Drink?: The New Science of Alcohol and Health

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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. Alcohol - a simple molecule that can induce so much pleasure and pain at the same time... As the most harmful drug in the UK, it 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 the long- and short-term effects of alcohol, makes complex science digestible and takes readers through its journey inside the body and brain from the very first sip. a view popular with conservative politicians, that addiction is fun and addicts enjoy getting drunk...." Drip-feeding your alcohol slowly over a week comes with its own issues. “It will reduce the acute risks such as accidents and, of course, hangovers,” says Boniface. “But drinking on a daily basis is also not advisable in terms of habit forming, so it’s good to have alcohol-free days every week.” This limits exposure to the psychological phenomenon known as the ‘alcohol priming effect’ whereby, Kersbergen says: “Drinking even a small dose of alcohol can cause people to drink more, even if they didn’t intend to, due to increased craving and reduced inhibition. Someone who wants to cut down on drinking could therefore find it easier to not drink at all on a day than to drink only one drink.”

I do take issue with him that society must celebrate all of its important days with alcohol, from birth to death, and also as a way to meet people. He mentions bars a lot as local meeting spots, so he hopes to help people who imbibe to do it responsibly. I've never been in a bar or tavern, and I don't have a problem meeting plenty of good people. The crowd I'm around does not drink. I belong to a friendly church with social activities. Yes, I've taught Sunday School and many kids' programs, great experiences. I belong to a Christian writers' group. I have ministered on a jail team for 15 years as a volunteer assistant chaplain, as well, and had plenty of experiences with hundreds of alcoholics, all of whom started out as social drinkers. Still, a glass of wine a day might help your longevity, right? Well, unfortunately, rumours of booze’s effectiveness in that area may have been exaggerated. “For a long time, I think we’ve told ourselves alcohol is good for us, partly because we enjoy drinking it,” says Dr Sadie Boniface, head of research at the Institute of Alcohol Studies. “But science has debunked some of the ‘health benefits’ of moderate drinking, and one thing I think people generally don’t understand is that the official drinking guidelines are for ‘low-risk’ alcohol consumption, not ‘safe’ consumption. When the drinking guidelines were developed, they did an enormous review of the evidence, and did calculations for the health risks of drinking at different levels.” The cut-off they chose for low-risk, she says, was a little below a 1% lifetime risk of death from alcohol: “I think that’s higher than a lot of people would expect, and much higher than the risk of death that we would probably accept for other exposures, such as air pollution.” It is well establihed that heavy drinkers are less fertile. "It lowers libido and increases the likelihood of impotence." I was curious as to what David Nutt had to say, as I had heard of him causing controversy by advocating for other drugs, but not alcohol.Many patients with cirrhosis consider themselves social drinkers, though they tend to consume quite a bit. The health risks are dose-related. For example, the incidence of cancer rises with consumption. When it comes to the heart, "Even light to moderate drinking raises your risk of an irregular heartbeat, cardiac arrythmia, which may make you feel faint and short of breath.The risk of stroke is both dose dependent and cumulative." And it is a very scary book. I thought I knew most facts about the dangers, but Nutt goes into great detail about how alcohol affects every part of the body, what's involved in hangovers, fetal alcohol syndrome, and the types of cancers related to its use. He explains the drugs used for treatment of alcoholics.

Alcoholism does run in families. If your parent has had or has alcoholism, your own risk is three to four times higher."

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This book certainly exceeded my expectations. The overall pedigree and experience of Dr. Nutt put him in an excellent position to author this book, and he did a laudable job balancing it with a sufficiently rigorous scientific/health-related dive, the effects at the personal versus the societal level, economic considerations, as well as the many benefits of alcohol that people tend to overlook. The author also concludes with a seemingly sensible plan for those who take the facts seriously, both personally and at the institutional/policy level. The book is not a meant to scare people into worry about their habits, but rather provide a sober (hah) analysis of the risks at hand. Alcohol is a huge dopamine stimulant, which is in part why it feels so good, and why we might crave it when stressed. The number of older people dependent on alcohol or who drink heavily has risen fast. It’s...also what happens when people retire and find themselves with disposable income and with more time to drink and no reason to put on the brakes." Retiring overseas is a risk factor. "The social life of the expat may be based around drinking, and booze is often cheaper too."