5 ms·

I mean this list seems obvious but its incredible how few people do it. Intermittent fasting is the only way I have been able to control my weight as an adult.

I mean this list seems obvious but its incredible how few people do it. Intermittent fasting is the only way I have been able to control my weight as an adult. Exercising makes you feel better and live longer. Alcohol is a poison that offers short term fun for long term sadness and pain. Sleep makes an immediately and daily impact on your life. Meditation (I don't do it anymore) is like cleaning for your brain and short amounts can be very helpful.

sankumsek 5y ago
Could I ask why you don't do meditation anymore?
- AlwaysRock 5y ago
  I have ADHD and even 7 minutes of guided meditation does wonders for my restless mind in the morning. But mostly I feel out of habit and have not gotten back into it. I was diagnosed with ADHD at 25 so spend most of my life with racing thoughts. The clarity I got from meditation was nice but it also feels like it impairs the way I am used to my brain working so the trade off was not really welcomed. I cut my caffeine consumption drastically (several expressos a day to 1 regular cup) which helped with racing thoughts and started taking melatonin before bed which helps prevent me staying awake trying to sleep for hours. Those two things also came from meditation but I'm able to get them elsewhere now without losing some of the creativity I find in my thought patterns during the day.
wing-_-nuts 5y ago
>Alcohol is a poison that offers short term fun for long term sadness and pain. Alcohol in excess? Certainly, but I don't buy the idea that alcohol in moderation is harmful. There have, of course, been studies that draw negative conclusions about alcohol, but they either commingle societal effects or discount the cardiovascular benefits. TLDR: Alcohol in moderation is fine. Just don't drink to excess. Nearly all the negative impacts of alcohol are on a J-shaped curve that increase exponentially beyond about 20 drinks / week, and that is far from 'moderate' drinking.
- AlwaysRock 5y ago
  I am a bit more bullish on this point that most and don't have articles prepared but booze causes cancer, even small amounts impact mood and sleep greatly, small amounts impact your ability to fight infections, and most "alcohol in moderation is okay" articles cite one singular study that is flawed. You'll find about 1000 research articles stating alcohol is bad for you for every one saying in very specific circumstances it is okay for you in moderation. At the end of the day its one of the leading causes of death in the world and for MOST people it does more bad for them than good. But its fun and the negative effects are not always immediate in the short term and its part of many cultures so its not going away anytime soon. If you get curious doing really any amount of research about the negative impacts of booze, even small amounts, will show an overwhelming amount of evidence.
- ketzo 5y ago
  I mean, this is purely anecdotal, but if I drink two or three glasses of wine in a night, I get noticeably worse sleep quality than if I drink nothing. There are long-term effects associated with heavy drinking, but there are also short-term negative effects (for some people) associated with pretty much any alcohol consumption at all. Headaches, acid reflux, etc.
  - wing-_-nuts 5y ago
    Yep, some people are especially sensitive to alcohol, and it does absolutely trash one's rem sleep. This is why I typically only drink on the weekends, limit consumption, and try not to drink after 4-5pm.
- mahogany 5y ago
  The J-shaped curves that you mention might be due to flaws in study design. In particular, the category of alcohol-abstainers includes people who are abstaining for health-related reasons (for example, former heavy drinkers!), so you would expect this to inflate the rate of negative impacts for abstainers. When these biases are controlled for, the benefits of alcohol consumption -- in any quantity -- largely disappear, especially when it comes to all-cause mortality, where the relationship may be closer to linear than J-shaped. For example, see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4803651/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4803651/ or https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31571-X https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31571-X (has some useful references) If you have seen other studies which refute these ideas, I'm interested (as an alcohol consumer :)).

sankumsek 5y ago

Could I ask why you don't do meditation anymore?

AlwaysRock 5y ago
I have ADHD and even 7 minutes of guided meditation does wonders for my restless mind in the morning. But mostly I feel out of habit and have not gotten back into it. I was diagnosed with ADHD at 25 so spend most of my life with racing thoughts. The clarity I got from meditation was nice but it also feels like it impairs the way I am used to my brain working so the trade off was not really welcomed. I cut my caffeine consumption drastically (several expressos a day to 1 regular cup) which helped with racing thoughts and started taking melatonin before bed which helps prevent me staying awake trying to sleep for hours. Those two things also came from meditation but I'm able to get them elsewhere now without losing some of the creativity I find in my thought patterns during the day.

wing-_-nuts 5y ago

>Alcohol is a poison that offers short term fun for long term sadness and pain. Alcohol in excess? Certainly, but I don't buy the idea that alcohol in moderation is harmful. There have, of course, been studies that draw negative conclusions about alcohol, but they either commingle societal effects or discount the cardiovascular benefits. TLDR: Alcohol in moderation is fine. Just don't drink to excess. Nearly all the negative impacts of alcohol are on a J-shaped curve that increase exponentially beyond about 20 drinks / week, and that is far from 'moderate' drinking.

AlwaysRock 5y ago
I am a bit more bullish on this point that most and don't have articles prepared but booze causes cancer, even small amounts impact mood and sleep greatly, small amounts impact your ability to fight infections, and most "alcohol in moderation is okay" articles cite one singular study that is flawed. You'll find about 1000 research articles stating alcohol is bad for you for every one saying in very specific circumstances it is okay for you in moderation. At the end of the day its one of the leading causes of death in the world and for MOST people it does more bad for them than good. But its fun and the negative effects are not always immediate in the short term and its part of many cultures so its not going away anytime soon. If you get curious doing really any amount of research about the negative impacts of booze, even small amounts, will show an overwhelming amount of evidence.
ketzo 5y ago
I mean, this is purely anecdotal, but if I drink two or three glasses of wine in a night, I get noticeably worse sleep quality than if I drink nothing. There are long-term effects associated with heavy drinking, but there are also short-term negative effects (for some people) associated with pretty much any alcohol consumption at all. Headaches, acid reflux, etc.
- wing-_-nuts 5y ago
  Yep, some people are especially sensitive to alcohol, and it does absolutely trash one's rem sleep. This is why I typically only drink on the weekends, limit consumption, and try not to drink after 4-5pm.
mahogany 5y ago
The J-shaped curves that you mention might be due to flaws in study design. In particular, the category of alcohol-abstainers includes people who are abstaining for health-related reasons (for example, former heavy drinkers!), so you would expect this to inflate the rate of negative impacts for abstainers. When these biases are controlled for, the benefits of alcohol consumption -- in any quantity -- largely disappear, especially when it comes to all-cause mortality, where the relationship may be closer to linear than J-shaped. For example, see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4803651/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4803651/ or https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31571-X https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31571-X (has some useful references) If you have seen other studies which refute these ideas, I'm interested (as an alcohol consumer :)).