Reply to Even a Little Alcohol Can Harm Your Health

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]“Notably, none of the experts we spoke to called for abstaining completely, unless you have an alcohol use disorder or are pregnant.”

I mean, the main message here is what we have heard from the medical profession for a long time - stick to the drinking guidelines or abstain.  [/quote]

That is the messaging, but the reality is that any alcohol can harm your health. Public health authorities can't say everyone should stop drinking. But you should not try to convince yourself that alcohol is harmless or beneficial. It isn't. Drinking is a health decisions, just like eating doughnuts or drinking soda. [/quote]

I just posted, but this message is the kind of all or nothing thinking that’s not helpful, from a public health perspective.  Someone having, for example, one drink per month is not meaningfully harming your health.  We need to be thinking about regular behaviors, not occasional ones.  Health communications shows that messaging like “any alcohol can harm your health” often ends up pushing people to heavier drinking, because they think well, f it, rather than thinking, less alcohol is better than more.  Think of it as harm reduction vs. abstinence.[/quote]'

[b]That's my point. From a public health perspective, you can't tell people to abstain. It doesn't work.[/b] But just because public health official aren't saying abstain, it doesn't mean that alcohol isn't harmful or is beneficial. I agree that the public health messaging has to focus on harm reduction, but people shouldn't misinterpret that messaging to mean that light alcohol consumption has no negative effects. [/quote]

Sure you can and cigarettes are the perfect example. But it was a change that took more than a generation to gain acceptance. And now the idea of anyone smoking in our presence is an alien concept.

Alcohol is different - for reasons already stated - but the only thing stopping public health from starting a campaign to advocate abstinence or minimal drinking is the mindset that they can't.

Of course, I don't think the public is going to take you seriously when you've got a doctor at the end of your article entitled, "Even a Little Alcohol Can Harm Your Health" scoffing at the idea of advocating abstinence.[/quote]

But you can't make the argument, right now, that alcohol is the direct cause of 80-90% of cases of the the most deadly type of cancer. All we can say is it increases the risk of some cancers. And personally I've never gotten the impression I would be missing out on much by not smoking. Alcohol is different, it is just so much more a part of how people enjoy themselves. Would we be better off as a society of nobody drank? Sure. I think though that you're being overoptimistic in what is achievable based on what the science says right now and the role that alcohol plays in our society. [/quote]

Everyone I know who got lung cancer smoked, Everyone I know with breast cancer was an alcolholic, everyone I know who died of an ovrdose was a drug addict but it doesn't prove that Everyone who smokes, drinks or.abuses drugs will die that way.[/quote]

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