Surgeon General Warns of Connection Between Alcohol Use and Cancer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well it is a poison, what do you expect. I’m going to have another beer though.

Haha - idk if poison is correct.

Carcinogen=poison

[Anonymous]

I didn’t quit completely, but a year ago I cut back pretty dramatically. Before that I was having two drinks 5x/week, and it felt like too much. And the cancer risk scared me.

After a year of averaging 1-2 drinks per month, I’m so much happier. My skin looks better, I sleep better, and I no longer feel that I need a drink to unwind after a stressful day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's all very well for them to warn about this, but speaking as someone who moved here aged 30, the US is one of the MOST stressful countries in the world to live in with virtually no social safety net, minimal paid vacations, minimal paid leave, lack of universal healthcare, sky high professional expectations, sky high cost of living that does not tally with salaries, lack of access to decent food. Life is hard here. Everyone is on SSRIs and the SSRIs aren't even any good. People aren't drinking just because it's fun and take it or leave it. Most people have a glass of wine or a beer because it provides some kind of respite from what is otherwise a highly stressful life. I disagree that people dont know drinking is not the healthiest choice, but they typically still choose to do it because the alternative is their life just sucks and when they say it sucks they are told to 'journal' or 'be more mindful'.
American society is broken and no one here seems to notice or want to do anything about it. In fact the opposite - they elect people who actively scorn those who want to do something about it. And then tell everyone - your problems and day to day survival are on you, and expect them to have no vices. Insane.

I don’t understand, why don’t you move to Europe then if you’re so miserable in the US? One of our family friends immigrated here from France which has many of the benefits you mentioned and he’s much happier in the US due to having much higher pay, ability to create a nicer lifestyle for himself without severe taxation, doesn’t have to constantly watch people just living off his tax money doing nothing with welfare, doesn’t have to wait 8 months for a doctor’s appt with universal health care, etc. Somehow he’s able to be happy with his family without knocking back drinks every day to cope.
It’s nice that both places like the US and Europe can exist so people can choose what type of lifestyle they want.

To be clear: anyone drinking because they can’t cope simply does not have the initiative to better their own lives or change their situation. There are many ways to do so, and it’s very possible to move to other countries that provide the things you mention.

This---you can exercise to "deal with life stresses". Also, many of us drink because we like it, but can stop anytime. I like a glass of wine each night. Don't have it everyday, but if I do one week, not a big deal. We have a nice wine collection. I eat healthier than most (cut most carbs except healthy veggies), exercise, get my 10-15K steps daily, and cut most sugars from my life, except for alcohol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For decades they have been saying moderate drinking is fine and, for some of that period, they said red wine was beneficial to the heart. I am 52 and drink a glass of red wine maybe 2-3 times a week. Probably too late for me.

Those studies on red wine being beneficial were called into question years ago. At this point, people who like alcohol tune out the obvious.

Yes but I think the evidence is still somewhat more mixed on red wine which is why the French and Italians aren’t dying in droves. American-style beer, white wine, and all the gin and tonic type stuff has no real redeeming qualities.

Why is red wine better than white?

It is not. Red wine is just as bad as any other alcohol. Alcohol causes problems with your health. It does not matter how you ingest it. The pp just likes drinking red wine.

years, studies have shown a relationship between drinking a moderate amount of red wine and good heart health, but experts say it's important to understand what that means before you prescribe yourself a glass or two a day.

No research has established a cause-and-effect link between drinking alcohol and better heart health. Rather, studies have found an association between wine and such benefits as a lower risk of dying from heart disease.

It's unclear whether red wine is directly associated with this benefit or whether other factors are at play, said Dr. Robert Kloner, chief science officer and director of cardiovascular research at Huntington Medical Research Institutes and a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California.

"It might be that wine drinkers are more likely to have a healthier lifestyle and a healthier diet such as the Mediterranean diet, which is known to be cardioprotective," he said.

But you may not even have to drink red wine to get the benefit, Kloner said. Moderate amounts of beer and spirits also have been linked to a lower risk of heart disease.

It's a common assumption that red wine may be good for the heart because it contains antioxidants such as resveratrol, which is primarily found in the skin of grapes but also peanuts and blueberries. Some studies suggest resveratrol can reduce cholesterol and lower blood pressure.

"There's a debate about whether resveratrol is really cardioprotective or not," Kloner said. "In addition, there is debate about the amount of resveratrol you would need to ingest to get a protective effect. To get the equivalent of the amount of resveratrol that has been reported to be protective would probably mean ingesting an excess of wine."

