The Truth We Won’t Admit: Drinking Is Healthy | Hacker News Reader

The Truth We Won’t Admit: Drinking Is Healthy

psmag.com

14 pointsdrpgq7 comments

The statement of the year:

The more alcohol a society consumes, the fewer alcohol-related problems and alcohol-related deaths (including cirrhosis) it has, since these societies, such as those in Southern Europe, integrate drinking with social life. And alcohol conveys health benefits.

Because sober, not drunk people cause problems to others, and alcohol apparently doesn't have any bad effect on health. //sarcasm

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Alcohol is among the largest preventable causes of deaths, and is connected to half of all violent crimes.

This article is stupid and correlates drinking with health. It does not in any way go to test the theory that "relaxation" time is critical, combined with socialization.

Alcohol is one of those drugs who's withdrawal CAN KILL YOU ALL ON IT'S OWN! In fact if you are 60 and an alcoholic, you will most likely die if you stop drinking from withdrawal alone.

There are easily substitute drugs which won't be as intense but still establish similar social benefits (weed is one of those). And Weed doesn't kill you from withdrawal.

Going further, let's take the Center for Disease Control's look at things: in 2010, ALCOHOL-impaired driving accounted for 31% of all car-related deaths. 17% of all children's deaths in car accidents are accounted to alcohol-impaired driving. Over half of all child passengers who died were in an alcohol-impaired driving accident. http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impai...

Oh yeah, alcohol is good stuff. More of it please.

After reading the article, I'm not sure if I should modify my lifestyle to integrate small amounts of alcohol everyday. Would that have an impact on daily life? will that amount of alcohol kill brain cells affecting my cognition? what about degenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's?

Any insights would be appreciated.

> “In over half of nearly 45 reports since the early 1990s, significantly reduced risks of cognitive loss or dementia in moderate, nonbinge consumers of alcohol (wine, beer, liquor) have been observed.” This finding has been affirmed numerous times

The article suggests that moderate consumption is associated with improved cognitive function.

I'm not sure that taking a baby aspirin every day or two might not be 100 times better. I would not take this article too seriously. Alcohol is dangerous for a lot of people, I'd have trouble recommending it to anyone.

Oh, please. I'd much rather die from a heart attack than die in the place and condition that alcohol took me to.

This creep is shamelessly and disgracefully pushing his stupid book.

I have to admit I can be a bit reticent about having a drink every day, while maybe once a week having three pints with friends.

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