5 ms·

Drinking any amount of alcohol causes damage to the brain, study finds

37 points by gtirloni 5y ago

mcbishop 5y ago
I wonder how marijuana fares on this front. For me, marijuana + kombucha is an awesome alcohol alternative.
- babaganoosh89 5y ago
  What does the kombucha do for you?
  - weird-eye-issue 5y ago
    Replaces drinking alcohol
    - greatgoat420 5y ago
      But it has alcohol, usually 2-3% some times much higher, and traditionally has been poorly regulated.
      - weird-eye-issue 5y ago
        It's not an issue these days at all. Also there is a huge difference between drinking kombucha with trace amounts of alcohol and drinking actual alcohol...
  - mcbishop 5y ago
    It doesn't have a discernable psychoactive effect for me. It's just a satisfying fizzy thing to sip on, that helps me not yearn for a beer.
ProjectArcturis 5y ago
CNN is writing up an observational study that hasn't even been peer reviewed yet? One of the under-recognized negative effects of the pandemic is that it taught health journalists what medarchive is.
tuxie_ 5y ago
I feel like whatever your position on any drug is, you will always find a study to back up your belief.
hh0h00h0h0h 5y ago
This is probably the 6th or 7th anti-alcohol advertisement on HN in the past 2 weeks or so. Whose pushing this agenda and why is it on HN?
- gtirloni 5y ago
  There's no agenda. I saw this article and thought it would be a good discussion topic for HN. I haven't read any anti-alcohol articles on HN in the past few months.
gentleman11 5y ago
Another way of reading this is to conclude that you can have a fun life full of drinking at the cost of 0.8% more brain degradation while you age. I wish they would put at least some effort into explaining their numbers, because that sounds like nothing, but I’m sure the authors have reason to think otherwise
- ZeroGravitas 5y ago
  There's a whole bunch of headlines that can be read as "this is really big" or "our measurements are very precise".
- smabie 5y ago
  Yeah, personally, seems worth it. I've had a lot of good times drinking, and if it means my brain degrades 80bps more, well then so be it! Everything has a cost and nothing is free and it's up to you to decide what decisions you are going to make. It really infuriates me when people think that a long and healthy life is something that we all should sacrifice everything for. As if the whole point of existence is to maximize those two metrics.
okareaman 5y ago
Stress also damages the brain. Alcohol relaxes people. So what is the net effect? https://neurosciencenews.com/chronic-stress-brain-damage-14679/ https://neurosciencenews.com/chronic-stress-brain-damage-146...
- floor2 5y ago
  Alcohol does not relax people overall. It provides a brief feeling of relaxation (a mixture of GABA receptor interaction and social/learned habit of associating the act of drinking with relaxing) but then significantly increases physical stress as the body works to remove the toxic substance from the body and repair the damage. Over the long term, repeated use of alcohol causes the body to have worse 'baseline' stress levels and a worse ability to respond to stress.
meristohm 5y ago
In case it helps anyone struggling: Anecdatally, I stopped drinking alcohol more than a year ago because I was feeling worse and worse for a day or so after one can (I tended not to have more than that). I was also having trouble sleeping, wasn’t remembering dreams, and was more irritable than I liked. I think I have enough alcohol dehydrogenase, given my ancestry. Anyway, I feel better on all counts, saved money, and no longer have the craving for a drink, unlike with chocolate (easy to manage if my spouse hides it) and coffee. I don’t need these luxuries and I feel better, more empowered, when I can choose to consume or not consume each day without compulsion.
bratcomplex 5y ago
NAC! don’t drink much any more but when I do, pre drink I take some nac. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetylcysteine https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetylcysteine
adamredwoods 5y ago
3 years ago: https://medium.com/neodotlife/synthetic-alcohol-no-hangovers-alcarelle-and-alcosynth-444dc06df9d https://medium.com/neodotlife/synthetic-alcohol-no-hangovers... Now rebranded: https://gabalabs.com/ https://gabalabs.com/ But there's something about MAKING alcohol/wine/beer by hand or from ingredients in your backyard that don't make synthetic alcohol as appealing.
devnull255 5y ago
Living eventually leads to death I've heard.

