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Comment by supahfly_remix | Hacker News Reader

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

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I imagine picking people from one particular religion or culture is bound to introduce statistical skews.

Mormons do seem to skew toward abstinence from a lot of unhealthy habits, but the stereotype is that they drink a lot of soda, right? That’s bound to do something.

Plus if a group has a strong stigma against alcohol you’ll probably get some members with an unusually high incentive to miss-report whether or not they drink.

> you’ll probably get some members with an unusually high incentive to miss-report whether or not they drink

As a former member of such a group, this is exactly right. Even if it's completely anonymous, there's a strong and absurd sense of "God is watching me fill out this form, better make myself look good".

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.

The increase in alcohol usage in a population increases the onset of symptoms of various alcohol related health effects, including alcoholism and death.

It’s pretty well understood, clinically speaking.

But it’s fun to down a few and the statisical chances of dying sooner are not that high if you follow the generally recommended limits.

Yes, but those populations are far from completely dry. They may drink less, but do not represent a scientific control group. If you did find a totally dry community, the other cultural differances may well muddy the results too (diet, relationship to medical care etc).

Do you have support for that claim? Large, large parts of the Islamic world are not westernized at all — I would be very surprised if rural Yemeni housewives or Socotran shepherds ever drink, or for that matter 99% of people in pre-tourist-visa Saudi.

Hard agree on their being a myriad of confounding factors from genetics over climate and family relationships to diet, though...

Well, i have family connections to pre-visa middle eastern countries and yes, alcohol is a problem. Thats why they have the rule. Are drugs also not a problem also in many countries despite national bans? Remember too that about 30% of people in western nations are essentially dry (<2 drinks per year). So the asking questions approach has merit.

Interesting! Didn't expect that. Also useful statistic with the 30%, makes sense I guess.

Getting off-topic at this point I guess, but I think national bans can go both ways (and everything in between). I suppose (alcohol) Prohibition and the War on Drugs in the US are prominent examples, but I don't think such bans are doomed to fail necessarily — especially if they are tied with genuine cultural or religious beliefs, geographic isolation, pragmatic unavailability or the thing being banned being simple "not in fashion",,

They have other diet restrictions and lifestyle, which might have other effects on life expectancy

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