Don't Poison Yourself
For some things in life, the healthiest amount to ingest is zero. That covers tobacco cigarettes, most illegal or recently-illegal drugs (probably -- research on them is not good), alcohol (maybe), refined sugar (again, maybe), and various additives and preservatives in "food-like substances." That said, your body can handle a bit of toxicity now and again, so there's no need to avoid every little additive, just avoid the biggest killers, cigarettes and excessive alcohol.
Here is the CDC's list of the top 12 causes of death in the United States, as of 2017:
Here is the CDC's list of the top 12 causes of death in the United States, as of 2017:
- Heart disease: 647,457
- Cancer: 599,108
- Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201
- Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383
- Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404
- Diabetes: 83,564
- Influenza and pneumonia: 55,672
- Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 50,633
- Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,173
Cigarette smoking contributes to risk for heart disease, cancer, respiratory diseases, stroke, and nephritis. Excessive alcohol is a culprit in cancer, accidents, and suicide... and maybe a couple of the others. Being obese and/or having diabetes contributes to risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer's, and kidney disease.
For smoking, I think it's pretty widely accepted that there's no up side to the habit. Alcohol, however, seems to have a more ambiguous status. Some believe that drinking a moderate amount is healthy. That's not such an open-and-shut case. I'm leaning toward drinking very little, myself. I'm adding my notes here, mostly un-edited, because there is a lot of information to plow through out there, if you want to.
The conventional wisdom allows up to 1 or 2 glasses of wine in any given day (or equivalent in other alcohol), but this is based on outdated research, some of it funded by the alcohol industry. There is some research that shows that light and moderate drinkers have a lower risk of non-fatal heart attack than teetotalers, but they have higher risk of cancer and other things, so on balance the physical risks outweigh the benefits. However, drinking is a key element in a lot of social and celebratory occasions, and we can tolerate a little imperfection.
For smoking, I think it's pretty widely accepted that there's no up side to the habit. Alcohol, however, seems to have a more ambiguous status. Some believe that drinking a moderate amount is healthy. That's not such an open-and-shut case. I'm leaning toward drinking very little, myself. I'm adding my notes here, mostly un-edited, because there is a lot of information to plow through out there, if you want to.
The conventional wisdom allows up to 1 or 2 glasses of wine in any given day (or equivalent in other alcohol), but this is based on outdated research, some of it funded by the alcohol industry. There is some research that shows that light and moderate drinkers have a lower risk of non-fatal heart attack than teetotalers, but they have higher risk of cancer and other things, so on balance the physical risks outweigh the benefits. However, drinking is a key element in a lot of social and celebratory occasions, and we can tolerate a little imperfection.
- (https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/alcohol-facts-and-statistics, An estimated 88,0008 people (approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually, making alcohol the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States. The first is tobacco, and the second is poor diet and physical inactivity.) Also according to this 8.4% of men and 4.2% of women (adults over 18, in the US) have “Alcohol Use Disorder” although many more than that (26%) reported binge drinking in the past month. Low-risk drinking, according to this, is no more than 7 drinks per week for women, 14 per week for men, and definitely not drinking all of those at one sitting.
- Deaths from alcohol poisoning peak among middle-aged white men (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/01/06/cdc-six-people-die-each-day-of-alcohol-poisoning-and-most-are-middle-aged-white-men/) Alcohol caused 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults (20-64) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/06/26/excessive-drinking-causes-one-in-10-deaths-of-working-age-adults/
- Deaths from cirrhosis of the liver have been dropping since 1970 https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh27-3/209-219.htm … or have they? https://www.sciencealert.com/alcohol-related-liver-deaths-have-increased-sharply-and-it-s-not-the-age-group-you-think “Cirrhosis-related deaths increased by 65 percent from 1999 to 2016, and deaths from liver cancer doubled, the study said. The rise in death rates was driven predominantly by alcohol-induced disease, the report said. Over the past decade, people ages 25 to 34 had the highest increase in cirrhosis deaths - an average of 10.5 percent per year - of the demographic groups examined.”
