5AF Temperance Thread

[Willie Kool]

More than 5 drinks a week could shorten lives by years, study finds

People who reported drinking more had higher rates of stroke, heart disease, deadly high blood pressure and fatal aortic aneurysms, the team reported in the Lancet medical journal. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lance ... X/fulltext

“The paper estimates a 40-year-old drinking four units a day above the guidelines has roughly two years lower life expectancy,” said David Spiegelhalter, a risk expert at Britain’s University of Cambridge who was not involved in the study.

“This works out at about an hour per day. So it’s as if each unit above guidelines is taking, on average, about 15 minutes of life, about the same as a cigarette."

The CDC says that more than 2,000 Americans die each year from acute alcohol intoxication.

It’s no secret that alcohol can be bad for health in other ways, too. Drinking raises the risk of both cancer and heart disease, and one study suggested that drinking accounts for 15 percent of breast cancer cases. The risk starts rising with as little as one drink a day on average.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-n ... ds-n865471

[tifosi77]

5 drinksper week? That's a normal day for me.

[iamjs]

So my choices are stop drinking 5 drinks a week(!) and living two years longer or stop drinking and live through those years where I'm gonna be mobility-impaired and probably losing most of my senses?

**** off, CDC. Pass me a beer.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

The paper estimates a 40-year-old drinking four units a day above the guidelines has roughly two years lower life expectancy

So that's five a day, not five a week right?

[count2infinity]

If we’re gonna treat them the same we have to decide where it is permissible to consume said product. If a smoker can walk down a sidewalk and force me to inhale his fumes, I should be able to take a stroll with a beer. Now to make it identical, I guess second hand beering is necessary? Not sure if that comes in the form of regurgitation, urination, or forced consumption of backwash... really this poll raises more questions than answers.

[Tomas]

Can somebody figure out how the NBC article concluded "5 drinks"?

I see the actual research paper had the base group "light drinkers" to be under 100g/week. One "standard drink" is 14g https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-healt ... dard-drink

100/14 = 7.14 drinks / week

(that being said, my favorite Arrogant Bastard Ale with 7.2% ABV and 16oz can = 26.9 grams!! )

[dodint]

14g? Gallons? Hefty.

[mikey]

How many millimeters of dollars were put into the study...?

[dodint]

3 years worth.

[shafnutz05]

I cut back on drinking about a year ago and have felt considerably better (which shouldn't be surprising, seeing as it is a toxin). This study isn't really surprising, but I agree that the double standard with the way marijuana is treated vs. alcohol is insane. Alcohol abuse has resulted in so many horrible things....rape, DUIs, child abuse, neglect, accidental death, and so on. It tears apart families on a daily basis.

That said, I love me a couple of drinky-poos (RIP Mr. Lahey), and I absolutely love craft beer, but the cognitive dissonance is maddening.

[eddy]

Last night pens game led to many shortened years of my life, whose fault now?

[Kaiser]

Last night pens game led to many shortened years of my life, whose fault now?

Stanhope Law says blame Murray.

[slappybrown]

How many millimeters of dollars were put into the study...?

The Roman numeral disrespector has logged on to 5AF

[slappybrown]

I cut back on drinking about a year ago and have felt considerably better (which shouldn't be surprising, seeing as it is a toxin). This study isn't really surprising, but I agree that the double standard with the way marijuana is treated vs. alcohol is insane. Alcohol abuse has resulted in so many horrible things....rape, DUIs, child abuse, neglect, accidental death, and so on. It tears apart families on a daily basis.

That said, I love me a couple of drinky-poos (RIP Mr. Lahey), and I absolutely love craft beer, but the cognitive dissonance is maddening.

What did you cut it back to

[tifosi77]

Now might be a good time to mention that my "five drinks a day" comment was literally posted from an ER bed as I was being evaluated for searing chest pains. Woot.

[slappybrown]

Now might be a good time to mention that my "five drinks a day" comment was literally posted from an ER bed as I was being evaluated for searing chest pains. Woot.

Whoa you alright man

[tifosi77]

Yeah, everything checked out okay. Nothing like spending 6 hours on Friday the 13th in an ER while six ambulances drop off critical patients, and three people code, only to be told "We're giving you a referral to a cardiologist, but you basically have GERD" to really brighten your day.

Haven't showered yet, so I still have all the stupid EKG pads on my chest.

[shafnutz05]

What did you cut it back to

As you know, I used to enjoy tying one on Friday/Saturday night, playing some FIFA, etc. I mainly just try and avoid getting to hangover levels. That said, it does happen. My plan today is to day drink some Victory Hop Wallop though out on the deck

[Jim]

I want to tax the heck out of snack food: chips, cake, cookies, ice cream, candy, etc.

[Gaucho]

*burp*

[Willie Kool]

Alcohol Companies Are Funding Research To Make You Want To Drink More

Recently published investigations by The New York Times, Wired and Stat paint a disturbing picture about the way alcohol companies are trying to influence scientific understanding, and thus public perception, of alcohol as a health tonic.

These stories reveal that officials at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) aggressively courted alcohol executives to fund a $100 million clinical trial on “moderate drinking” with the expectation that this study would probably conclude that it is safe and lowers the risk of disease.

Alcohol executives were allowed to help pick the scientists and preview the trial’s design, reports the Times, while Wired reported on how dependent the NIAAA is on industry funding to complete the expensive, long-term study. Finally, Stat has a story about how scientists who published unflattering research about the alcohol industry were verbally abused by NIAAA officials and cut off from funding.

But careful analyses have debunked the association between moderate alcohol consumption and health by taking the “abstainer bias” into account. People who currently abstain from alcohol include those who have never consumed it and former drinkers. But many former drinkers have quit alcohol for health reasons, so the “abstainer” group is already biased toward worse health overall than a group of people who are still moderate drinkers and haven’t had to quit because of their health.

A 2016 analysis of 87 former studies that linked moderate alcohol consumption to longer life found that once former drinkers were cut out of the picture, the apparent link between moderate alcohol consumption and long life disappeared.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/al ... c89ce8a835

[shafnutz05]

That's not surprising at all. Beyond that, the "abstainer bias" is interesting...it makes perfect sense seeing it. That said, I would think things like a glass of red wine would still have noted health benefits.

[NAN]

I'm fine with sin taxes to a point. Doesn't Pittsburgh already tax the hell out of booze?

[Shyster]

I selected the third option, but there should be an option for "There should be no taxes on anything, because taxation is theft."

[iamjs]

I'm fine with sin taxes to a point. Doesn't Pittsburgh already tax the hell out of booze?

i want to say yes but I don't know the exact percentage.

don't forget the Johnstown Flood Tax, which of course brings in $0.00 annually to the city's budget and won't ever get repealed until they privatize the liquor business in PA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown ... #Flood_tax