Live data from Hacker News

No amount of alcohol is good for the heart, says World Heart Federation

bloomberg.com

101–110 of 1001 posts

Re: No amount of alcohol is good for the heart, says World Heart Federation

#101
post #49
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to at least be consistent. No not be a total joke as a gov't. I love the stories on "refer scare" and the prohibition (which has become some big historical period like the renaissance, merely by retarded gov't policy). And not like we're done with it. New Zealand is considering to ban tobacco sales to the next generation. What could probably go wrong with that? Is age discrimination now all of a sudden okay? (this…

We need a constitutional law prohibiting all victimless crime or this insanity will never end.

Most victimless crimes have victims, they’re just hard to singularly identify.

Re: No amount of alcohol is good for the heart, says World Heart Federation

#102

Quoted post unavailable.

Less "no fun allowed" generic conspiracy stuff, more "hey, these are the consequences to some of that fun, please keep them in mind as you establish the risk level you're comfortable with".

The problem is that a general statement like "no alcohol is good for the heart" is that it is probably factually wrong.And I base this on the fact that grapes for example is known to be a very good fruit for all-things blood and especially red cells.(Most notably iron here).This is not pseudo-science.

And while yes, you could say "that's not alcohol itself" and that's correct, but obviously not all alcohol is equivalent, and also you cannot exactly separate alcohol and examine it in a vacuum.Alcohol is not consumed purely in the vast majority of cases.

Generally speaking if the institution name starts with "World" or "Global", it's more likely to say something to be accepted by virtually everyone, and most often that will sound dystopian and bullsh1t.The prohibition did not work(and i say this as someone who drinks maybe <=5 times a year, very much liking to stay lucid but also acknowledging the benefits of such an experience when i do).The drug on war did not work.Institutions want to regulate any substance that deviates thought from the mainstream hivemind narrative.Your statement can easily be deconstructed by more than 2000 years of written history where people battled whether consumed drugs and especially alcohol is or not beneficial for health.With the exceptions of exaggeration in certain cultures(see alcoholism in russia) this is not an issue.The other exaggeration happened in US with Prohibition and we've seen that's also not desirable, and it promotes drinking irresponsibly.

Re: No amount of alcohol is good for the heart, says World Heart Federation

#103
post #21

Alcohol is one of the worst "drugs" on a personal/societal harm scale - if we're going to tolerate this at large, we should probably consider legalizing everything else that's less harmful to at least be consistent. While we're at it, let's de-stigmatize the abuse of substances and treat it like a real mental health issue.

Do you really think it's worse than the current wave of synthetic opioids? I think I could even make a good case for cigarettes being worse than alcohol.

Smoking is for sure worse than alcohol consumption: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-deaths-by-risk-...

Global yearly deaths by smoking: 7.1 million

Global yearly deaths by alcohol usage: 2.84 million

Re: No amount of alcohol is good for the heart, says World Heart Federation

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While we're at it, let's de-stigmatize the abuse of substances and treat it like a real mental health issue. Literally everyone involved in the treatment and support of substance abuse does that, whether it's treatment facilities or social groups like AA and Al-Anon. As they should. Every family I know has been affected in one way or another by drug or alcohol addiction and has firsthand knowledge that substance abus…

It's not treated that way by society at large. Treat here not in the "provide medical care for" sense but in the "interpretation" sense, as in, "I know it's a polka, but I'm going to treat it like a waltz."

Once again, I think that's a fun thing to see because it's always nice to dunk on the broader culture, but that's genuinely not been my experience. People are generally very understanding and considerate of substance abuse situations and the carnage that surrounds it.

And it should be noted that while substance abuse is an illness and should be treated as such, it's not leukemia or muscular dystrophy. It requires an active participant to make a concerted effort to obtain and abuse an addictive, destructive substance. So it's no surprise that substance abuse might not be given the same level of sympathy.

