Drinking behind 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults • Hacker News Board

Re: Drinking behind 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults

#61

Post by BoppreH » Sat, Jun 28, 2014, 9:52 PM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #58

hga wrote: post #7

I'm not sure this is all that surprising. Turn it around: what do we expect to be the causes for those adults between age 20 and 64 who die? I really should read up on the relevant actuarial facts, but isn't it the case that by and large those from 20 to, say, 50 plus or minus are fairly healthy?

Especially when there's a certain bias If person died from diabetes, but drank, this goes into the "alcohol deaths" count, even if the person would have suffered from it without the alcohol. Same thing for smoking. Yes, there are people who die of lung cancer without smoking or being exposed to specific carcinogens. And of course everybody dies, but if the person has a heart attack at 80 and drank it is likely it wil…

    If person died from diabetes, but drank, this goes into
    the "alcohol deaths" count, even if the person would have 
    suffered from it without the alcohol.

That would be a monumentally stupid way to conduct a research. Until you can show me evidence of this level of incompetence I'll assume you are mistaken.

Re: Drinking behind 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults

#62

Post by glbrew » Sat, Jun 28, 2014, 9:52 PM UTC

indlebe wrote: post #35

Does anyone else find it strange that the definitions of binge and heavy drinking vary so much between the men and women groups? I would think that only body weight would be the heavy influence on this. Is USA Today just being sexist?

Pound for pound men metabolize most drugs (including alcohol) faster than women. A 150 pound man will be less drunk than a 150 pound woman who consumes the same amount of alcohol. On top of this the average man is heavier than the average woman.

Re: Drinking behind 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults

#63

Post by lostlogin » Sat, Jun 28, 2014, 9:55 PM UTC

sharkweek wrote: post #33

matwood wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. My alcohol use has been becoming less and less as I get older. I love a nice wine or good beer, but my nights of going out partying are way behind me.

I'm the same -- at the ripe age of 28, I had two nice beers with dinner the other night and woke up with a headache. I can barely handle it anymore; which is arguably a good thing. I still enjoy a good beer, but other than that, have basically lost the taste for all other alcohol.

It took me a worryingly long time to work out that 1 cider per night over a week or 2 of summer was why I felt terrible the day after. I suspect this has more to do with the stupidly high sugar content.

Re: Drinking behind 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults

#64

Post by frozenport » Sat, Jun 28, 2014, 9:58 PM UTC

noname123 wrote: post #59

While we are at it, can we list some other addictions that we use to cope with life. Me personally, it's gambling, pornography, sulking alone, facebooking acquaintances to see how they're doing better than me or worse, checking sports score and living vicariously through the lives of professional athletes on and off the field, checking TechCrunch/Hack News and doing the same with tech billionaires, making up lists an…

Your rant is too long to read.

Re: Drinking behind 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults

#65

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 28, 2014, 9:59 PM UTC

teddyh wrote: post #26

ryanmim wrote: post #12

I drink way too much. I've accepted this. What stops me from drinking way too much? Not much, because I'm able to rationalize my drinking with the many beneficial effects touted. There's a lot of information about how drinking a bit is helpful for heart disease and how it basically reduces mortality across the board. More information is needed about how drinking is HARMFUL beyond cirrhosis and the short term effects…

You are not the same person while drunk. If you think that the person you are while sober is a better person, you have a perfectly valid reason for not drinking. I’ll just leave you with this: http://www.cracked.com/blog/9-youtube-videos-that-prove-anyo... Not so much to prove that you can do it, but more for the change that anyone can see. You could hardly tell that it’s the same person in the first videos as the la…

[deleted]

Re: Drinking behind 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults

#66

Post by tarequeh » Sat, Jun 28, 2014, 9:59 PM UTC

noname123 wrote: post #59

While we are at it, can we list some other addictions that we use to cope with life. Me personally, it's gambling, pornography, sulking alone, facebooking acquaintances to see how they're doing better than me or worse, checking sports score and living vicariously through the lives of professional athletes on and off the field, checking TechCrunch/Hack News and doing the same with tech billionaires, making up lists an…

Life can be much more than conformist grinding. It's too precious. Learn a new language, learn how to ride a motorbike, travel to Easter Island or the Himalayas. Stop worrying about what others want of you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU0PYcCsL6o

Re: Drinking behind 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults

#67

Post by throwawaywayway » Sat, Jun 28, 2014, 10:00 PM UTC

ryanmim wrote: post #12

I drink way too much. I've accepted this. What stops me from drinking way too much? Not much, because I'm able to rationalize my drinking with the many beneficial effects touted. There's a lot of information about how drinking a bit is helpful for heart disease and how it basically reduces mortality across the board. More information is needed about how drinking is HARMFUL beyond cirrhosis and the short term effects…

Honest question: How much is too much?

I drink about 2-4 fairly strong beers a night (5-7% ABV), almost every night, and while I certainly feel it, I've only been "shitfaced" (or whatever you call "drinking to the point that you lose control") maybe half a dozen times in my life. The fact that I'm not doing the (apparently) normal thing for young folk and getting trashed every Friday night (or ever, really) gives me some relief, but I often worry about how much damage I'm doing with my less intense but sustained drinking habit.

Re: Drinking behind 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults

#68

Post by frozenport » Sat, Jun 28, 2014, 10:03 PM UTC

logicallee wrote: post #52

bluehazed wrote: post #47

I've pretty much resolved myself to slowly drinking myself to death, I'm pretty sure I'd have killed myself due to boredom or stress otherwise. Hopefully maybe getting out of my current field (devops) and going back into school (have a CS degree to finish) will help a bit.

lol @ going to college so you can stop drinking. Only the engineering department... :-)

After what happened when Facebook came to our campus, I would assume CS degrees don't fall into this category. Perhaps the folks in Electrical Engineering still got it.

Re: Drinking behind 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults

#69

Post by mtdewcmu » Sat, Jun 28, 2014, 10:03 PM UTC

ggreer wrote: post #2

The actual study is: http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/13_0293.htm . It's also available as a PDF: http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/pdf/13_0293.pdf

Someone will have to parse the study to find out what's really happening. My guess is that most of the deaths that are being called alcohol-related are not chronic alcoholics; most are probably accidents and violence in which alcohol had been consumed at some point. So, I would be cautious about reading causation into those statistics.

Re: Drinking behind 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults

#70

Post by lostlogin » Sat, Jun 28, 2014, 10:04 PM UTC

indlebe wrote: post #57

freditup wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but assuming you're not... But first, 5 drinks in 2-3 hrs for men vs. 4 drinks in 2-3 hrs for women isn't that different. Second, women on average weigh less, so that contributes to the difference as you mentioned. And third, there are other ways alcohol affects men and women differently. Edit: Just saw the 15 drinks/week for men vs. 8 drinks/week for women which is a larger di…

>if you're being sarcastic what's "sarcastic"? >there are other ways alcohol affects men and women differently. sources please? :)

I would have thought that 30 seconds thought would give a few of the answers. Basic anatomical differences like a uterus and breasts are part of the equation.

http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/alcohol-use.htm http://www.helpguide.org/harvard/women_alcohol.htm