What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]

#111

Post by time_to_smile » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:19 PM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #8

The science has been in a long time that no amount of alcohol is healthy. Despite overwhelming experimental, historical and anecdotal evidence, 60% of Americans drink ~4 drinks per week - which luckily is on the decline. Something is seriously wrong with humanity if poisoning ourselves regularly to dissociate with reality remains this popular as a core social component. People will point to all of the supposed "socia…

> Something is seriously wrong with humanity if poisoning ourselves regularly to dissociate with reality remains this popular as a core social component.

Yes something is deeply wrong with human nature, and human existence is largely suffering no matter how you try to mask it.

I agree that it's a bandaid but what solution are you proposing? There is of course the option to simply exit the game, but for various biological reasons this is a real challenge.

Poisoning ourselves regularly and feeling good doing it sounds like a reasonable compromise.

Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]

#112

Post by doodpants » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:19 PM UTC

tdubhro1 wrote: post #97

selectodude wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've been drinking alcohol for 8000 years now so I wish you the best of luck on your crusade to show that it's "something wrong with humanity".

They also sacrificed humans to their gods. The tenure of a bad habit is not an argument in favour of the habit. I recall ancient romans used lead to enhance the taste of wine, if that practice had persisted nobody today would advocate for it give what we now know (and they suspected) about the effects of lead. And while we know that ancient civilisations drank alcohol, we don’t know how widespread or frequent it was,…

> They also sacrificed humans to their gods. The tenure of a bad habit is not an argument in favour of the habit.

But how certain are you that most of the problems that we struggle with today aren't a result of insufficient ritual sacrifice? Maybe we need to heed the lesson taught to us by the movie Cabin in the Woods.

Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]

#113

Post by Bubble_Pop_22 » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:19 PM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #8

The science has been in a long time that no amount of alcohol is healthy. Despite overwhelming experimental, historical and anecdotal evidence, 60% of Americans drink ~4 drinks per week - which luckily is on the decline. Something is seriously wrong with humanity if poisoning ourselves regularly to dissociate with reality remains this popular as a core social component. People will point to all of the supposed "socia…

> People will point to all of the supposed "social lubricant" benefits etc... of drinking culture, but I'm not convinced it's anything but a band-aid on some combination of social anxiety and existential dread.

If it's not alcohol it's drugs, if it's not drugs it's gambling. If it's not gambling it's approaching women at the bar. If it's not approaching women at the bar it's speeding.

People have a deep need to do something that entails risk or that it's frowned upon (or both).

Cultures where this doesn't happen such as Japan are essentially dying and going extinct and so is Europe and US aelbit at a slower rate. Will rightfully get replaced by cultures who DGAF and have a high turnover rate such as the Arab world, Indians and Sub-Saharan Africa

Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]

#114

Post by vintermann » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:24 PM UTC

smaddox wrote: post #78

vintermann wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol doesn't help social anxiety except by social convention. Society believes alcohol changes personality, and that drunk people are less themselves. Thus, they judge drunk people less harshly (including themselves). But alcohol doesn't actually change personality. It only makes your brain work slower. It doesn't make it go anywhere it otherwise wouldn't, you just get there later. What we've developed is a way to…

Alcohol suppresses anxiety. Up until the hangover, when it exacerbates it.

The cross cultural evidence suggests anxiety reduction, and indeed all psychological/personality effects, is just placebo.

Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]

#115

Post by havblue » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:25 PM UTC

jotm wrote: post #90

TakeBlaster16 wrote: post #24

Alcohol is the most harmful drug out there[1] - worse than heroin, crack cocaine, and all the rest. It boggles my mind how common it is, while genuinely useful drugs like psilocybin are still Schedule I and relegated to the shadows. [1]: https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/s0140-6736(10)61462-6 https://i.imgur.com/DQDJMGt.png

Only because it's the most common tbf. If you could get heroin in any supermarket, that'd top the charts :D

The "overall harm scores" y axis ranking is misleading as you can't tell at a glance whether it's harm to an individual or the overall public.

I'll just supply the expected response: "I don't think it's misleading at all. If you just look at the bars they clearly show blah blah blah..."

Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]

#116

Post by TakeBlaster16 » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:37 PM UTC

throwcean wrote: post #106

TakeBlaster16 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you're right, maybe not. https://talbottcampus.com/crack-statistics/ > And the National Drug Intelligence Center reports, “an estimated 6,222,000 U.S. residents aged 12 and older used crack at least once in their lifetime.” A lot of people have used crack, and a lot of those people do not fit the stereotypes about who uses or why. There are all kinds of people in this world, and we all live very different lives…

> There are all kinds of people in this world, and we all live very different lives. I can agree with that and I certainly don't care what people do with their lives as long as they don't harm others. However there are people consuming a beer each evening for decades and they are totally fine.. I doubt that is possible with crack.

