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Why many studies wrongly claim it's healthy to drink a little alcohol

newscientist.com

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Re: Why many studies wrongly claim it's healthy to drink a little alcohol

#81

Post by bee_rider »

pfdietz wrote: post #64
bee_rider wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s an interesting chemical. One stereotype I’ve heard is that people quit drinking and then become addicted to coffee. Coffee apparently can have acetaldehyde in it.

Roasted coffee has variable amounts of acetaldehyde, but typically in the tens of ppm. So, coffee will present orders of magnitude lower acetaldehyde exposure than drinking even dilute alcoholic beverages. I wonder more about soluble fiber carbohydrates leading to ethanol production in the gut.

Interesting. Well, I was not too invested in that theory, haha.

It also could be the ritual of the whole thing. I quit drinking, and got really into coffee drinks. Creating potions—the anticipation, the combination of fluids with different densities and colors, the foam that is produced by espresso when the pressure is just right—it is all kind of satisfying.

Re: Why many studies wrongly claim it's healthy to drink a little alcohol

#82

Post by crazygringo »

jokoon wrote: post #24

At the army, I remember a doctor insisting on a very precise answer to the question if I was drinking alcohol "never" or "rarely". for coffee it's probably very similar we say "the dose makes the poison" but it doesn't change that regularly drinking a low dose of poison is not good.

Why do you think it would be similar for coffee?

Lots of people have drunk themselves to death.

I've never heard of anyone who was otherwise healthy coffee-ing themselves to death through regular consumption.

(There are rare conditions that make caffeine fatal, but I'm talking about the general population.)

Re: Why many studies wrongly claim it's healthy to drink a little alcohol

#83

Post by quickthrowman »

djaouen wrote: post #39
weweweoo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But isn't social anxiety a source of many harmful inhibitions? To me moderate lowering of inhibitions is a good thing, and a couple of beers helps with that. But with anything more the bad effects outweigh the good. Still, facing one's fears and going sober to anxiety inducing situations is absolutely much better long-term treatment of social anxiety. That has a lasting effect, alcohol doesn't.

There are also non-narcotic anxiolytics that don't lower your inhibitions. That was the ultimate solution I found for myself.

Propranolol, I assume? Much safer than alcohol and very good at reducing social anxiety/stage fright in my experience.

Re: Why many studies wrongly claim it's healthy to drink a little alcohol

#84

Post by IndySun »

supahfly_remix wrote: post #6

Have there been studies of nominally non-drinking sub-populations, such as Mormons or Muslims, to understand the effects of alcohol?

It's a fair question. However, even muslims are human, i.e., when I've worked in strictly muslim countries (or for that matter, alcohol free geographical zones) someone, somewhere, is drinking (or they know someone that can get it, it being throat and brain cell destroying hooch) even though they're also ticking the zero booze box. See how complicated humans are? But isn't a zero alcohol life not a viable position even for teetotallers of yore, fermented fruit, some food, all contained alcohol.

Re: Why many studies wrongly claim it's healthy to drink a little alcohol

#85

Post by dns_snek »

IshKebab wrote: post #72
pfdietz wrote: post #5

Ethanol is metabolized to acetaldehyde. Aldehydes form crosslinks between proteins and DNA (and DNA with itself). Inactivation of the aldehyde-metabolizing ALDH2 enzyme (which happens in 50% of East Asians) increases risk for various disorders including cancer and late-onset Alzheimer's. Cancers linked to alcohol use: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/diet-physical-... The American Cancer Society recommen…

> at any level This is nonsense advice. Would you take the advice of someone who recommended never driving because any level of driving risks death? That's obviously stupid. Or it should be anyway though I suspect some pendants will try to argue it. If you're one of those people what about never going outside? The sun's deadly rays might give you cancer and there's no safe level of sunlight !! Risks are about trade-o…

The belief that moderate consumption alcohol isn't just harmless, but in fact beneficial to your health, is extremely widespread in my personal experience. It's past time to change that if the science disagrees.

And you're right, risks are all about trade-offs and how you implement that advice into your own life is entirely up to you. Crucially, they're not making recommendations to make anyone feel better about their harmful decisions, they're making them to help people make informed decisions.

Re: Why many studies wrongly claim it's healthy to drink a little alcohol

#86

Post by iancmceachern »

jakupovic wrote: post #80
IshKebab wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at any level This is nonsense advice. Would you take the advice of someone who recommended never driving because any level of driving risks death? That's obviously stupid. Or it should be anyway though I suspect some pendants will try to argue it. If you're one of those people what about never going outside? The sun's deadly rays might give you cancer and there's no safe level of sunlight !! Risks are about trade-o…

Tell it how it is. No cigarettes either. But it's OK to go camping and live in a cloud of smoke for days. I wonder how many cigarettes a day equals being in a big campground with fires everywhere for 2 days is?

An AQI of 250 plus is equivalent to 7 cigarettes a day:

https://woods.stanford.edu/news/health-impacts-wildfire-smok....

Re: Why many studies wrongly claim it's healthy to drink a little alcohol

#87

Post by LorenPechtel »

No surprise. Just about everything equating activities to life expectancy has the confounder of whether one can do the activity. Hadn't thought about it with alcohol but it makes perfect sense.

I also strongly suspect that a bit overweight being the best is the same thing at work.

Re: Why many studies wrongly claim it's healthy to drink a little alcohol

#90

Post by tssge »

ImHereToVote wrote: post #46
jokoon wrote: post #24

At the army, I remember a doctor insisting on a very precise answer to the question if I was drinking alcohol "never" or "rarely". for coffee it's probably very similar we say "the dose makes the poison" but it doesn't change that regularly drinking a low dose of poison is not good.

Yet coffee consumption is correlated with longer life. Probably the Quercetin and Trigonelline in coffee offsets the supposed damage.

And ice cream consumption is correlated with drowning. Many times correlation just doesn't mean that much by itself.
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