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Comment by 31reasons | Hacker News Reader

Every time some statistical "studies" come out I think of which industry is going to benefit from it.

So do I! Which is relevant to this article, because sometimes I don't stop at thinking, and try to find out. And I've found that quite a few studies linking alcohol with good health ultimately come from interested sources, while studies claiming that alcohol is not beneficial even in moderation don't seem to come from temperance promoting associations or anything like that. That has been enough to convince me (in a non scientifical way) that alcohol is probably harmful or at least not beneficial, even in small amounts.

On the other hand, most epidemiological and medical studies, if not all, are statistical in one way or another, so it shouldn't be an indicator of anything. I recommend Bad Pharma [1], a very interesting book whose primary goal is to get rid of the many kinds of bias present in the current medical science. Among many interesting things, it describes a few different ways to perform medical studies, all of which are in some way statistical.

[1] http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3D...

So... what did you think of? I can't think of any industries that would directly benefit from people drinking less.

The statistical studies have been used to suggest that drinking 6 drinks a day is healthier than drinking nothing, even when you account for people who don't drink because of long term health conditions.

One way to look at it is that alcoholic beverages compete with other beverages, so maybe Coca-Cola and Pepsico would benefit.

Another way is that alcohol competes with other neurotropes, so maybe pharmaceutical companies and drug dealers would benefit. Or even makers of psychedelic music and images.

A third way to view it is that alcohol competes with other stress-removers, so massage therapy and calming music vendors would benefit.

The budding marijuana industry?

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