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

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

#181

Post by janef0421 »

throwcean wrote: post #70
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

What a nonsense.. there are millions of people drinking alcohol sporadically and are doing fine. I don't think there are that many people sporadically consuming crack and are doing fine. Now I guess you can define harmful in many ways and I didn't read the study and probably won't.

That's more to do with the legal and cultural status of cocaine than its chemical properties. Illicit drug users tend to have difficulties to begin with, and the legal and financial consequences of using illegal drugs tend to worsen them. Also, crack tends to be cheaper than freebase, so a specific comparison is also being confounded by socioeconomic disparity.

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

#183

Post by ahartmetz »

throwayyy479087 wrote: post #175
2-718-281-828 wrote: post #157

shouldn't there be some strong and measurable impact on muslim societies (which tend to drink no alcohol) compared to non-muslim societies (who tend to drink alcohol)? is saudi arabia governed smarter or are imams wiser than catholic priests? do they live or stay healthy for longer? having said that I am personally going through some changes. and for some reason I observed the past weeks how I don't enjoy drinking al…

I’ve asked this repeatedly and never heard a good answer. The wealthiest countries are generally those that have _more_ cultural drinking (Germany South Korea Japan ) not less.

My theory is that people in these countries are the opposite of drunk without alcohol, which is good for productivity, but needs compensation in social situations.

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

#184

Post by smileysteve »

Steve44 wrote: post #122
groby_b wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cure for hangover? Best cure is not drinking so much :) The hangover is your body telling you you did something not entirely healthy. You might want to listen to it. But if you must know: Drink water, that night, before going to bed. A good amount. Drink more water the morning after. A lot of your hangover is dehydration. Have a rich breakfast if you can eat it, or electrolytes (pedialyte etc) if you can't stomach th…

> The hangover is your body telling you you did something not entirely healthy. You might want to listen to it Does that also apply to people who drive themselves to the limit in sports? For example many people who do marathons or Iron Man events will feel rough and likely have blisters and bruises for several days. Some people doing sports end up in hospital as a direct result. Should they listen to the pain of thei…

> Should they listen to the pain of their body and not push themselves?

Yes? It's well published science that a half marathon distance reaches the point of negative gains in running. Marathon runners therefore don't continually train at at marathon distances, typical training is in the 10-15k.

More casually, inactive and active recovery are very important to athletes

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

#185

Post by merek »

throwayyy479087 wrote: post #175
2-718-281-828 wrote: post #157

shouldn't there be some strong and measurable impact on muslim societies (which tend to drink no alcohol) compared to non-muslim societies (who tend to drink alcohol)? is saudi arabia governed smarter or are imams wiser than catholic priests? do they live or stay healthy for longer? having said that I am personally going through some changes. and for some reason I observed the past weeks how I don't enjoy drinking al…

I’ve asked this repeatedly and never heard a good answer. The wealthiest countries are generally those that have _more_ cultural drinking (Germany South Korea Japan ) not less.

> The wealthiest countries are generally those that have _more_ cultural drinking

I don't think this is correct but I think I understand where you're coming from. Looking at the top 10 countries by alcohol consumption for 2019 (below), it seems there's a good mix of wealthy and not so wealthy countries.

Wealthier countries may seem to be bigger drinkers because they often have strong cultural exports (TV/music) and/or a strong tourism industry, exposing their drinking cultures to the outside world.

Top 10 Countries with the Highest Alcohol Consumption in 2019 (in liters of pure alcohol per capita):

Czechia - 14.26 Latvia - 13.19 Moldova - 12.85 Germany - 12.79 Lithuania - 12.78 Ireland - 12.75 Spain - 12.67 Uganda - 12.48 Bulgaria - 12.46 Luxembourg - 12.45

Source https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcohol-c...

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

#187

Post by vintermann »

j_4 wrote: post #138
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 absolutely does help social anxiety by improving mood and lowering inhibitions on a brain chemistry level. There are plenty of factual and scientific reasons to dislike and discourage alcohol, the "it's all in your head dummy" angle isn't one of them.

If it was simply on a brain chemistry level, why does it work so differently in other times and places?

It's an example of bad high-status science suppressing good low-status science. Neurochemists asking, "Why does alcohol make us do this?" without checking with cultural anthropologists if it actually does make us do this, or if it just makes "WEIRD" people do it.

I did not say it was all in your head, by the way. The lower reaction times and slower thinking is obviously real (and present everywhere).

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

#188

Post by tsol »

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…

Dihydromyricetin

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

#189

Post by tsol »

ilaksh wrote: post #168

The weird thing as I see it is that somehow the alcohol lobby has convinced an entire society that anyone who runs into severe consequences from routinely ingesting this drug (alcohol) is literally genetically deficient. Pretty much the opposite of the how people react to most drugs, for example opioid pain killers. It's a very powerful psychological tool for promoting alcohol consumption and suppressing anti-alcohol…

That's a really interesting point, I've never thought about it that way but that's exactly what it is.

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

#190

Post by romdev »

jjulius wrote: post #21
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".

Yeah, that was an interesting comment. I understand where they're coming from, but humans have been ingesting things - even beyond alcohol - to modify their reality for a very, very, very long time. I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with asking why it is that we have continued to do this, collectively, as a species, but I hesitate to suggest that it implies that there is "something wrong with humanit…

Maybe it's the fact that we all realize our mortality, and the benefit that it has on a species. Nature has built into us a few limiters to over-flourishing, like it has for many other species: a short life-span with expendable body components - we've overcome that with medicine and other life-extending tech. A disinterest in procreation - we're trending in that direction but the procreators are probably gonna win that battle. Limited resources - science is finding ways to exploit new resources while diminishing the quality of life for all.

I'm a drinker and proud of the contributions I still make to society, but also that I won't hang on for too long past my invitation to stay on this rock. There are people better than me who should occupy it.

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