- “Life expectancy was 24–28 years shorter in people with alcohol use disorder than in the general population. … People hospitalized with alcohol use disorder have an average life expectancy of 47–53 years (men) and 50–58 years (women)” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4402015/ and http://whsc.emory.edu/_pubs/em/2008fall/truth_alcohol.html
- The good news is that at least 80% of Americans don’t drink too much (according to this 2015 article https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/22/americans-are-drinking-themselves-to-death-at-record-rates/) “at the level of individual use, alcohol was the deadliest substance, followed by heroin and cocaine.” Recommendation: If you drink more than 1 drink/day on average, or ever drink enough in an evening to get really sloppy, you should definitely cut back. If you’re already drinking only a little, cutting back is unlikely to extend your lifespan but it will probably reduce your risk of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
- “Moderate Alcohol Consumption is Not Associated with Reduced All-Cause Mortality” https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(15)01015-3/pdf
- Evidence shows that alcoholism or chronic alcohol consumption can cause both accelerated (or premature) aging (from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_alcohol_on_aging 45% higher risk of death…)
- “Alcohol consumption, even at moderate levels, is associated with adverse brain outcomes.” https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2353
- https://www.alzheimers.net/alcohol-and-alzheimers/ “[alcohol] may interrupt the body’s natural ability to clear amyloid plaques from the brain.”
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/43050801?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents “Mortality risk is low for light drinkers and many individuals who abstain from drinking—including those who abstain for religious and moral reasons, have a responsibility to family, were brought up not to drink and are not social. Mortality is higher among former, infrequent and moderate drinkers, and among individuals who abstain because they do not like the taste of alcohol, are concerned that they will lose control or are concerned about adverse consequences. Unsurprisingly, mortality risk is by far the highest for heavy drinkers. Our results show that reasons for abstention capture heterogeneity in the risk of death among lifetime abstainers.”
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4100719/ also addresses heterogeneity of non-drinkers. “compared to light drinkers, family prosocial abstainers do not have any statistically significant hazard ratios for any cause of death, except for cancer, where they have 34% lower risk of death over the follow-up period. Compared to light drinkers, prosocial abstainers have significantly lower risks of external causes of death, but have elevated risks of heart disease mortality. … Family prosocial abstainers, family prosocial infrequent drinkers, and current light drinkers have similar risks of overall mortality in our final models.” and “Compared to light consumption, heavy consumption (3 or more drinker per day on average) contributes to 55% higher overall mortality risk over the follow-up period.”
- https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/feb/27/how-much-alcohol-do-we-really-drink in England they drink more, and the rich drink more.
- https://news.gallup.com/poll/184358/drinking-highest-among-educated-upper-income-americans.aspx churchgoers are less likely to drink (47% vs 69%), binge drinking is equal across income levels. Conservatives and Republicans slightly less likely to drink than liberals, Democrats. Unemployed, not married, no children less likely to drink. 76% of suburbanites, vs 61% city dwellers and 59% rural, drink. Poorer people tend towards the extreme consumption patterns with alcohol -- all or nothing.
- https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption is interesting… apparently the US as a whole drinks about as much per capita as in the pre-prohibition era… but proportion of children per capita was much higher then, so maybe adults really were drinking more.
- Prevalence of drinking https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think-you-drink-a-lot-this-chart-will-tell-you/ I’m not sure how accurate this is – other things suggest that 70% of Americans drink. This one says that 30-40% of those barely drink, and 10%… jeepers! They definitely drink too much.
- Alcohol use rising? Especially heavy drinking:https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/08/12/people-in-the-u-s-are-drinking-more-alcohol-than-ever-study/#20c9e2853eb7
- But moderate alcohol consumption (3 units/day) is associated with lower diabetes risk. Why?https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/alcohol-facts/health-effects-of-alcohol/diseases/alcohol-and-diabetes/, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19640960,https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318684.php
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