
How Much Alcohol Is Safe to Drink? None, Say These Researchers - onetimemanytime
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/health/alcohol-drinking-health.html
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unittest
"Researchers". You mean people desperately trying to make a name for
themselves with exaggerated pseudoscientific claims. The amount of food/diet
related "studies" that have been retracted,contradicted and rinse/repeat is so
staggering that "news" companies should stop publishing it because it's more
harmful to the public than anything.

"Benefits of moderate alcohol consumption such as wine include a 30% reduction
in the risk of heart attack compared to non-drinkers, a finding that has been
repeated over 30 years and in various countries, according to Eric Rimm, a
professor of epidemiology and nutrition who has been researching the effects
of alcohol and chronic disease for decades at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of
Public Health.

Additionally, alcohol consumption has been associated with a 30% to 40%
reduction in the risk of Type 2 diabetes, compared to those who don't drink. "

[https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/21/health/wine-healthy-food-
dray...](https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/21/health/wine-healthy-food-
drayer/index.html)

How about moderation? I can't wait for the next studies:

"How much salt is safe to consume? None, Say These "Researchers"".

"How much sugar is safe to consume? None, Say These "Researchers"".

"How much water is safe to consume? None, Say These "Researchers"".

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glonq
They forgot to consider the 'brave new world' effect -- society crumbles if
people don't get their soma.

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onetimemanytime
Ideally we should also skip or go easy on the best tasting food. Oh well..

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johan_larson
One drink a day is quite a bit of drinking compared to what I consider normal,
and the difference between 914/100,000 and 918/100,000 is small.

I'd say the advice that you can drink in light or moderate amounts without any
significant risk is still sound. But if you're not inclined to drink for other
reasons, you shouldn't start doing so for your health.

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P_I_Staker
I don't know what circumstances you live under where that's the case. Most
people don't limit to one, but also don't drink every day. In much of the US
5-8 beers, or similar mixed drinks is a totally normal, not even a heavy
drinking night. This is repeated 2-5 nights a week, though some nights might
be more like 1-3 drinks. I'm talking about standard alcohol units here.

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dpark
5-8 beers, 2-5 nights a week is a ton. This is not typical for most drinkers.
That's up to 40 beers a week. 5+ drinks in a row is the definition of binge
drinking.

[https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/binge-
drinking.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/binge-drinking.htm)

 _" One in six US adults binge drinks about four times a month"_

Your "normal" is as many nights per week as the CDC claims per month, and the
CDC claims this for only 17% of the population. Put another way, your "normal"
is 4x as often and at least 3x more common than reality.

If you're hanging out with people drinking this much all the time, then you
may have normalized it, but it's absolutely not normal for "much of the US".

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abstractbarista
Simply put, what the government describes as normal (or ideal) is far
different than what the alcohol-consuming populace considers normal.

(Side thought: Some of the risks in that article are suspect. STDs and
domestic violence? Those are reflections of the individuals using the drug,
not the drug itself.)

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dpark
This isn’t the case of the CDC describing what _should_ be normal. I quoted a
statistic about _actual_ consumption to contrast the anecdotal claim that
binge drinking up to 5 times/week is “typical”.

Now, if you don’t like the standard definition of “binge drinking” that’s
fine. 40 beers/week is still very, very far from typical.

Edit: I don't find the risks to be particularly suspect. Drinking lowers
inhibitions and reduces ability to engage in critical thinking. Drunk people
regularly do stuff they regret later, ranging from saying embarrassing things
to driving intoxicated to getting into physical fights with strangers,
friends, and partners. Certainly the person having unprotected sex or
assaulting their partner is responsible for their actions, but alcohol also
makes those actions more likely.

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abstractbarista
Certainly agree that 5x a week isn't normal or generally healthy.

Risk-takers and mean people are more commonly heavy consumers of alcohol. They
like the feeling as it eggs them on and self-justifies their actions.

But this does not mean that heavy consumers of alcohol are uncontrollably
pushed to emulate the former.

Basically, the bad folks always ruin it for the docile rest of us.

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dpark
> _Basically, the bad folks always ruin it for the docile rest of us._

To some extent, yes. But those who want to normalize and justify their
drinking also wish to absolve alcohol of all association with these things
even though alcohol absolutely increases their incidence.

You see the same bias in people who want to believe that drinking moderately
is _healthier_ than abstaining. There's nothing actually supporting this, but
the few flawed studies that show some minor benefit get published over and
over in the news because it's what people want to hear. In reality once you
filter out people who abstain specifically because of their health, all cause
mortality goes up with any level of drinking.

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aeternus
This study has a 95% uncertainty interval, and their conclusion is that
alcohol consumption increases your risk from: 918 per 100,000 people from 914
per 100,000.

..I'd argue their conclusion is meaningless given the uncertainty interval.

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conchy
Why the repost? This article is from last year.

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Koshkin
No drug is ‘safe.’ But they save lives.

