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

Post by sokoloff » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

Accacin wrote: post #191

sokoloff wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m generally pro-legalization, but there are many things that we hypothesize are safe but do not know the long-term effects of and, within living memory, have discovered that many things initially thought safe were not. People were taking X-ray images of shoe fit in department stores, we used thalidomide to treat morning sickness, etc. What society says is legal has an effect on how it is perceived and how frequentl…

I do agree with this argument, but most of the time legalising doesn't just make problems disappear. It needs to be paired with better access to mental health facilities, rehabilitiation, etc. Making drugs legal doesn't mean people will start abusing them. I do not drink or take drugs, and both are easy as hell to access here in the UK. The benefits for me of legalising drugs would be making it easier for people to s…

Post by kstrauser » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 5:35 PM UTC

jokethrowaway wrote: post #472

kstrauser wrote: post #159

Although I live in a place where weed is legal, I don’t use it. I enjoy the occasional glass of a nice scotch, though, and I love a good stout or porter beer. This is where it gets a little strange for me: by every metric I can think of, I’d be better off replacing alcohol with weed. There seem to be fewer negative effects, it’s not a source of empty calories, and looks like a better recreational drug in every way. A…

You're already giving a bad example to your kids by drinking alcohol. That's fine. They'll grow up and decide what to do. If they'll drink themselves senseless there must be a bigger problem than seeing you drink alcohol in small quantities. I certainly am not doing all the mistakes I saw my father's doing and I hope my kids will grow up to be responsible adults which will make their own decisions. I never lived in a…

Post by tharne » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 5:36 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #298

P_I_Staker wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why aren’t we looking into the merits of a daily or weekly cigarette? At a certain point it really looks like it’s just poison and wet should knock it off.

While smoking is harmful overall and I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to smoke, the nicotine it delivers does have some merits. So there is some nuance to the issue. https://peterattiamd.com/ama23/ The dose makes the poison. For some poisons there is a minimum threshold dose below which there is no detectible harm. For others that threshold is zero.

Post by slackfan » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 5:37 PM UTC

malfist wrote: post #471

slackfan wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speed limits are primarily environmental regulation and have little to nothing to do with safety. By extention, they happen to be anti-fun. The Autobahn is still not a 24/7 disaster zone of dead bodies and scrapped cars last time I checked.

Sure, interstate speedlimits are somewhat about gas mileage. But I'm going to need some citation from you that a 25mph speedlimit in a residential area is about environmental impacts and not safety. Sure the autobahn isn't a meat grinder, but there's a difference between safe and unsafe, and unsafe doesn't mean everyone dies. Regardless, doesn't matter if the regulation is for safety or environmental protection, bein…

Post by jghn » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 5:38 PM UTC

allturtles wrote: post #358

slothtrop wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I recall, for this particular bit of research that I read a couple of months ago, more precisely it states there is no clear discernible level of consumption that could be deemed "safe". That's not really a surprise if you look at the data because it's such a mess. You also can't pin a point at which consumption is a high risk. What does that tell us? You can however surmise that low / moderate consumption is not…

Exactly. I find the claim "no level of alcohol consumption is safe" hyperbolic. You could claim with far more justification that "no amount of driving is safe" since you could be killed pulling out of your driveway but I think most people who drive on a daily basis would find this claim odd. "safety" is a relative, not an absolute condition, since in some sense being alive is unsafe.