Anonymous wrote:U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a Surgeon General's Advisory on Friday, warning of the connection between alcohol use and cancer risk.

"This advisory highlights alcohol use as a leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, contributing to nearly 100,000 cancer cases and about 20,000 cancer deaths each year," the document stated. "The more alcohol consumed, the greater the risk of cancer."

https://www.newsweek.com/one-alcoholic-drink-cancer-risk-surgeon-general-2009131

Anonymous wrote:When I have any alcohol, my resting heart rate increases for up to two days afterwards. You can see it on Apple Watch. This is just one biomarker. It’s obviously not good for you; really no surprise on the cancer link. I think that if you can control it (big if) you’re probably ok once a month or something. Beyond that, it’s going to be negative.

Anonymous wrote:10% of all drinkers buy and drink 50% of all alcohol sold in the US.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I have any alcohol, my resting heart rate increases for up to two days afterwards. You can see it on Apple Watch. This is just one biomarker. It’s obviously not good for you; really no surprise on the cancer link. I think that if you can control it (big if) you’re probably ok once a month or something. Beyond that, it’s going to be negative.

But all the studies would prove you wrong. That's the thing. You see alcohol=bad, without reading a single study with a critical mind. You're just blindly accepting broad statements without using any free thinking to understand it. That's what is so disturbing about this. It's almost like a test to see what they can do to get people to believe what they say, without question. This is about control, not public health.

The only one experiencing any sort of control here is you. The hooch evidently has such a death grip on your reality that you have managed to cook up this conspiracy theory.

Anybody that drinks who has half a brain can figure out the stuff is poison. Just like anybody with a decent level of risk tolerance can enjoy tying one off every once in a while if they want to. In the end, having an alcohol habit with any amount of daily frequency is not going to be particularly compatible with an overall healthy and active lifestyle. To each their own.

I have known my in-laws for over 30 years and they are daily drinkers--multiple drinks per day, combination of spirits and wine. They are in their early and mid-80s now, after long careers in big law for one and having started a large, public company for the other, and worth literally hundreds of thousands of dollars, with many friends and connections, international trips with lots of walking and hiking, and still going strong. So your statement is just patently wrong.

Anonymous wrote:Humans have been drinking alcohol for a least 7,000 years. We grew up together, so to speak.

We drink rarely and so does our friend group. But when I want a drink, I’m going to have it. And I’m not going to worry about cancer.

Anonymous wrote:Humans have been drinking alcohol for a least 7,000 years. We grew up together, so to speak.

We drink rarely and so does our friend group. But when I want a drink, I’m going to have it. And I’m not going to worry about cancer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I have any alcohol, my resting heart rate increases for up to two days afterwards. You can see it on Apple Watch. This is just one biomarker. It’s obviously not good for you; really no surprise on the cancer link. I think that if you can control it (big if) you’re probably ok once a month or something. Beyond that, it’s going to be negative.

But all the studies would prove you wrong. That's the thing. You see alcohol=bad, without reading a single study with a critical mind. You're just blindly accepting broad statements without using any free thinking to understand it. That's what is so disturbing about this. It's almost like a test to see what they can do to get people to believe what they say, without question. This is about control, not public health.

The only one experiencing any sort of control here is you. The hooch evidently has such a death grip on your reality that you have managed to cook up this conspiracy theory.

Anybody that drinks who has half a brain can figure out the stuff is poison. Just like anybody with a decent level of risk tolerance can enjoy tying one off every once in a while if they want to. In the end, having an alcohol habit with any amount of daily frequency is not going to be particularly compatible with an overall healthy and active lifestyle. To each their own.

I have known my in-laws for over 30 years and they are daily drinkers--multiple drinks per day, combination of spirits and wine. They are in their early and mid-80s now, after long careers in big law for one and having started a large, public company for the other, and worth literally hundreds of thousands of dollars, with many friends and connections, international trips with lots of walking and hiking, and still going strong. So your statement is just patently wrong.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:It’s about time they make an announcement about alcohol. Kids go crazy in college drinking and then it continues into their 20s-30s because it is the social thing to do. ‘Let’s get drinks!’ Etc. Yet, it’s the first question the oncologist asks when you initially get diagnosed with cancer. ‘Do you drink and how much?’ Then, ‘Do you smoke?’ So, they have known for decades that there is a link to cancer. Both are rough and unnatural to your body. Just now the U.S. Surgeon General is going to label it.

Younger people are drinking less than previous generations https://time.com/7203140/gen-z-drinking-less-alcohol/

Anecdotally I see this at work. Happy hour is not as popular and even when we have one at work, there is a huge demand for nonalcoholic fun drinks.

Everyone is drinking less. The post war trend of binge drinking that lasted into the 2000s is over. Even on college campuses drinking is way down. It’s all for the better. The high side of moderate drinking and heavy drinking is likely skewing all of these studies in a big way. There is a level of drinking that is unquestionably bad for you and it’s becoming less and less common.

But the people who insist that it’s 0 or near 0 (2 drinks a month?) are bananas. They started the same hysteria over lead and asbestos (any amount is toxic and will increase the chance of adverse health effects). It’s just not true - you have environmental exposure to both substances that don’t involve a statistically significant increase in cancer. Both substances are highly toxic and the most convincing evidence involve chronic or occupational exposure. Further studies have shown that lower levels are also hazardous. And that has been blown out of proportion to say, for example, a 1 time exposure to asbestos insulation makes you at risk for mesothelioma.

