The headline boils down to:<p>> "I don’t think that everyone who is drinking, even in moderation, needs to stop drinking urgently," says Dr. Manson. But if you do drink regularly, it might be a good idea to cut back. Also, if you’re drinking expressly because you’ve been told it protects your heart, you should stop.<p>Also, the following paragraph is unsurprising in more than one way.<p>> In addition, the WHF noted that much of the past research on alcohol and heart health consisted of observational studies — not the more reliable randomized controlled trials. When randomized trials were conducted, they failed to find a heart benefit from drinking alcohol
After getting a Garmin watch I’ve noticed that any drinking wreaks havoc on my body, and heavy drinking lingers for a long time. I’m getting the same readings when I’ve had a bit to drink from heart rate variability, sleep quality and such as when I’m really sick. It’s started to push me to drinking less, but I’ll never quit entirely. Life is too short and my mental health enjoys a glass every now and then.
To put the percentages from the article in context, a teetotaller between 55 and 59 has a 5.9% chance of developing a stroke while a moderate drinker in the same age group has a 6.7% probability of suffering from a stroke. Which is still bad but not nearly as dramatic as the initial percentages make it sound.<p>I've noticed there is this weird neo-puritanical movement getting in vogue as of late, but I don't really understand why. Especially in educated groups it should come as absolutely no surprise that drinking is bad for your health and I don't know a single person who drinks because it's "healthy". We drink (in moderation) because it's makes for a good time and the negative externalities are understood and considered a worthwhile trade-off. For some people this trade-off is not acceptable which is totally fine too.<p>If you're serious about getting healthier I reckon that for a lot of people there is a lot more impactful changes to make than to stop drinking. E.g. no more processed foods, losing weight, exercising regularly, fixing indoor air quality and maybe less/no drinking if it's actually a significantly affecting health.
Alcohol culture is interesting, it seems to have a specially carved-out cultural niche which isn't enjoyed by nearly any other drug. The only other drug that comes close is probably coffee.<p>This alcohol culture has resulted in a lot of political pressure to undersell the negative health effects of drinking. I think it's fine if people are drinking as long as they're aware of the consequence. Although alcohol advertising in general still makes me a bit uneasy, I don't think any other substance could get away with the same kind of ads as alcohol manufacturers.<p>For most, it's probably better to live a shorter and more fulfilling life than that of a monk which abstains from all pleasures. But if we're going to drink, it's better to be honest about the impact we're expecting.
I find it utterly bizarre that the size of a "drink" is quoted here in ounces, so here's a conversion (assuming I have selected the right <i>kind</i> of ounce for my conversion):<p>12 ounces of beer is ~340ml, about a normal water drinking glass, or about 0.60 pints, or about 0.72 of those weird American pints.<p>5 ounces of wine is ~142ml, which is slightly more than a small wine glass. Most wine glasses are 125ml, although there are also lots that are 250ml.<p>1.5 ounces of spirits is ~42.5ml, which is somewhere between a single and a double shot.
Slightly funny when an institution such as Harvard still doesn't understand how extrapolating conclusions from a single variable when dealing with a complex system is janky at best and most of the time worthless<p>Just compare these two maps:<p><a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcohol-consumption-by-country" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcohol-c...</a><p><a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/heart-disease-rates-by-country" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/heart-dis...</a>
For your consideration: Probably a billion people live perfectly happy lives without alcohol. Maybe it's not actually necessary after all, maybe that's not a boring life, or will cause your mental health to suffer?
A good question to ask is what each person considers drinking in moderation:<p>The WHF considers moderation as 1 standard beverage per day (for a woman). This is the basis of their recommendations.<p>Their other definitions include: A woman is considered a heavy drinker if she has eight or more drinks per week, or a binge drinker if she has more than four drinks in one sitting.<p>So over to the HN forums:<p>What do you consider "moderate drinking"?
I've all but stopped drinking alcohol ever since I watched an Andrew Huberman video on the same subject. I was mostly drinking beer and nowadays thankfully they are making great alcohol-free versions. Visited Germany this summer and was surprised to see that almost half of the beers in stores were without alcohol. I highly recommend them.
What I don't like is how engrained alcohol consumption is in my culture. People look at you weird or ask you questions when you don't drink. That should be more normal and just accepted without having to justify yourself.<p>That said, I will not stop drinking. A good old night out with some friends is just too much fun.
I've completely quit alcohol for a few years now. It was pretty sparse for me past 30 and lately my conclusion was even one glass of champagne I can sort of feel the next day.<p>Don't miss it at all.
