"The more alcohol a society consumes, the fewer alcohol-related problems and alcohol-related deaths (including cirrhosis) it has."
Heh, what? Exhibit A: Russia. I'm all for copious drinking, but that's comedy.
The Truth We Won't Admit: Drinking Is Healthy
21–30 of 71 posts
Re: The Truth We Won't Admit: Drinking Is Healthy
#22Everything in moderation is good my grandma used to say...
Everything in Moderation; it's a hell of a town.
Re: The Truth We Won't Admit: Drinking Is Healthy
#23The author has been funded in the past by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (a trade organization) and the Wine Institute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanton_Peele#Funding This article makes it sound like there are no health concerns with regular drinking.
I would be more concerned with the mental health effects than the physical health effects anyway.
Re: The Truth We Won't Admit: Drinking Is Healthy
#24> If you don’t distinguish binge drinking from daily moderate drinking, that would be due to Americans’ addiction-phobia, which causes them to interpret any daily drinking as addictive. This is a quite common attitude in northern Europe as well, or at least in the Nordic countries. In Denmark it's highly suspicious to drink alcohol on a weekday ( especially at lunch), unless it's a holiday, and will lead people to wo…
Well, daily drinking is a good predictor - 100% of practicing alcoholics drink every day after all.
That's not what would make it a good predictor. The proper question is not what percentage of alcoholics drink every day, but what percentage of people who drink every day are alcoholics.
Re: The Truth We Won't Admit: Drinking Is Healthy
#25What if a pharmaceutical company invented a pill that resulted in a modest but significant reduction in the risk of heart disease in 90% of the population, but resulted massive increase in the risk of premature mortality in 10% of the population, easily shaving off 10-40 years in life expectancy in that 10%, depending on the severity of their reaction to the drug. The company could find absolutely no way to tell the…
And yet opiates are both approved by the FDA, and widely prescribed by doctors. As far as I know they carry a much higher addiction risk and increase mortality quite a bit more than alcohol does. Benzos, amphetamines, SSRIs, etc etc. There are plenty of pills both approved and prescribed that have a worse effect and/or affect a higher percentage of people.
Opiates, benzos, and amphetamines are all highly controlled substances -- and most physicians only prescribe them long-term under very rare circumstances.
And actually, long-term opiate abuse is much less likely to result in organ failure and other chronic health conditions than alcohol is.
That's not the case with benzos or amphetamines, but I don't see anyone this side of Hunter S. Thomson arguing that more people should take amphetamines.
Finally, can you explain what you mean by "and/or affect a higher percentage of people"? You mean more people take SSRIs than abuse alcohol? I don't understand what you're suggesting.
Re: The Truth We Won't Admit: Drinking Is Healthy
#26"The more alcohol a society consumes, the fewer alcohol-related problems and alcohol-related deaths (including cirrhosis) it has." Heh, what? Exhibit A: Russia. I'm all for copious drinking, but that's comedy.
Yep, pure comedy. Here are the facts; alcohol is among the largest preventable causes of deaths, is connected to half of all violent crimes and about a third of car related deaths.
http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impai...
Re: The Truth We Won't Admit: Drinking Is Healthy
#27What if a pharmaceutical company invented a pill that resulted in a modest but significant reduction in the risk of heart disease in 90% of the population, but resulted massive increase in the risk of premature mortality in 10% of the population, easily shaving off 10-40 years in life expectancy in that 10%, depending on the severity of their reaction to the drug. The company could find absolutely no way to tell the…
Are you really sure about that? Do you know Isotretinoin? You may want to do a little search about it. Look at the serious adverse effects and harms it cause [0]. Despite that, a huge numbers of doctors (in many countries around the world) do administer it. Why? Because it makes money for the pharmaceutical industry. So the answer: Yes, the FDA will approve that magical pill. *[0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotre…
>Do you know Isotretinoin? You may want to do a little search about it
Yes, I know all about Isotretinoin. I took 3 courses of it as a teenager with severe, painful scarring acne. It improved my life a great deal, both from a health and social perspective.
Want to make any more assumptions about me?
Re: The Truth We Won't Admit: Drinking Is Healthy
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Smoking significantly reduces risk of Parkinson's disease.
Would you please link to the relevant study?
Here is one, http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/155/8/732.full
A reduced risk for Parkinson's disease (PD) among cigarette smokers has been observed consistently during the past 30 years. Recent evidence suggests that caffeine may also be protective. Findings are presented regarding associations of PD with smoking, caffeine intake, and alcohol consumption from a case-control study conducted in western Washington State in 1992–2000.
Re: The Truth We Won't Admit: Drinking Is Healthy
#29> If you don’t distinguish binge drinking from daily moderate drinking, that would be due to Americans’ addiction-phobia, which causes them to interpret any daily drinking as addictive. This is a quite common attitude in northern Europe as well, or at least in the Nordic countries. In Denmark it's highly suspicious to drink alcohol on a weekday ( especially at lunch), unless it's a holiday, and will lead people to wo…
Well, daily drinking is a good predictor - 100% of practicing alcoholics drink every day after all.
They're also 100% human, and they all tend to breathe at least twice a day.
Re: The Truth We Won't Admit: Drinking Is Healthy
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Smoking significantly reduces risk of Parkinson's disease.
Would you please link to the relevant study?
Here's something related: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10857708
Definitely not "smoking", and not about preventing parkinson's. But it is one study that shows nicotine helps with some aspects of the disease.