Drink?: The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health

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I've been reading about the dangers of alcohol multiple times, so this didn't really offer anything new. French people lead the world in psoriasis and other alcohol related diseases before reforming their alcohol related laws to reduce drinking.

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

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. Professor Nutt does a much better job of citing some psychological aspects of why people drink, i.e., the self-help portion of the book. [Read the section on "Is Your Booze Buzz in Your Head?"] Later on he cites one study that "...showed that people drank lager 60 percent more slowly out of straight glasses than out of outward-curving (pilsner type) ones." Now that's interesting, don't you think? He also does a better job in this half of the book delineating when he is discussing fact or logic and not just opinion. But sometimes he still spouts a factoid that he doesn't substantiate with a citation. I'd like to see the documentation of these assertions, Professor Nutt!After listening to Edward Slingerland’s audiobook, Drunk, and reviewing that a couple weeks ago, I was curious to learn more about the latest research on alcohol and health. David Nutt is on a mission to explain the most significant alcohol-related research findings from the last 50 years. What I enjoyed most about his pragmatic approach is that he explains the impact of ANY amount of alcohol consumption. This is about making informed decisions, not moral judgements. He clarifies the differences that various levels of alcohol consumption have on our mental health, sleep, hormones, fertility, and propensity toward addiction. Nutt's good on the health issues of alcohol, including more details on cancer than I had known before.

Drink? The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health

Overall, very useful and helpful book that made me think harder about my habits around alcohol. My major takeaways that I'm enacting: Also, we only actually like the taste of alcohol and coffee because while being bitter, they're also addictive and pleasurable to the brain. So we find "taste" in otherwise bitter drinks.

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A world-renowned authority on the science of alcohol exposes its influence on our health, mood, sleep, emotions, and productivity -- and what we can and should do to moderate our intake. 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?: The New Science of Alcohol and Health - Harvard Book

Read the introduction; it contains some of the 'truths' about alcohol. "Marketing has altered our perception," "...its's absurd that coming of age should still be about alcohol," and "Would you take a new drug if you were told it would increase your risk of cancer, dementia, heart disease, or that it would shorten your life?"Nutt identifies alcohol as one of the most, if not the most harmful drug (legal or illegal) in common use. 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. You can die from alcohol poisoning, it is the leading cause of death in young people according to the WHO. 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.

Drink? : The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health

The book also contains insight into the work that goes into shaping government policy around alcohol. The difficulty for politicians to balance their electability vs public health, and the powerful influence of the alcohol industry lobby on the UK parliament’s decision making around these policies (they are really the true pusherman). This was very British. And felt extremely careful. Like the writer had in mind his audience of football hooligans. Maybe that was true. 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. Parts of this was laughable. Long chapters about different ways to talk about alcohol use, just very clumsy kitchen psychology and mundane. 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.

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Ultimately, I was satisfied, but it was a bit bland. Maybe it wasn’t the target market. I’ve never been a frequent drinker. In my younger days, maybe something like 4 drinks per week would’ve been common. These days, 1 drink per week is a lot. The author frequently talks about 14+ units per week, so this all felt a little out of touch It’s by far the most harmful food product in the grocery store. And that’s really saying something.