Any amount of alcohol consumption harmful to the brain, finds study
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Re: Any amount of alcohol consumption harmful to the brain, finds study
#2Is it that the illegal marijuana is safer than the legal alcohol? And the only thing keeping Alcohol in this framework is tradition?
Re: Any amount of alcohol consumption harmful to the brain, finds study
#3The news article makes it sound like causation has been determined beyond a doubt but the actual study abstract does not detail why the authors think this. Is it impossible to imagine that more brain “damage” leads to more drinking in some cases? Do people who are developing Alzheimer’s sometimes drink more to feel better?
Also not clear is the selection criteria. Are these people who were going to have an MRI and incidentally were offered a chance to participate in this study? In that case it could have biased the sample - there could be a large group of people drinking alcohol and being just fine but they wouldn’t be seen in this study for the very reason that they are doing fine and weren’t getting MRIs.
Certainly the presented hypothesis could be true but the article would be more convincing if it was more critical of its source material. Correlations are easy, they’re a dime a dozen. Proving causation is the real work.
Re: Any amount of alcohol consumption harmful to the brain, finds study
#4Is it that the illegal marijuana is safer than the legal alcohol? And the only thing keeping Alcohol in this framework is tradition?
They have very different effects in different time frames, it's not like you could simply swap in marijuana and swap out alcohol for most people.
Re: Any amount of alcohol consumption harmful to the brain, finds study
#5The news article makes it sound like causation has been determined beyond a doubt but the actual study abstract does not detail why the authors think this. Is it impossible to imagine that more brain “damage” leads to more drinking in some cases? Do people who are developing Alzheimer’s sometimes drink more to feel better? Also not clear is the selection criteria. Are these people who were going to have an MRI and in…
The title says "any" amount then the subtitle say "moderate" which is more than "any" but less than large.
Re: Any amount of alcohol consumption harmful to the brain, finds study
#6> The study, which is still to be peer-reviewed, suggests...
I'd take this with a grain of salt for now
Re: Any amount of alcohol consumption harmful to the brain, finds study
#7What else might this be true of, though? Could this just as easily be true of, say, sugar consumption or meat consumption?
Re: Any amount of alcohol consumption harmful to the brain, finds study
#8What else might this be true of, though? Could this just as easily be true of, say, sugar consumption or meat consumption?
Probably most things. Processed foods, various forms of radiation etc. American Experience had a pretty cool show last season (S32E2)on Dr. Harvey Wiley, an american chemist that could largely be considered the father of the FDA. The amount of stuff put in food is pretty crazy.
The reality is the body is pretty resilient though. Its pretty amazing the amount of abuse it can withstand and still keep on ticking.
Re: Any amount of alcohol consumption harmful to the brain, finds study
#9The news article makes it sound like causation has been determined beyond a doubt but the actual study abstract does not detail why the authors think this. Is it impossible to imagine that more brain “damage” leads to more drinking in some cases? Do people who are developing Alzheimer’s sometimes drink more to feel better? Also not clear is the selection criteria. Are these people who were going to have an MRI and in…
The title says "any" amount then the subtitle say "moderate" which is more than "any" but less than large.
The study's conclusions were both that no safe dose for alcohol was found and that moderate drinking was more harmful than previously recognized.
Re: Any amount of alcohol consumption harmful to the brain, finds study
#10The news article makes it sound like causation has been determined beyond a doubt but the actual study abstract does not detail why the authors think this. Is it impossible to imagine that more brain “damage” leads to more drinking in some cases? Do people who are developing Alzheimer’s sometimes drink more to feel better? Also not clear is the selection criteria. Are these people who were going to have an MRI and in…
>Also not clear is the selection criteria.
It's using the data from the UK Biobank study, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Biobank
Also, part of their conclusion is "as with any observational study, we can not infer causality from associations." They are aware of what their study shows, it's the Guardian who oversells it.