I am surprised this hasn't been discussed much on HBT yet.
I am reading a book by Kari Poikolainen, "Perfect Drinking and Its Enemies".
Poikolainen is a Finnish medical doctor and academic who has been studying effects of alcohol on health for almost 40 years. He has been working with WHO and other policy organizations for decades and has impeccable academic credentials - he is not some crackpot, or a random pro-alcohol guy with an agenda. He also obviously has impeccable knowledge of proper statistical analysis.
He argues several following key points which may be controversial to some, but are backed up by myriads of studies - both modern but also going back to 1930ies work by Perl (if you have heard about French paradox, perhaps these may not be that controversial):
1. Abstaining from alcohol completely carries a substantial health risk, compared to moderate drinking. This is interesting since about 1/3 of US population doesn't drink at all, and it increases their mortality significantly. Selfish bastards! They might as well smoke pack a day and eat deep fried food all day.
2. Drinking in moderation reduces mortality risks by as much as a factor of 2 or even more (!!!) compared to abstinence crowd.
3. Drinking slowly (sipping, not gulping), drinking with food (slows down adsorption of alcohol in intestines even more), drinking in the evening, drinking lower-ABV drinks - such as beer, as opposed to hard liquor, dramatically increases health benefits.
4. Drinking daily, at moderate level (5-6 days a week) is much BETTER for you than drinking 1-2 or even 3 days a week and abstaining remaining days. Even drinking 7 days a week, is always much better than 1-2 days a week - at any amount per day.
5. Here's the kicker - the "moderate" levels of drinking where you get maximum benefit is NOT at 1 or 2 "unit" drinks a day average, every day. (One unit of drink, 12 oz of 5% ABV beer is about 14g of alcohol). Poikolainen quotes multiple studies that show that for daily drinkers significant benefits extend to 3-4 and even 5-8 drinks a day. To me this is very controversial, but data seems to point that way.
For daily drinkers (7 days a week) optimal health benefit is maximized at ~50g of alcohol intake a day, which is 3-4 beers a day, and benefit decreases until you get "no benefits" compared to abstainers at around 90-100 or even more grams of alcohol a day (roughly 7 beers or more). From then on there are only downsides.
For 3-day a week irregular drinkers the optimal health benefit is at ~25g of alcohol a day weekly average, and benefits disappear (relative to abstinence crowd at 50g of alcohol), which basically means the same doses (per drinking day) of 3-4 beers a day, and 7 beers a day, respectively. But benefits are much smaller than drinking every day. You get much greater benefits if you keep drinking every day, or at least 5-6 days a week!
6. Much of the government policies are still rooted in wrong-headed history (prohibition, puritanism), understandable lobbying pressure from various anti-alcohol groups, and because it focuses mostly on evils of alcoholisms, DUI and social problems related to alcohol. As a result the clear, dramatic benefits of moderate daily alcohol consumption that show up in virtually every study are largely ignored (or at least severely understated), the correct range of "moderate alcohol consumption" is incorrectly advertised as 0-1 or 0-2 drink units a day, rather than more appropriate 2-4 drinks a day every day, and health risks of abstinence are not made clear at all, with officials often deliberately manipulating data to mask these effects (makes it easier to argue that no alcohol consumption is best option). This is very unfortunate since as a result, we have 100+ million people in this country alone who deliberately increase their relative mortality risk rates (by as much as a factor of 2-3!) by entirely avoiding what society and various groups conveniently label as "poison" (alcohol).
7. Alcoholism and alcohol-related illnesses at very high levels of consumption are a serious health problem for people affected, but *real* alcoholism affects a much smaller fraction of population than many people believe, and the reasons/connections to illnesses - cirrhosis of liver, cancers, are far more tenuous than public is lead to believe.
Sorry for long post, but the book, while relatively short, is well-researched and extremely well-referenced, and is good food for thought.
Anyone else read it?
I am reading a book by Kari Poikolainen, "Perfect Drinking and Its Enemies".
Poikolainen is a Finnish medical doctor and academic who has been studying effects of alcohol on health for almost 40 years. He has been working with WHO and other policy organizations for decades and has impeccable academic credentials - he is not some crackpot, or a random pro-alcohol guy with an agenda. He also obviously has impeccable knowledge of proper statistical analysis.
He argues several following key points which may be controversial to some, but are backed up by myriads of studies - both modern but also going back to 1930ies work by Perl (if you have heard about French paradox, perhaps these may not be that controversial):
1. Abstaining from alcohol completely carries a substantial health risk, compared to moderate drinking. This is interesting since about 1/3 of US population doesn't drink at all, and it increases their mortality significantly. Selfish bastards! They might as well smoke pack a day and eat deep fried food all day.
2. Drinking in moderation reduces mortality risks by as much as a factor of 2 or even more (!!!) compared to abstinence crowd.
3. Drinking slowly (sipping, not gulping), drinking with food (slows down adsorption of alcohol in intestines even more), drinking in the evening, drinking lower-ABV drinks - such as beer, as opposed to hard liquor, dramatically increases health benefits.
4. Drinking daily, at moderate level (5-6 days a week) is much BETTER for you than drinking 1-2 or even 3 days a week and abstaining remaining days. Even drinking 7 days a week, is always much better than 1-2 days a week - at any amount per day.
5. Here's the kicker - the "moderate" levels of drinking where you get maximum benefit is NOT at 1 or 2 "unit" drinks a day average, every day. (One unit of drink, 12 oz of 5% ABV beer is about 14g of alcohol). Poikolainen quotes multiple studies that show that for daily drinkers significant benefits extend to 3-4 and even 5-8 drinks a day. To me this is very controversial, but data seems to point that way.
For daily drinkers (7 days a week) optimal health benefit is maximized at ~50g of alcohol intake a day, which is 3-4 beers a day, and benefit decreases until you get "no benefits" compared to abstainers at around 90-100 or even more grams of alcohol a day (roughly 7 beers or more). From then on there are only downsides.
For 3-day a week irregular drinkers the optimal health benefit is at ~25g of alcohol a day weekly average, and benefits disappear (relative to abstinence crowd at 50g of alcohol), which basically means the same doses (per drinking day) of 3-4 beers a day, and 7 beers a day, respectively. But benefits are much smaller than drinking every day. You get much greater benefits if you keep drinking every day, or at least 5-6 days a week!
6. Much of the government policies are still rooted in wrong-headed history (prohibition, puritanism), understandable lobbying pressure from various anti-alcohol groups, and because it focuses mostly on evils of alcoholisms, DUI and social problems related to alcohol. As a result the clear, dramatic benefits of moderate daily alcohol consumption that show up in virtually every study are largely ignored (or at least severely understated), the correct range of "moderate alcohol consumption" is incorrectly advertised as 0-1 or 0-2 drink units a day, rather than more appropriate 2-4 drinks a day every day, and health risks of abstinence are not made clear at all, with officials often deliberately manipulating data to mask these effects (makes it easier to argue that no alcohol consumption is best option). This is very unfortunate since as a result, we have 100+ million people in this country alone who deliberately increase their relative mortality risk rates (by as much as a factor of 2-3!) by entirely avoiding what society and various groups conveniently label as "poison" (alcohol).
7. Alcoholism and alcohol-related illnesses at very high levels of consumption are a serious health problem for people affected, but *real* alcoholism affects a much smaller fraction of population than many people believe, and the reasons/connections to illnesses - cirrhosis of liver, cancers, are far more tenuous than public is lead to believe.
Sorry for long post, but the book, while relatively short, is well-researched and extremely well-referenced, and is good food for thought.
Anyone else read it?
