Drink?: The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health

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We all are aware of some the dangers of alcohol, from short-term ones such as alcohol poisoning to the longer term ones like liver cirrhosis. But we learn here about all the other impacts alcohol has too, from alcohol’s effects on our brain’s neurotransmitters, our hormones, mental health, cancer risks, sleep quality and quantity, other physical health effects, economics, politics, and more.

Drink? The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health

David Nutt is an English neuropsychopharmacologist who’s research has primarily focused on the (mostly harmful) effects of drugs (including alcohol and nicotine) on the brain. Alcohol is a huge dopamine stimulant, which is in part why it feels so good, and why we might crave it when stressed. I've been reading about the dangers of alcohol multiple times, so this didn't really offer anything new. If alcohol went through food standards testing for toxicity now, you'd only be allowed to have less than a wine glass of alcohol per year." Chapters 1-5 are the "why" - chemistry and biology - and chapters 6-10 are the "how" - psychology and sociology.

Two days in a row of drinking is extremely bad for you as your body doesn't have time to recover and you don't sleep well, it's a downward spiral. Avoid this if at all possible, and go light the second day if you decide to drink.

Drink?: The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health - Goodreads

a view popular with conservative politicians, that addiction is fun and addicts enjoy getting drunk...." But just how bad is alcohol? Well Nutt dives into the brain and bodily science to describe it's implications in over 200 diseases. Nutt evens names alcohol as the most damaging drug to society. Nutt helps the reader self-assess the level you may be at, and gives tips and advice for how to limit your drinking, and how to talk to others about their drinking. He also discusses talking to your children about drinking. Tell them: Binge drinking, or getting "wasted" is very bad for you, much better to limit how much you do this. The British perspective came through a few times. For instance, in the section, "Major Ways Alcohol Affects Your Length of Life," I had to look up Professor Nutt's reference to Damien Hirst's sharks and cows with regards to Nutt's mention of formaldehyde. However, I was pleased that Professor Nutt was inclusive and did include science references to Asia and Africa along with Europe, the UK, and the USA.Drink? holds the key to all the questions you want (and need) to know the answers to, covering mental health, sleep, hormones, fertility and addiction. Although one shouldn't expect 100% definitive guidelines, I'm bothered by some contradictions. At one point he says, ""...don't drink at all - because there are no health benefits" and "...no level of drinking is actually beneficial to health." However, one whole chapter (8) is about "The Social Benefits of Alcohol." Granted, health and social benefits are different, but he expounds in so many places how alcohol provides social benefits, which others can argue can positively affect health benefits. He concludes that "...But if you want the sociability benefits alcohol brings, it's a different story. In that case, you need to decide what risks you want to accept...." Teeter-totters go in both directions; he implies that the benefits of alcohol abstinence and social drinking have an inverse relationship, so one has to choose, to "balance out the pleasure you gain." Further into the book he says, "...that the amount of alcohol optimal to provide the protection ["partial protective effect on cardiovascular health - The Lancet"] appears to be very low - about one unit a day." So there are some health benefits; he just wants us to know "...that the benefit to the heart does not outweigh all the other risks of alcohol...." And remember the reference to alcoholic dementia above? Later in the book, he says, "...low levels of alcohol consumption - that is between one and ten drinks a week - reduced the risk of dementia. In fact, it appears that being teetotal may raise your risk of dementia...." He also includes "...a 2017 review [that] concluded that light to moderate drinking does reduce the risk of diabetes," and that report IS cited. Provide a nonjudgmental willingness to assist the reader in minimizing harm if they decide to drink once informed. Present an unvarnished, spin free account of the scientific evidence regarding the health ramifications and social impact of alcohol consumption. Drinking while driving is a huge cause of death. In the US we have a .08% limit, which is actually not even that safe. Many countries in Europe have .05%, and many in Scandinavia have .02% (basically sober).

Drink? : The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health

However, the evidence is pretty damning, even though alcohol is associated with blue zone diets and minor improvements in cardiovascular health drinking any amount of alcohol has more negative effects than positive. This was very British. And felt extremely careful. Like the writer had in mind his audience of football hooligans. Maybe that was true. The best part of the book is headed, "How to Talk to Your Children about Booze." I can easily see this portion of the book being used with PTO/PTA groups. It was logical and could be easily implemented as a workshop program to support children and teens from succumbing to peer pressure, social norms, and advertising. While I did learn some things throughout the book, I'm not sure that much else is new or particularly persuasive that could convince an alcoholic to change their behavior; they'd just now be able to tell you why they are doing what they do. As the most harmful drug in the UK, alcohol has a profound and wide-reaching impact on our health and on society at large. Drink? is the first book of its kind, written by a scientist and rooted in 40 years of medical research and hands-on experience treating patients. Professor David Nutt cuts through the noise to explain its long- and short-term effects, making complex science digestible and taking readers through the journey of alcohol inside the body Finally this book finishes up with a section on how to identify if you or a loved one has a problem with alcohol and what tactics and tools you can use to beat addiction.Never mix drinking with drugs. You are less likely to know what you're taking when you're drunk, and you don't know how it will mix. A lot of people have the believe that a small amount of alcohol is good for your health. This is particularly prevalent in France, where people believe a glass of wine a day is good for you. But the science so far has been clear: "A 2018 review in The Lancet, one of the leading medical journals, was called—pretty definitively—"No Level of Alcohol Consumption Improves Health." Their conclusion was that, on balance, any protection would be more than canceled out by the negative effects. " I didn't realize that in the old days, beer and wine had much less alcohol in them than they do today (3-4% vs 5-8% today for beer). In middle ages I think it was even less, which is why people could drink it so often.

Drink? : The New Science of Alcohol and Health - Google Books

It’s by far the most harmful food product in the grocery store. And that’s really saying something.

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Early in the second half of the book, Professor Nutt relays some social the history of alcohol. One interesting part discussed how "...ancient Persians would only finally make a decision after the issue at hand had been discussed both sober and drunk," since being drunk brought out one's creativity. And though I knew alcohol was ancient, I didn't know that "It's only been in the last millennium that it has been banned by some religious groups, for example in Islam." [The irony isn't lost on this reader that modern "Persia" now Islamic.] It seems really hard to have a good social life and not drink. It is such an accepted part of life. People don't really understand the effect it has on our bodies and our lives. Of course people do understand at the extreme of becoming an alcoholic, but short of that, what's the big deal? Everyone should educate themselves on why it could be a big deal, so we can all make better informed decisions around drinking, and this book is an excellent introduction to this. You can die from alcohol poisoning, it is the leading cause of death in young people according to the WHO.