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Comment by baq | Hacker News Reader

Personally, the primary reason is hangovers take waaaaay too much time after 30

btw I hear this a lot from North American/English speaking parts of the world but less in others. There seems to be more tolerance/less judgement towards drinking alcohol, its seen as an integral part of socializing, almost to a fault in some cultures. I wonder if this is some pre-emptive virtue signaling,since if you break it down, hangovers is largely the result of dehydration and loss of minerals. It might be that as you get older you retain less fluid or something, i do not know, just guessin.

having said that, i can go without drinking. you tend to increase consumption in bursts, social events. it can cause a lot of societal problems (ex. south korea/russia) and combined with tobacco (ex. south korea/japan), its right up there in terms of toxicity with combining cocaine and alcohol (dramatically/needlessly increases toxicity).

One might make the same judgement about cocaine hangovers or any substance for that matter.

> hangovers is largely the result of dehydration

This is mostly a myth.

In my experiences between Asia and Latin America, if you're going to be drinking alot on whatever occasion, it better be with a lot of food. Even Eastern Europe for instance with their famous straight vodka shots have something (In Russian, at least) called 'zakuski' which means 'Something to bite after', which means after each shot you eat a pierogi or whatnot [1]. It really does a lot to dampen the after-effects beyond what water is capable of.

You can get at most bars a full meal for around 5$ or sometimes even less. Cocaine isn't very popular with the locals, again especially the younger ones, as it's caused us a lot of societal problems (Stuff like people who don't even touch it ending up tied up in narco violence chiefly... It's just the worst vibes on top of that).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zakuski

> combining cocaine and alcohol (dramatically/needlessly increases toxicity)

Because of cocaethylene? Can't find anything online that makes it clear what the danger is.

Highly neurotoxic and cardiotoxic, actually. [1][2] Don't do that to yourself.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3550388/

[2] https://www.cureus.com/articles/73024-cocaethylene-when-coca...

This is common incorrect assumption, it's due to tolerance and consistency of drinking habits, including hydration and liver health.

This seems extremely unlikely to be true, based on personal experience and that of many other people. Sources?

I thought it was due to me drinking way less ofent and thus losing resistance. Are you sure?

There's no reason hangovers should be any worse in your 30's or 40's. Hangovers are mostly the result of poor drinking habits.

Ha, and what bad drinking habits would those be? The popular answer is "drink water", but I didn't do that when I was young and I didn't have hangovers then. These days if I drink two beers and even twice as much fresh water, I'll be miserable the morning after. Consequently, I don't go to bars anymore and I buy a sixpack at the grocery store maybe two or three times a year.

This is exactly why I quit drinking and have been sober for almost 2 years. I kept finding that one or two beers and I would feel like crap or get headaches the next day. I know about the drink water trick and it didn’t help. So finally gave up drinking and don’t miss it. Also other reasons to quit as other commenters mentioned is the price. Going out for a drink costs a lot of money. Just food and a non alcoholic drink cost me over $20. A couple alcoholic drinks would cost me 1/3 days pay. I would much rather not.

I would guess that this is just because young people have more energy and healing ability, both of which deteriorate with age

Yes, such as drinking to the point of getting drunk.

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