37 points by gtirloni 5y ago

mcbishop 5y ago

I wonder how marijuana fares on this front. For me, marijuana + kombucha is an awesome alcohol alternative.

babaganoosh89 5y ago
What does the kombucha do for you?
- weird-eye-issue 5y ago
  Replaces drinking alcohol
  - greatgoat420 5y ago
    But it has alcohol, usually 2-3% some times much higher, and traditionally has been poorly regulated.
    - weird-eye-issue 5y ago
      It's not an issue these days at all. Also there is a huge difference between drinking kombucha with trace amounts of alcohol and drinking actual alcohol...
- mcbishop 5y ago
  It doesn't have a discernable psychoactive effect for me. It's just a satisfying fizzy thing to sip on, that helps me not yearn for a beer.

ProjectArcturis 5y ago

CNN is writing up an observational study that hasn't even been peer reviewed yet? One of the under-recognized negative effects of the pandemic is that it taught health journalists what medarchive is.

tuxie_ 5y ago

I feel like whatever your position on any drug is, you will always find a study to back up your belief.

hh0h00h0h0h 5y ago

This is probably the 6th or 7th anti-alcohol advertisement on HN in the past 2 weeks or so. Whose pushing this agenda and why is it on HN?

gtirloni 5y ago
There's no agenda. I saw this article and thought it would be a good discussion topic for HN. I haven't read any anti-alcohol articles on HN in the past few months.

gentleman11 5y ago

Another way of reading this is to conclude that you can have a fun life full of drinking at the cost of 0.8% more brain degradation while you age. I wish they would put at least some effort into explaining their numbers, because that sounds like nothing, but I’m sure the authors have reason to think otherwise

ZeroGravitas 5y ago
There's a whole bunch of headlines that can be read as "this is really big" or "our measurements are very precise".
smabie 5y ago
Yeah, personally, seems worth it. I've had a lot of good times drinking, and if it means my brain degrades 80bps more, well then so be it! Everything has a cost and nothing is free and it's up to you to decide what decisions you are going to make. It really infuriates me when people think that a long and healthy life is something that we all should sacrifice everything for. As if the whole point of existence is to maximize those two metrics.

okareaman 5y ago

Stress also damages the brain. Alcohol relaxes people. So what is the net effect? https://neurosciencenews.com/chronic-stress-brain-damage-14679/ https://neurosciencenews.com/chronic-stress-brain-damage-146...

floor2 5y ago
Alcohol does not relax people overall. It provides a brief feeling of relaxation (a mixture of GABA receptor interaction and social/learned habit of associating the act of drinking with relaxing) but then significantly increases physical stress as the body works to remove the toxic substance from the body and repair the damage. Over the long term, repeated use of alcohol causes the body to have worse 'baseline' stress levels and a worse ability to respond to stress.

meristohm 5y ago

In case it helps anyone struggling: Anecdatally, I stopped drinking alcohol more than a year ago because I was feeling worse and worse for a day or so after one can (I tended not to have more than that). I was also having trouble sleeping, wasn’t remembering dreams, and was more irritable than I liked. I think I have enough alcohol dehydrogenase, given my ancestry. Anyway, I feel better on all counts, saved money, and no longer have the craving for a drink, unlike with chocolate (easy to manage if my spouse hides it) and coffee. I don’t need these luxuries and I feel better, more empowered, when I can choose to consume or not consume each day without compulsion.

bratcomplex 5y ago

NAC! don’t drink much any more but when I do, pre drink I take some nac. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetylcysteine https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetylcysteine

adamredwoods 5y ago

3 years ago: https://medium.com/neodotlife/synthetic-alcohol-no-hangovers-alcarelle-and-alcosynth-444dc06df9d https://medium.com/neodotlife/synthetic-alcohol-no-hangovers... Now rebranded: https://gabalabs.com/ https://gabalabs.com/ But there's something about MAKING alcohol/wine/beer by hand or from ingredients in your backyard that don't make synthetic alcohol as appealing.

devnull255 5y ago

Living eventually leads to death I've heard.