Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers

[nabraxas]

Moderate drinking, which is defined as one to three drinks per day, is associated with the lowest mortality rates in alcohol studies. Moderate alcohol use (especially when the beverage of choice is red wine) is thought to improve heart health, circulation and sociability, which can be important because people who are isolated don't have as many family members and friends who can notice and help treat health problems.

But why would abstaining from alcohol lead to a shorter life? It's true that those who abstain from alcohol tend to be from lower socioeconomic classes, since drinking can be expensive. And people of lower socioeconomic status have more life stressors - job and child-care worries that might not only keep them from the bottle but also cause stress-related illnesses over long periods. (They also don't get the stress-reducing benefits of a drink or two after work.)

But even after controlling for nearly all imaginable variables - socioeconomic status, level of physical activity, number of close friends, quality of social support and so on - the researchers (a six-member team led by psychologist Charles Holahan of the University of Texas at Austin) found that over a 20-year period, mortality rates were highest for those who had never been drinkers, second-highest for heavy drinkers and lowest for moderate drinkers.

 

full article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599201433200

[Guest svarg26]

if that was really the case, with the amount that i drink, i will live until i am 300.

[Thegribbs]

Still doesn't make me ignore the damage heavy drinking does to your liver. Mum used to work in a nursing home and the majority of people in there were dying from alcohol related diseases.

[Chiral]

My grandmother on my dads side "god love old Doris" worked in an English pub all her life, from the age of 18 till 72, she served drinks in the same pub.."The Wheatsheaf" in Copull England, she also would drink up to and sometimes more than a whole bottle of whiskey a day and smoked 3 packets of Capstans a day for the entirety of her life. Se only lived aross the road from the Pub so getting home was never an issue and to be frank she never seemed to be really all that intoxicated.

She lived to be 89 and died peacefully in her sleep.

My first wife's father had a mild heart attack when he was 69, the doctors told him, that what saved him, was that he was lucky to be alive as he was pissed as a nit on crown royal whiskey, and his blood had been thinned by the alcohol.

He still drinks a quart a day and smokes 3 packs of Marlboro reds daily.

Other people may not be so lucky, but it shows you the randomness of individuality, genetic predisposition etc..what can happen to some, may never bother another all their life.

Edited September 1, 2010 by Chiral

[vual]

ya randomness that is the word for it... One cant argue with the liver damage.

[Magicdirt]

It's looking good for me !

Only the good die young.

[drgibbon]

Life long correlational studies like this one are interesting, but they can really only highlight relationships and general patterns, they don't demonstrate causality. It may be true that in their sample the moderate drinkers outlived the rest (on average), but that doesn't necessarily imply that there is positive biological effect of alcohol on longevity (although that may be the case).

Edited September 1, 2010 by drgibbon

[mr b.caapi]

My grandmother on my dads side "god love old Doris" worked in an English pub all her life, from the age of 18 till 72, she served drinks in the same pub.."The Wheatsheaf" in Copull England, she also would drink up to and sometimes more than a whole bottle of whiskey a day and smoked 3 packets of Capstans a day for the entirety of her life. Se only lived aross the road from the Pub so getting home was never an issue and to be frank she never seemed to be really all that intoxicated.

She lived to be 89 and died peacefully in her sleep.

My first wife's father had a mild attack when he was 69 and the doctors told him that what saved him, was that he was lucky he was pissed as a nit on crown royal whiskey and his blood had been thinned by the alcohol.

He still drinks a quart a day and smokes 3 packs of Marlboro reds daily.

Other people may not be so lucky, but it shows you the randomness of individuality, genetic predisposition etc..what can happen to some, may never bother another all their life.

 

Goddam , she would of had some tales to tell...

[Auxin]

If one were to define lifespan as the amount of life that one can remember the next day I wonder how much alcohol would reduce lifespan

What good is living to 75 if you cant remember a third of it? Thats dieing at 50 IMO

As for the red wine thing, thats just an excuse IMO. Red grapes also have the same polyphenols (resveratrol and anthocyanins) and grape leaves are edible and have loads and loads more resveratrol. Aim your mouth at the younger leaves so they arent too fibrous.

[Μορφέας]

jesus drank wine with his meals so i think moderate drinking would probally have benefical effects, im not surprised

[Auxin]

Jesus isnt a good example, he died at 35

The Buddha quit drinking for life between the age of 30 and 35 and he lived to 80

My great grandma didnt drink and she lived to 104

A mate of mine drank like a fish and died of multiple organ failure at 65

...but individual cases never tell the whole story.

[Magicdirt]

Anything will kill you if you have too much ie eat too many doughnuts or pizzas and you'll die young for sure.

Stress will kill you faster than alcohol.

That being said drinking in the belief that it will extend your life is foolhardy to say the least.

I drink too much and waking up with a hangover is natures way of saying "That shit's no good for you"

Drinking moderate amounts can relieve stress but excessive consumption of anything can't be good in the long term.

[Zen Peddler]

refcently they found that alcohol works as an antiinflammatory of the cerebral arteries. Interesting. Or are they just pickled like the queen mother?

[Chiral]

If one were to define lifespan as the amount of life that one can remember the next day I wonder how much alcohol would reduce lifespan

What good is living to 75 if you cant remember a third of it? Thats dieing at 50 IMO

 

This is rather curious aux...tell me can you clearly remember every event of your sober event calendar...lets see how many times have you been talking to someone and they say yeah rememeber such and such and you say...err no I don't remember that at all you must be thinking of someone else...they go on and on and on about so clearly and then you finally are convinced of it by tiny snippets and a second person confirms the story...

I've had partners tell about dinnners out or movies weve seen or people we met and I'm sitting there going who, what where now...?

and I'm generally a non drinker, but whats funny is I can remember most if not all of early teens and mid 20's when a heavy drinker and pot smoker, in fact a midnight oil concert in 1982 I think at Taree RSL I drank about 20 bourbon and cokes and can remember in great detail the whole concert and can to this day still see clearly in my mind Garret and the drummer doing there thing...I was I know totally pissed outta my mind that night with my GF and we went back to a friends house at Old Bar and the only room for us to sleep in was the chick who lived there younger brothers room...he was like 10 or something and so we slept on the floor next to this kid..me and GF ....she had fishnets on and was a glamour blonde with tits to die for shagged like animals on the floor next to this kid asleep...he didn't stay asleep very long and woke up and took his blanket and left the room...we laughed like lunatics and took his bed over for the night.

so alcohol can sometimes stamp memories permanently and sometimes it seems to want just cast them away like your trash can on your pc...it's like it analyze's the events and decides if they are worthy of keeping or lame and get thrown out.

[Auxin]

This is rather curious aux...tell me can you clearly remember every event of your sober event calendar

I wish. I have a 'improve your memory' audiobook somewhere but I keep forgetting to listen to it

There are times I was stoned/drunk I can remember reasonably well. But over all, for me and many, drinking and to a lesser extent smoking pot tends to reduce the amount remembered relative to the amount that would normally be remembered.

If intellect, productivity, recall factor, and advancement as a human are all inhibited it just seems to make one into more of a consumer drone toiling for the profit of the corporate machine at ones own expense.

[rahli]

Good to hear that there is some research coming out of the us aimed at improving the average joes quality of life. Let's just hope the study was't funded by the big pharm hoping to develop a break through live cirrhosis treatment to aid it even further. Being the us nothing would surprise me less.

Bottoms up. The'll take it from there.