<p>And just one binge can harm health.
Binge drinking is more than three glasses of wine for women or more than four glasses for men, in two hours.
<a href=“Just one binge drinking session may harm health”>http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/276997.php</a></p>
<p>Im curious how much education medical providers receive regarding alcohol use. Ive heard of pretty off the wall statements regarding marijuana, so I wonder.
My fil for example, has struggled with drinking for as long as I have known him, which isn’t quite 40 yrs. Recently, he’s been diagnosed with diabetes, in his 80’s, and his Dr asked him to quit drinking beer.
But he has the idea that wine is OK.
I have no idea, but that seems odd to me.</p>
<p>Excessive drinking costs every adult & child, $746 in 2006.
<a href=“http://www.cdc.gov/features/alcoholconsumption/index.html”>http://www.cdc.gov/features/alcoholconsumption/index.html</a>
Fascinating stuff.</p>
<p><a href=“Preventing Chronic Disease | Contribution of Excessive Alcohol Consumption to Deaths and Years of Potential Life Lost in the United States - CDC”>http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/13_0293.htm</a></p>
<p>Fascinating.</p>
<p>When they say that 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults due to excessive drinking, they divide that into two cases: acute deaths (eg, a person gets drunk and crashes their car) and chronic conditions (an alcoholic dies of cirrhosis of the liver). </p>
<p>One in ten deaths sounds like a high number, and it is, and apparently it’s real. But look at how they count up chronic conditions. Notice that if an alcoholic smoker dies of heart disease, they’re going to count that as an alcohol associated death, AND they’re also going to count it as a smoking-associated death. So when you count up the causes of death using their methodology, the numbers are going to add up to a lot more than 100%.</p>
<p>The list of medical conditions is long. I once worked on a statistical study of deaths related to alco consumption versus laxity in state laws (ages ago, for a U alcohol research center) and the correlation is there. Pretty interesting. And sad, especially when you consider the place drinking has in our society. Doctors are supposed to ask “CAGE questions” for people who drink, then ask if you’d be interested in counseling. Don’t think they get more proactive than that, on a regular basis. </p>
<p>This especially worries me about the younger generations. </p>
<p>I didn’t know what CAGE questions are. From Wikipedia:</p>
<p>Two “yes” responses indicate that the possibility of alcoholism should be investigated further.
The questionnaire asks the following questions:
Have you ever felt you needed to Cut down on your drinking?
Have people Annoyed you by criticizing your drinking?
Have you ever felt Guilty about drinking?
Have you ever felt you needed a drink first thing in the morning (Eye-opener) to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover?</p>
<p><a href=“CAGE questionnaire - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAGE_questionnaire</a></p>
<p>Even if it is one in 15 or one in 20, it is still very scary. </p>
<p>What’s the figure for smoking? What’s the figure for obesity? I bet they’re both greater than 1 in 10.</p>
<p>Oftentimes when we approach problems in this country, the above is the response.
No wonder we are a much greater mess than need be, given our wealth, our energy & innovation.
Because instead of trying to fix a problem, we try and prove that it isnt as bad as we think.
Fail.</p>
<p>Oftentimes when we approach problems in the US, we don’t understand them first, which is equally a fail.</p>
<p>Over half of these deaths are directly and obviously attributable to alcohol use: the person got drunk and crashed their car, or they died of cirrhosis, or something similar. What should we do about those deaths that we are not doing now?</p>
<p>If the death figure is 1 in 10 here, it’s got to be 1 in 8 or 1 in 7 in England. </p>
<p>Don’t worry we beat the UK in other ways. Our firearm death rate is way more than theirs. UK 0.25 per 100,000- USA 10. Per 100,000.
Feel better?</p>
<p>First we have to be aware.
We no longer portray cigarette smokers as glamorous & sophisticated.
We should do the same thing with liquor.</p>
<p>As far as I know there is no level of smoking that is safe or beneficial.</p>
<p>Moderate alcohol consumption has huge benefits in terms of improved health and reduced mortality. So the number of deaths prevented by sensible alcohol consumption should be taken into account too.</p>
<p>So what would you recommend in reducing alcohol consumption?
The jury is still out on whether the benefits of alcohol cannot be replicated by other substances, grape juice for instance instead of wine.
I also wouldnt argue that the limited benefits of alcohol outweigh the hazards.
Nicotine on the other hand, has been found to mitigate some of the symptoms of Schizophrenia.
Not a great thing obviously, but it may lead to developing better treatments.</p>
<p><a href=“Mental Health”>http://www.brainfacts.org/diseases-disorders/psychiatric-disorders/articles/2008/smoking-and-schizophrenia/</a></p>
<p>Emerald; wine is much better than beer because it has far less carbs - carbs being anathema to diabetics as they turn into sugar.</p>
<p>I wonder what proportion of college campus deaths is due to excessive drinking</p>
<p>Re: drinking and diabetes, just fyi. <a href=“http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/what-can-i-eat/making-healthy-food-choices/alcohol.html”>http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/what-can-i-eat/making-healthy-food-choices/alcohol.html</a> And this simple explanation: “when alcohol is present, the liver goes to work on it immediately. The liver’s job is to get rid of toxins in the body…While the liver is working on breaking down the alcohol, it isn’t doing its other jobs as well, including regulating the amount of glucose in the blood. So blood glucose can drop quickly.”</p>
<p>About 1800 college students from the ages 18 to 24 die from alcohol-related incidents. How many college students, ages 18 to 24, we have dying each hear I’m unsure. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The evidence is very clear that even pure ethanol alone is beneficial. Dehydrated red wine powder or grape juice, little benefit. Ethanol in the form of red wine, most benefit.</p>
<p>It does sadden me that there seem to be so many adults that drink frequently. One of the reasons I think that question “Will my kid find their people at X school if they are not a partier?” is because it is sometimes difficult to find that after college. It seems most social functions, not only have alcoholic drinks, but revolve around them, with people talking as much or more about the drinking than the event. Even as older adults, I see peers congratulating others on their ‘alcoholic’ exploits, and on their frequent pictures of drinks in hand on fb. I get this to some extent. We all need to unwind, a drink might be nice, but it seems a bit too pervasive to be healthy. </p>
<p>In an otherwise healthy adult, 1 alcoholic drink a day can actually improve health. It is the overuse of alcohol that is a problem.</p>
<p>The CDC is a horrible source for information such as this as they are driven by the political agenda of whomever is in charge.</p>