this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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It isn't anymore?
The latest few reports have linked even mild drinking to increased cancer risks.
More specifically, the more recent studies analyze non-drinkers in two categories: those who just choose not to drink (generally healthier than even light drinkers), and those who don't drink because they have serious health conditions incompatible with drinking or people recovering from substance/alcohol abuse issues who (generally much less healthy than light drinkers). By separating those who don't drink versus those who can't drink, the studies reverse earlier findings that non-drinkers are less healthy than light drinkers.
Woah, guess i'm out of date.
No, alcohol has always been toxic. just like tobacco. Might see the same restrictions on their ads in the future.
Alcohol is a toxin.
Many toxins have medicinal uses.
Please demonstrate the relevancy of your comment by citing medicinal uses of ingesting the alcohol in alcoholic beverages.
I was talking about toxins in general in reaction to yout toxin comment. I think it's logical to research the possibility of alcohol having some beneficial effects, the world is not black and white.
When it comes to studies of health risks/benefits of alcohol, they unfortunately seem to suffer from the same shortcomings as other health studies: lots of important factors are often ignored, like the type of alcoholic beverage consumed, lifestyle connected to the type or amount of alcohol, previous history of alcohol use... I can, of course, give you a link to a study that finds benefits to moderate alcohol use (although they are far from recomending it). Here's one example from 2023
Personally, I think alcohol probably does more damage than benefit even in moderate dosing, but the truth is we still don't really know and we need much more in-depth studies to find out.
I know you’re hair splitting but there are benefits to other elements in alcoholic beverages. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6099584/#:~:text=The%20tannin%20extracts%20improved%20cardiovascular,myocardial%20infarction%20and%20its%20prevention.
No need to get sour that occasionally recreational use crosses over into medical use. We don’t make these rules.
So is caffeine.
Caffeine is toxic at around 10 grams, which is 80-100 cups of coffee. I'd you're defining "toxin" as triggering adverse effects at any dosage, then you need to include water, oxygen, and every other substance in existence.
Alcohol is a biological toxin at any dosage. I find that people who argue this point aren't doing it from an academic standpoint but to justify their own behavior.
Hm, didn't think of it that way.
I'm drinking maybe all 2 - 3 weeks a glass wine...
The issue is a lot of teetotalers don't drink anything because of their existing health conditions, really bad obesity, hypertension, liver problems, etc. So those that don't drink at all are actually less healthy than the average population, and those that drink in moderation are obviously healthier than those who drink a lot. So the results look like moderate drinking is the most healthy but there's an (or a lot of) omitted variable bias.
There's unsubstantiated and nonsensical assumptions in your comment starting with assuming that anyone who doesn't ingest alcohol does it to avoid exacerbating current health conditions, leading to those that drink moderately being healthier than those who don't drink. That's absurd.
I'll make an assumption of my own. A significant portion of your identify and social life is in "moderate" drinking and you're very keen to justify that as "healthy."