe that a person for who he swears never drank more than 2 glasses of wine at a dinner, was apparently high functioning alcoholic. The man in question seems to have fooled a lot of people and he certainly was high functioning as he managed to…

I am no MD - but I am curious, perhaps someone who has a clue can comment on what I am going to say. I believe that Liver Cirrhosis is caused by scaring due to fat being retained in the liver. I understand that fat is retained when the liver is metabolizing alcohol, and that if this is a short term thing then the liver can expel the fat and no scaring occurs. But if you persistently force your liver to metabolize alc…

The example I gave got my dad and me into discussion about what is the effect of choice of alcohol which a person (mis)uses excessively, on the probability and severity of alcoholism related illnesses. To put it bluntly, is getting frequently drunk from beer/wine less harmful long term than getting drunk from spirits?

Re: Drunk as a Lord: the Regency Bottle Men

#22

Post by Nursie »

nicoburns wrote: post #9
sgt101 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am no MD - but I am curious, perhaps someone who has a clue can comment on what I am going to say. I believe that Liver Cirrhosis is caused by scaring due to fat being retained in the liver. I understand that fat is retained when the liver is metabolizing alcohol, and that if this is a short term thing then the liver can expel the fat and no scaring occurs. But if you persistently force your liver to metabolize alc…

Not a medical professional either, but I once heard that keeping 2 consecutive days out of every week alcohol free as sufficient for preventing liver cirrhosis.

This is promoted as a minimum, generally the advice here in the UK right now seems to be "leave more alcohol-free days",

The medical establishment here seems to frown on the "glass of wine every night" habit these days, in favour of having a few drinks a couple of times a week (if you must drink).

I honestly lose track of what's good and bad for you on any given day.

Re: Drunk as a Lord: the Regency Bottle Men

#23

Post by [deleted] »

sgt101 wrote: post #19
op00to wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes little sense. I can drink 6 bottles a day, but as long as I respect the lord on the weekend my liver’ll be ok?

I think that there is another factor - extreme abuse! It seems pretty obvious from even a casual acquaintance with alcohol that consuming 10 units in a sitting (one or maybe two bottles by the OP's rating depending on the Georgian sizing and strengths) is extremely bad for you. Anything that steals your sleep and leaves you feeling sick with a headache is kinda self evidently bad - right?

[deleted]

Re: Drunk as a Lord: the Regency Bottle Men

#24

Post by cainxinth »

valyagolev wrote: post #18

There was a fascinating passage from a book I saw somewhere, that described the extreme and universal consumption of alcohol as the early way to adapt to a big city life - before other ways of dealing with people around were invented. It was tough to be surrounded by so many people, and apparently we picked up just enough customs, rituals, and technique of organizing space to think we can deal with it. Unfortunately…

I still use alcohol to deal with too many people around.

Re: Drunk as a Lord: the Regency Bottle Men

#25

Post by Applejinx »

op00to wrote: post #16
nicoburns wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a medical professional either, but I once heard that keeping 2 consecutive days out of every week alcohol free as sufficient for preventing liver cirrhosis.

This makes little sense. I can drink 6 bottles a day, but as long as I respect the lord on the weekend my liver’ll be ok?

Best stick to drinking the contents…

Re: Drunk as a Lord: the Regency Bottle Men

#26

Post by smcl »

TheManInThePub wrote: post #3

> It took another fifty years for the definition of a gentlemen to change to exclude people who got roaring drunk and pissed in the fireplace in the name of hospitality. On the contrary, providing the above is done with panache it would pass quite well here..... *Never* whilst wearing White Tie though. I'm British if you hadn't guessed :-)

What does the “white tie” bit mean? Is it just that this is some sign of “new money” or laddish-ness, or is there some other significance?

I’m not being presumptuous or accusing you of anything, I really genuinely do not know and it sounds like it could be interesting :-)

Re: Drunk as a Lord: the Regency Bottle Men

#27

Post by grzm »

smcl wrote: post #26
TheManInThePub wrote: post #3

> It took another fifty years for the definition of a gentlemen to change to exclude people who got roaring drunk and pissed in the fireplace in the name of hospitality. On the contrary, providing the above is done with panache it would pass quite well here..... *Never* whilst wearing White Tie though. I'm British if you hadn't guessed :-)

What does the “white tie” bit mean? Is it just that this is some sign of “new money” or laddish-ness, or is there some other significance? I’m not being presumptuous or accusing you of anything, I really genuinely do not know and it sounds like it could be interesting :-)

> “White tie, also called full evening dress or a dress suit, is the most formal in traditional evening western dress codes.”

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

Re: Drunk as a Lord: the Regency Bottle Men

#28

Post by watwut »

valyagolev wrote: post #18

There was a fascinating passage from a book I saw somewhere, that described the extreme and universal consumption of alcohol as the early way to adapt to a big city life - before other ways of dealing with people around were invented. It was tough to be surrounded by so many people, and apparently we picked up just enough customs, rituals, and technique of organizing space to think we can deal with it. Unfortunately…

People in villages drunk a lot too.

Re: Drunk as a Lord: the Regency Bottle Men

#29

Post by smcl »

Kosirich wrote: post #21
sgt101 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am no MD - but I am curious, perhaps someone who has a clue can comment on what I am going to say. I believe that Liver Cirrhosis is caused by scaring due to fat being retained in the liver. I understand that fat is retained when the liver is metabolizing alcohol, and that if this is a short term thing then the liver can expel the fat and no scaring occurs. But if you persistently force your liver to metabolize alc…

The example I gave got my dad and me into discussion about what is the effect of choice of alcohol which a person (mis)uses excessively, on the probability and severity of alcoholism related illnesses. To put it bluntly, is getting frequently drunk from beer/wine less harmful long term than getting drunk from spirits?

That’s a great question. As a fellow non-MD I can only speculate too. But my guess would be that assuming you balanced the quantities of alcohol consumed EXACTLY then it’d be better to drink whisky or vodka than beer, since you’d end up consuming fewer calories per “unit” of alcohol overall. However, I think it’s also much easier to go overboard with the whisky given how small each measure is and how quickly it’s possible to drink it if you’re not paying attention. So it’s hard to say.

I think deep down we know when we are at the level of problem-drinking, whether that’s with whisky, vodka, beer, wine or anything else. It’s about facing up to it at that point and not trying to deny or justify it. This is coming from someone who drank more than usual during covid isolation and thankfully scaled it back when I realised I was waking up feeling awful every other day.

Re: Drunk as a Lord: the Regency Bottle Men

#30

Post by watwut »

bipson wrote: post #8
sgt101 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am no MD - but I am curious, perhaps someone who has a clue can comment on what I am going to say. I believe that Liver Cirrhosis is caused by scaring due to fat being retained in the liver. I understand that fat is retained when the liver is metabolizing alcohol, and that if this is a short term thing then the liver can expel the fat and no scaring occurs. But if you persistently force your liver to metabolize alc…

Not an MD, but in my experience this seems a question that MDs don't like to answer - for good reason. (I.e. if I understood your question correctly) There is so much individuality involved (genetics, history, liver health in general), and so much "it depends" (amount of alcohol, size of liver, food intake, ...) that you cannot possibly stick a definitive number to that question. Also, the question seems dangerous: W…

Another reason is that MD are not simultaneously experts on nutrition and alcohol. What are exacts safe amounts for this or that is not all that large part of their education.

> Also, the question seems dangerous: What are you going to do with an answer? Drink to a certain limit, in good conscience?

That is actually useful question with useful answer.

Post reply on HN