5 ms·

Everyone has different experiences, my path was admittedly much easier than many other people. I haven't had any alcohol in about 2 months. Prior I was consumi

Everyone has different experiences, my path was admittedly much easier than many other people. I haven't had any alcohol in about 2 months. Prior I was consuming 1-3 drinks per week, almost exclusively beer, and almost never 3 drinks in a day. I got sick with COVID, found a podcast episode talking about the effects of alcohol and thought I'd give it a listen. [1] The long and short of it is that alcohol is harmful to a laundry list of biological processes, and any minor benefits that might exist are absolutely dwarfed by the negatives. I wanted to feel as good as I could as fast as I could, so I haven't had alcohol since. Even my minimal consumption was affecting my sleep quality more than I realized. I found the podcast to appeal to the logical side of me. If you made an honest list of pros and cons to consuming alcohol and were given the choice to have a drink after being raised without any exposure, you would say "why would anyone drink that stuff?", yet regular consumption of alcohol is deeply engrained in our society. Right now I'm not drinking at all. I've been offered many times and heavily pressured a few. Alcohol hasn't been an issue for me, but it makes me feel awful for people who are battling alcoholism. [1] https://hubermanlab.com/what-alcohol-does-to-your-body-brain-health/ https://hubermanlab.com/what-alcohol-does-to-your-body-brain...

frant-hartm 4y ago
1-3 beers a week is not what's usually called drinking. It's not even clear if 1 beer (500 ml 5% alcohol) a day is more harmful or beneficial to a healthy adult.
- Tepix 4y ago
  It seems to be fairly clear that even small amounts of alcohol are unhealthy. For example https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323252 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323252 (2018). Quote: In August, we covered a large-scale review that drew an unequivocal conclusion: it’s not, in fact, safe to drink any amount of alcohol. Senior author Dr. Emmanuela Gakidou referred to the idea that one or two drinks are safe for health as “a myth.” She said that her and her colleagues’ research found that any level of drinking is tied to an increased risk of early death, cancer, and cardiovascular events.
denton-scratch 4y ago
> alcohol is harmful to a laundry list of biological processes I was told that there's no organ in the body that it isn't harmful to.
- DavidPeiffer 4y ago
  Biology was not my strong suit in school, so it was a lot of learning on my side. I believe they made it clear it's able to get to basically everything in your body. One of the big deals is that it can make it through the blood-brain barrier, which the vast majority of substances cannot. https://sites.duke.edu/apep/module-2-the-abcs-of-intoxication/content-getting-alcohol-to-the-brain-crossing-the-blood-brain-barrier/ https://sites.duke.edu/apep/module-2-the-abcs-of-intoxicatio...

frant-hartm 4y ago

1-3 beers a week is not what's usually called drinking. It's not even clear if 1 beer (500 ml 5% alcohol) a day is more harmful or beneficial to a healthy adult.

Tepix 4y ago
It seems to be fairly clear that even small amounts of alcohol are unhealthy. For example https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323252 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323252 (2018). Quote: In August, we covered a large-scale review that drew an unequivocal conclusion: it’s not, in fact, safe to drink any amount of alcohol. Senior author Dr. Emmanuela Gakidou referred to the idea that one or two drinks are safe for health as “a myth.” She said that her and her colleagues’ research found that any level of drinking is tied to an increased risk of early death, cancer, and cardiovascular events.

denton-scratch 4y ago

> alcohol is harmful to a laundry list of biological processes I was told that there's no organ in the body that it isn't harmful to.

DavidPeiffer 4y ago
Biology was not my strong suit in school, so it was a lot of learning on my side. I believe they made it clear it's able to get to basically everything in your body. One of the big deals is that it can make it through the blood-brain barrier, which the vast majority of substances cannot. https://sites.duke.edu/apep/module-2-the-abcs-of-intoxication/content-getting-alcohol-to-the-brain-crossing-the-blood-brain-barrier/ https://sites.duke.edu/apep/module-2-the-abcs-of-intoxicatio...