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/05/24/drinking-red-wine-for-heart-health-read-this-before-you-toast

There has just been a lot of marketing and people like the pp who want to believe what they drink is somehow better vs what you drink.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you ask ai to break down the increased cancer risk by type of cancer you will see it’s actually very minimal. It’s also dwarfed by the much more deleterious affect of being overweight which is the number one health crisis impacting Americans health. It’s not that he’s wrong but he’s focusing on the much lesser evil as compared to having a bmi over 25

This 1000%! I know the risks of having a drink each night (sometimes 2, sometimes none). But I eat healthier than most, don't have much sugars, and am a healthy weight and get my exercise. Yes it's a risk to have a drink. So is walking across the street or driving a car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For decades they have been saying moderate drinking is fine and, for some of that period, they said red wine was beneficial to the heart. I am 52 and drink a glass of red wine maybe 2-3 times a week. Probably too late for me.

Those studies on red wine being beneficial were called into question years ago. At this point, people who like alcohol tune out the obvious.

Yes but I think the evidence is still somewhat more mixed on red wine which is why the French and Italians aren’t dying in droves. American-style beer, white wine, and all the gin and tonic type stuff has no real redeeming qualities.

French and Italians walk/get exercise. They eat healthier overall and a lot less! That is why they live longer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People who have a high use of alcohol probably aren’t visiting their PCP frequently and getting their bloodwork annually. These results never tell the whole story.

Do PCPs actually do bloodwork annually for healthy adults in their 30s? The one time my husband and I went for a "wellness visit" both of our doctors were like "why are you even here?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, so more people will switch to weed instead. Just what we need.

Be clear, the cannabis industry has been behind much of the anti-alcohol campaign of the last few years. People destroying their brains much faster than moderate alcohol will kill them.

Thank goodness there’s no powerful alcohol lobby or anything

DP. The cannabis industry is still emerging though, which means there’s a lot of money to be made. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this announcement comes on the heels of more widespread legalization of marijuana.

I'm the cannabis lobby poster. I didn't think I had to clarify all of that, so thanks for the backup. There is something insidious going on with this war on alcohol/cannabis boosterism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t quit completely, but a year ago I cut back pretty dramatically. Before that I was having two drinks 5x/week, and it felt like too much. And the cancer risk scared me.

After a year of averaging 1-2 drinks per month, I’m so much happier. My skin looks better, I sleep better, and I no longer feel that I need a drink to unwind after a stressful day.

I hear what you're saying, but just so you know, you did not decrease your cancer risk all that sharply. Especially if you do other unhealthy things, like eat sugar or lead a sedentary lifestyle. In fact, those two things are far worse for you than moderate alcohol. This is the problem with this new war on alcohol. The link is to a small increase in risk, yet they shorthand the language and now people believe: alcohol = cancer / no alcohol = safe. Neither of these equations is correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, so more people will switch to weed instead. Just what we need.

Be clear, the cannabis industry has been behind much of the anti-alcohol campaign of the last few years. People destroying their brains much faster than moderate alcohol will kill them.

Thank goodness there’s no powerful alcohol lobby or anything

Even crazier is how the hard alcohol / whiskey lobby is pitted against the beer lobby. The whiskey lobby whines about how “big beer” gets preferential regulatory treatment. They’re all fighting over who will get to kill us!

Now that liquor ads are allowed on TV just like beer ads, what preferential treatment does beer get anymore?

[Anonymous]

This announcement is about as dumb and suspicious as when they told everyone that drinking red wine was good for them.

[Anonymous]

Honestly if you go through chat gpt and ask it how much moderate drinking increases your risk of those cancers they mention it’s minuscule. I don’t get why they are up in arms about this and not about junk food or sun exposure or not getting vaccines. Not getting the hpv vaccine is much more dangerous as a woman and yet I don’t remember the campaign about that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly if you go through chat gpt and ask it how much moderate drinking increases your risk of those cancers they mention it’s minuscule. I don’t get why they are up in arms about this and not about junk food or sun exposure or not getting vaccines. Not getting the hpv vaccine is much more dangerous as a woman and yet I don’t remember the campaign about that

While I don't rely on the accuracy of ChatGPT, the reputable articles about this themselves show that the increased risk is slight. I wish we could know why a couple of years ago this sneaky campaign against alcohol started, to the point where now the surgeon general is causing them "alcohol-related cancers," began? Why isn't the surgen general putting risks on food-colored food, corn syrup, seed oils? All of these things contribute as much, and likely more, to mortality rates than moderate alcohol use. By the way, I drink about once a month, a little more during the holidays. It doesn't make me feel good, especially since I get up early and run 5 miles every morning, and weight train 3 times a week, and eat healthy foods, with some garbage, in moderation. See, that's how I manage my health and still enjoy life. I just really want to know what is driving this. Something just doesn't feel right about it.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People loved their cigarettes also.

Now they love their weed. Doesn't make it safe or healthy.