If you're looking for people who use crack recreationally and also function fine in society, you'll find at least a few in kitchens.

Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]

#117

Post by Domenic_S » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:41 PM UTC

gautamdivgi wrote: post #19

sysadm1n wrote: post #2

Anyone have their own cure for a hangover the following day after drinking heavily? My usual go-to is a 'Full English Breakfast' that has all the trimmings and it replaces lost electrolytes in my system and 'cures' me although it's only a band-aid solution. There's nothing you can really do except wait a bad hangover out and let your body repair itself after essentially ingesting poison. Lucozade is another thing we…

This is anecdotal and not proven scientifically. In my younger days I drank heavily and was often in hangover territory the next morning. As I ate during drinking the previous day I normally had an active culture yogurt with the food - eg spicy chicken with a cup of active culture yogurt. I found that it definitely lessened the severity of the hangover.

That alcohol reduces blood glucose is correct. I'm diabetic and wear a CGM and it's fascinating that I can drink a sugary beverage that would typically spike my blood sugar very hard, but if it has alcohol in it my level stays roughly the same or even drops. I have to be very careful about alcohol because too much too fast will drop me dangerously low.

(From my amateur understanding, the alcohol gets prioritized by your liver which stops dumping glucose.)

Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]

#118

Post by lbrito » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:51 PM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #8

The science has been in a long time that no amount of alcohol is healthy. Despite overwhelming experimental, historical and anecdotal evidence, 60% of Americans drink ~4 drinks per week - which luckily is on the decline. Something is seriously wrong with humanity if poisoning ourselves regularly to dissociate with reality remains this popular as a core social component. People will point to all of the supposed "socia…

The flaw with that line of thinking is that we are not robots (LaMDA and Zuck, you can stop reading now).

We don't always (want to) make optimal decisions based only on how objectively healthy they are, and that's perfectly fine, and not really "self-destructive" in the sense you're implying. There's an adage somewhere about living health and becoming a beautiful, healthy corpse some day.

Alcohol is bad. Maybe cutting it entirely from your life will get you an average 0.56% increased life span. Will it be worth it?

This isn't to say being a drunkard is good, or that widespread alcohol consumption can't be a problem (see Russia's and native Americans' history).

Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]

#119

Post by Steve44 » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:57 PM UTC

One thing I've not seen mentioned in this thread is the enjoyment you can get from the wide expanse of flavours & mouthfeels of different alcoholic drinks. Most of the comments seem to be focussed on people drinking either to help with social anxiety or just to blot the world out, or as one poster put it "to dissociate with reality".

I really love exploring different drinks, mainly beers and spirits although I do still enjoy some wine. There is such a wide array available, it's a wonderful 'hobby'.

With cask beers you get the initial mouthfeel of what I think is the live yeast coupled with some natural carbonation; it's not at all like a gassy fizzy drink more like a gentle tingling over the mouth. Some beers then deliver 10-30 seconds of different malt flavours with some being very biscuity or others more chocolaty. There can then the several waves of hops coming over depending how it's brewed. With one mouthful you get to enjoy and savour all those flavours and textures for a good minute with a lingering taste lasting much longer, they ebb and flow like a roller-coaster.

Spirits and cocktails are the same, the depths of flavours can be absolutely wonderful. A well balanced Negroni for example can be a very complex drink.

I've found some alcohol free drinks than can be built up to be a little interesting, but nothing comes close for the expanse and depth. I presume that the alcohol is volatile and is a key part of driving the other flavours, perhaps in a similar way to salt is a flavour enhancer.

Re: What alcohol does to your body, brain and health [video]

#120

Post by jononomo » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 7:02 PM UTC

selectodude wrote: post #16

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #8

The science has been in a long time that no amount of alcohol is healthy. Despite overwhelming experimental, historical and anecdotal evidence, 60% of Americans drink ~4 drinks per week - which luckily is on the decline. Something is seriously wrong with humanity if poisoning ourselves regularly to dissociate with reality remains this popular as a core social component. People will point to all of the supposed "socia…

We've been drinking alcohol for 8000 years now so I wish you the best of luck on your crusade to show that it's "something wrong with humanity".

Isn't 8000 years ago about the time the Bible says that humanity began to sin?