OK, great.<p>The thing is though, that people like a little chemical relaxation. After a tough day or just because whatever. I know I do. I'm not a daily drinker, but I enjoy a glass of wine or beer several times a week. More on occasion (probably monthly). I'd go so far as to say it's quite important to my mental health to be able to have a little escape switch like that after a tough day of work, under high pressure to get something delivered.<p>"Just don't" is not a good answer for me. "Adjust your life so you don't feel like that" only goes so far as well, would probably involve a complete career change, relative poverty (and the associated health outcomes there etc etc.), and quite likely no real reduction in stress.<p>Most of the west still lives with cannabis prohibition, and god forbid our advanced medical science be used to research potential recreational substances with lesser harm profiles, despite the massive effect on health this could have. That'll never fly politically after decades of demonising anything that can be referred to as 'drugs'.<p>So what to do?<p>(I'm not trying to claim it's impossible to be alcohol or drug free, it clearly works well for a lot of people. Though I will say that most people I know who have given it up entirely have done so because of issues with self-control and addiction, either that they saw in themselves or in family)
It is interesting to observe how people react as if directly attacked when confronted with this study, the original publication is much more targeted towards policy makers.
The original source:
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9306675/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9306675/</a>
My partner and I are on a one year break from booze since July.<p>Which is great.<p>But as others mentioned. Meat, fried stuff, anything carbs, the list of stuff you should avoid to stay healthy never ends.<p>Same with interesting past times. Climbing, paragliding, street/ramp skating, horse riding etc. Much higher risk of injury or even death than with "boring" sports or no sports at all.<p>The issue I rather have with the topic at hand & the general discussion people have around it is that the comparably "healthy" substance alternatives are illegal and/or hard to come by.<p>That said -- we live in Berlin.<p>You can easily get pure MDMA delivered to your door. Testing kits can be ordered from Amazon.<p>A shop around the corner sells high quality (beautifully packaged) mushroom chocolate under the counter; in different strengths.<p>A legal shop down the road[1] sells a LSD variant that seemingly changes every six months, as the government adds the variant they're currently selling to the controlled substance list.<p>We found microdosing the aforementioned three, depending on occasion, is similar/better than having a glass or two of wine. With the added benefit that you can choose the substance for the occasion, for better effect.<p>Specifically MDMA for social gatherings and mushrooms for tango dancing (which is our non-dangerous favorite past time).
LSD for either, depending on mood or what we have on the shelf.
And yeah, I also use LSD microdoses sometimes when writing challenging code.<p>And while we admittedly were "a glass of wine or two a day people before" -- which seems to be the norm when you live in central Berlin --, we find that we take the above three substances only once or twice a week, mostly during weekends and always in isolation & microdosed.<p>For MDMA the reasons are obvious (although literature is not conclusive about long term serotine depletion even being a thing with MDMA when taking it strictly in moderate doses & in isolation from other substances on the resp. occasion -- we are just not gambling there).<p>For mushrooms and LSD the reason is simply that you don't want psychoactive effects at all.<p>Kinda why you avoid drinking a bottle of wine by yourself during a dinner -- you still want to enjoy talking to other people.<p>[1] <a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/AzA9uvJx7NsxquvN8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://maps.app.goo.gl/AzA9uvJx7NsxquvN8</a> resp. <a href="http://lsd.store" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://lsd.store</a>
Ever since alcohol free beer has exploded in popularity and several of the alcohol-free versions of the normal beers have gotten to the point where the taste is more or less similar, I can absolutely do without.
Just an individual experience: I was long against alcoholism, but it didn't seem to have helped my overall health or life expectancy at all. That dilute ethanol thing feels more benign than whatever my brain just learned to liberally discharge into itself whenever it reports unfelt pain in the software.<p>To me, consuming alcohol gives no sparkling and sharpening and over-joyous feeling or anything of that sort, which aren't safe effects to receive from substances at all, let alone automatically released; only relaxation and very mild euphoria and temporary impairments, which still aren't desirable effects but probably not as devastating as the above first group of effects.<p>I would not encourage anyone doing alcohol unless they must, and encourage minimizing use if possible, but if your brain is always out of office for another naked skydiving session... it's more preferable he do motorcycles in evenings with his helmet on.
Find me a substitute activity that can reduce group inhibitions, cause strangers to get along better with each other, and foment fun new spontaneous relationships and I'll consider your proposal for an alcohol free life.