Alcohol and your heart: Just getting a buzz can trigger an irregular rhythm

[pvawter]

Yes, Bert. It’s very hard to abuse alcohol. That’s why so few people do it.

Let’s go with what I actually wrote; that the contention that it’s easy to go from responsible consumption to excessive consumption is false. And I stand by that for the reasons I stated. If you’re in the habit of actually smelling and tasting what’s going into your mouth, there are going to be some very real barriers to just pouring things down, especially if what you’ve got to do to do so is to start buying stuff from a couple shelves below where you ordinarily buy, which is generally the case.

You’re not going to like the pattern of consumption, you’re not going to like the taste, you’re not going to like what it does to your body.

No doubt that many people can and do abuse alcohol. However, they generally don’t get there because they were using responsibly and it just crept up on them. They get there by deciding to use alcohol like people use hotdish at Baptist potlucks.

I come from a long line of alcoholics on both sides of the family. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, they used to put beer in the baby bottle, I am told. Not sure they still do, though.

Most of us know how complex this issue is. There certainly is a genetic factor. Native Americans, for example, process alcohol differently, and it is easier for native Americans, I understand, to become alcoholics. My wife’s dad (Italian descent) drank a glass of wine every day after dinner (some call it supper), and was never drunk a day in his life.

Some people can handle drinking better than others, and people who use it to self-medicate are more prone to become addicted. One size doesn’t fit all, but we have to be cautious about this. I have no doubt, had I not gotten saved at the age of 17, I would be an alcoholic. I don’t want to follow my dad, both of his brothers, and both of my grandfathers, so I stay away from the stuff.

I have read numerous articles that say drinking a glass of wine a day is good for heart health. But, apparently, the CDC does not agree!

It seems Pvawter is right and I stand corrected:

I don’t think it’s a general medical recommendation for heart health.

The CDC recommends not drinking, to my surprise. Here is the link and then the quotation: https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/moderate-drinking.htm

The Guidelines also do not recommend that individuals who do not drink alcohol start drinking for any reason and that if adults of legal drinking age choose to drink alcoholic beverages, drinking less is better for health than drinking more.

Still, I would argue that it cannot be bad because God commanded it and even received wine offerings. I think it is probably modern lifestyles as a whole that make it more of an issue.

The same article from the CDC adds:

Two in three adult drinkers report drinking above moderate levels at least once a month.

The facts are beginning to affect my thinking on this.

Ed, agreed that culture is the big driver here—you can see it as a difference in alcoholism rates between the Latin-speaking nations vs. that of the Slavic nations or Nordic nations. For that matter, you can even see it in Russia, where young people whose drinking habits mirror those of the French not surprisingly have alcohol issues like….those of the French, not those of Russians. It’s a wonderful thing starting there—rare good news in that part of the world.

Regarding the CDC, it’s simple. They know their recommendation will be read by problem drinkers. Hence they tell problem drinkers to knock it off. Since your doctor knows that you are a person and not a statistic, he can figure out whether you are likely to be a problem drinker, and he’s free to give you advice that is different from that of the CDC.

And really, that’s the same thing that goes in in Scripture. God knows what is in a man, hence He states that wine is a blessing, drunkenness a curse.

[Bert Perry]

pvawter wrote:

Yes, Bert. It’s very hard to abuse alcohol. That’s why so few people do it.

Let’s go with what I actually wrote; that the contention that it’s easy to go from responsible consumption to excessive consumption is false. And I stand by that for the reasons I stated. If you’re in the habit of actually smelling and tasting what’s going into your mouth, there are going to be some very real barriers to just pouring things down, especially if what you’ve got to do to do so is to start buying stuff from a couple shelves below where you ordinarily buy, which is generally the case.

You’re not going to like the pattern of consumption, you’re not going to like the taste, you’re not going to like what it does to your body.

No doubt that many people can and do abuse alcohol. However, they generally don’t get there because they were using responsibly and it just crept up on them. They get there by deciding to use alcohol like people use hotdish at Baptist potlucks.

Relax, Bert. You’re living up to your tag line too well. I never said that drinking was sin and neither does Jaeggli. But let’s not pretend that moderate drinking is the prevailing category in the world or in these United States. As many have pointed out here and everywhere this has ever been discussed, the risks of drinking are serious and the health benefits marginal at best. If your doctor says, “Drink!” Then go ahead, but give me his number, because there almost 6M citizens of Wisconsin, most of whom want the green light, too.

Paul, I’ve got to say this is the first time I’ve been called a stick in the mud for saying that people can enjoy wine in good conscience.

Regarding your claim that most drinkers don’t use it responsibly, take a close look at what Ed’s source says. It merely says that two third of drinkers exceed “moderate” levels at least once a month. That’s one drink in a day for women and two for men. So if a woman pours her glass of wine just a bit over five ounces, BOOM, she’s in that “problem” category even though she’s sober enough (~0.025 BAC) to fly a plane legally. For a man, a generously poured glass of wine and a champagne toast at a wedding reception puts him over that limit—though he’s also pretty much legal to fly a plane.

And that’s why I push back here; it appears that a lot of the “statistics” used in this area by the government are, put very charitably, nonsense, in the category of Disraeli; “lies, d**ned lies, and statistics”, and there’s a reason they’re using them; it gives them an excuse for control.

You may not think you care, but if the NIAAA is calling a third of adults “problem drinkers” because they’ve had more than four drinks once in their life (they are) when the real problem population is those who routinely get drunk—those who do so over five times per month are only 6.3% of adults. If you concentrate on those who occasionally “have more than the regulators would like” instead of those showing clear patterns of concern (DSM’s 11 criteria for alcohol abuse), you’re going to end up needlessly limiting the freedom of the many and ignoring the very real needs of the few.

And I think that’s a big deal.