Public health professionals need to educate people on the science, not engage in fear based advocacy. Look at all the stupid shit people still believe about transmitting Covid. Like all other respiratory viruses it’s transmitted by particles expelled from the lungs and requires 15 minutes+ of direct exposure to the shared air. COVID isn’t likely (though technically possible to demonstrate in ideal lab environments) to be transmitted via fomites, toilet plume, auto passenger air intakes, etc. Your chances of getting it in well-ventilated or outdoor spaces, especially with passing contact, is virtually 0.

People have been brainwashed to “follow the science” but the science doesn’t say what they think it says. They’re following the dumbed down overly simplified cliffs notes version brought to you buy public health officials and their media relations departments who are trying to alter population level health behavior through fear because they think everyone is too stupid to understand the actual studies.

Yes, sadly people don’t understand nuance and they don’t understand that not all effects are linear. (Eg people think if a little bit of something is good for you, lots of it must be even better!) but I think this announcement is helpful because I think a lot of people were totally unaware of the link. I mean, you could also probably safely smoke a couple cigarettes a week for life. But we put the warnings on the boxes because lots of people don’t stop there, they smoke a pack daily. I know a lot of people that drink a couple drinks daily and absolutely think that’s good for them. It’s probably not the worst thing in the world, but it’s not the best either.

And I totally agree that plastics are the bigger risk but there’s also a societal benefit to plastics that doesn’t exist for alcohol. Is it better for people to give up eating yogurt and berries because they come in plastic? Probably not. I am super paranoid about plastics but I’m still buying those products.

Well, I grew up with my strawberries in cardboard and my yogurt in glass. There's no good reason we can't go back to that. Why isn't the surgeon general putting warnings on the plastic containers? They are far worse than a few glasses of wine each month.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I have any alcohol, my resting heart rate increases for up to two days afterwards. You can see it on Apple Watch. This is just one biomarker. It’s obviously not good for you; really no surprise on the cancer link. I think that if you can control it (big if) you’re probably ok once a month or something. Beyond that, it’s going to be negative.

But all the studies would prove you wrong. That's the thing. You see alcohol=bad, without reading a single study with a critical mind. You're just blindly accepting broad statements without using any free thinking to understand it. That's what is so disturbing about this. It's almost like a test to see what they can do to get people to believe what they say, without question. This is about control, not public health.

The only one experiencing any sort of control here is you. The hooch evidently has such a death grip on your reality that you have managed to cook up this conspiracy theory.

Anybody that drinks who has half a brain can figure out the stuff is poison. Just like anybody with a decent level of risk tolerance can enjoy tying one off every once in a while if they want to. In the end, having an alcohol habit with any amount of daily frequency is not going to be particularly compatible with an overall healthy and active lifestyle. To each their own.

And moderation like this is nearly impossible for people who drink often. They can just stop at 1 nor can they go weeks or months between drinks. Most people need all or nothing.

Personally it’s freeing to go with nothing. Life improved dramatically when I just took it out of the equation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I have any alcohol, my resting heart rate increases for up to two days afterwards. You can see it on Apple Watch. This is just one biomarker. It’s obviously not good for you; really no surprise on the cancer link. I think that if you can control it (big if) you’re probably ok once a month or something. Beyond that, it’s going to be negative.

But all the studies would prove you wrong. That's the thing. You see alcohol=bad, without reading a single study with a critical mind. You're just blindly accepting broad statements without using any free thinking to understand it. That's what is so disturbing about this. It's almost like a test to see what they can do to get people to believe what they say, without question. This is about control, not public health.

The only one experiencing any sort of control here is you. The hooch evidently has such a death grip on your reality that you have managed to cook up this conspiracy theory.

Anybody that drinks who has half a brain can figure out the stuff is poison. Just like anybody with a decent level of risk tolerance can enjoy tying one off every once in a while if they want to. In the end, having an alcohol habit with any amount of daily frequency is not going to be particularly compatible with an overall healthy and active lifestyle. To each their own.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I have any alcohol, my resting heart rate increases for up to two days afterwards. You can see it on Apple Watch. This is just one biomarker. It’s obviously not good for you; really no surprise on the cancer link. I think that if you can control it (big if) you’re probably ok once a month or something. Beyond that, it’s going to be negative.

But all the studies would prove you wrong. That's the thing. You see alcohol=bad, without reading a single study with a critical mind. You're just blindly accepting broad statements without using any free thinking to understand it. That's what is so disturbing about this. It's almost like a test to see what they can do to get people to believe what they say, without question. This is about control, not public health.

The only one experiencing any sort of control here is you. The hooch evidently has such a death grip on your reality that you have managed to cook up this conspiracy theory.

Anybody that drinks who has half a brain can figure out the stuff is poison. Just like anybody with a decent level of risk tolerance can enjoy tying one off every once in a while if they want to. In the end, having an alcohol habit with any amount of daily frequency is not going to be particularly compatible with an overall healthy and active lifestyle. To each their own.