Re: No amount of alcohol is good for the heart, says World Heart Federation

#105

Alcohol is one of the worst "drugs" on a personal/societal harm scale - if we're going to tolerate this at large, we should probably consider legalizing everything else that's less harmful to at least be consistent. While we're at it, let's de-stigmatize the abuse of substances and treat it like a real mental health issue.

> if we're going to tolerate this at large, we should probably consider legalizing everything else that's less harmful to at least be consistent. Please do not decide policy using this kind of reasoning. Maybe we should legalise more stuff, but “worse things are legal” is not a good reason. > A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. — Ralph Waldo…

> but “worse things are legal” is not a good reason.

It's a very good reason to at least change one of the two. Either make the worse thing legal, or criminalise the "better" thing. Arbitrary rules are never a good thing.

Re: No amount of alcohol is good for the heart, says World Heart Federation

#106
post #46

Alcohol is one of the worst "drugs" on a personal/societal harm scale - if we're going to tolerate this at large, we should probably consider legalizing everything else that's less harmful to at least be consistent. While we're at it, let's de-stigmatize the abuse of substances and treat it like a real mental health issue.

> to at least be consistent. No not be a total joke as a gov't. I love the stories on "refer scare" and the prohibition (which has become some big historical period like the renaissance, merely by retarded gov't policy). And not like we're done with it. New Zealand is considering to ban tobacco sales to the next generation. What could probably go wrong with that? Is age discrimination now all of a sudden okay? (this…

The only reason tobacco isn't banned straight up is it would cause untold disruption in the older addicted population. By banning sales to younger people, they are trying to prevent the next generation from becoming addicted, reducing the impact a future complete ban would cause. It's a temporary solution that will eventually lead to total ban.

Re: No amount of alcohol is good for the heart, says World Heart Federation

#107
post #60

Quoted post unavailable.

Why is there so much of this sentiment around here? It's an article on the internet, not a cop.

But alcohol has risks and if you actually want to balance those risks with the rewards, you should have an accurate account of what those risks are

Re: No amount of alcohol is good for the heart, says World Heart Federation

#108
post #23

Funny that they're saying this now because fermented drinks used to protect people from health issues when the water supply was not clean enough to drink.

With beer, this was because the brewer needed to boil the water used in order to kill off any microbes which would compete with the yeast, or it would go "off". It's a very important step for brewing beer. Then the beer would be stored in barrels/casks to help reduce the chance of introducing further microbes, plus the use of preservatives like hops to help keep it longer.

With wine, people generally mashed the grapes immediately after picking to ensure that the yeast took hold before any harmful bacteria did. Then followed the same process of barrelling it to prevent other microbes from getting in. People also learned that added sugar served to further preserve wines that would be stored for longer periods of time.

If people would have boiled their drinking water, it would have been safe to drink.

Re: No amount of alcohol is good for the heart, says World Heart Federation

#109

Of course it isn’t. Drink water. Unfortunately some people believe they can’t enjoy themselves without alcohol. It’s curious: - babies have fun without drinking - kids have fun without drinking - some teens have fun without drinking Then at some point some people, as adults, feel like they have to drink to enjoy themselves? I wonder what happened. Edit: explicitly clarifying that I’m only talking about some people he…

I saw some drunken adults. Looks like they are having more fun than babies, kids and teenagers. And they get some form of "support" by other adults, unlike babies, kids and teenagers would get if they behaved the same. Until it starts ruining your life, being a drunken adult seems fun and acceptable.

Re: No amount of alcohol is good for the heart, says World Heart Federation

#110

>Studies have shown that even small amounts of alcohol can increase a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease I've never drunk alcohol before. Is it worth never having it? Does one drink really ruin your body that much.

If you mean literally having one drink once in your life I highly doubt there is any meaningful impact.

If I had to guess, the air I breathe and other environmental factors would be more harmful over a long term period than having a single drink.

Post reply on HN