Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Thursday February 22 2018, @06:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the all-things-in-moderation dept.

On the one hand, drinking alcohol may make you live longer.

Drinking could help you live longer—that's the good news for happy-hour enthusiasts from a study presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. According to the study, people who live to 90 or older often drink moderately.

On the other, you might not remember who you are any more.

Heavy drinkers are putting themselves at risk of dementia, according to the largest study of its kind ever conducted.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Thursday February 22 2018, @06:46AM (13 children)

    by Whoever (4524) on Thursday February 22 2018, @06:46AM (#641664) Journal

    I remember reading two reports that were published within the space of a week a few years ago, in which one recommended a level of alcohol consumption and the other stated that an amount less than the first report recommended would make you an alcoholic.

    In this case, it's possible that both reports are correct. Or, perhaps what the studies are showing is correlation, not causation and there is some underlying cause that has not been discovered.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by TGV on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:06AM (12 children)

    by TGV (2838) on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:06AM (#641671)

    About that first study, the article literally says: "The results do not show causation, only an unexplained link between drinking and longevity."

    There is one obvious source of confounding: people who can't drink because of medicine use die earlier. You can really on reach the conclusion that drinking two glasses per day extends life (or any other) if you monitor all subjects closely throughout their life and make sure you have a balanced design, i.e. for every rich, black person from Toronto with an IQ of 103, 1m80, 75kg at age 18, who doesn't sport, studies accountancy, divorces at 41, etc., and drinks one glass of alcohol per day, you need a rich, black person from Toronto with an IQ of 103, 1m80, 75kg at age 18, who doesn't sport, studies accountancy, divorces at 41, etc. who drinks 0 glasses of alcohol per day, and one who drinks 2 glasses per day, etc. Only then can you be sure it's the alcohol, not some other factor.

    Since that's totally infeasible, we will keep having contradictory studies until someone finds the biological pathway which explains it.

    • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:20AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:20AM (#641676)

      Screaming. If one were to look in the direction that the sound was coming from, they would see a man on top of a woman, raping her on the sidewalk. It was a busy day, and countless people witnessed this scene. Then, as this was happening, a cop saw what was happening. "Oh my god!" the officer shouted. The officer then charged in.

      The police officer ran past the man raping the woman and up to another man quite a distance away. The officer began shouted at the man for jaywalking, and finally let him off with a warning. As the officer walked past the rapist again, he smiled and said, "Carry on, sir." That's right: The officer was a staunch proponent of men's rights. The man smiled, raised his fist, and slammed it down on the woman's face once again.

      A sow vanished from the world that day, and a man became a little happier.

      • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by TGV on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:28AM (2 children)

        by TGV (2838) on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:28AM (#641679)

        Ramblings of a deranged mind?

        • (Score: 2, Offtopic) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:33AM (1 child)

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:33AM (#641701) Journal

          He's going to reincarnate as a woman, just you watch. It'll be about as poetic as poetic justice gets.

          --
          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:38AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:38AM (#641704)

            Come on folks, don't feed the troll.

            It only encourages him.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:25AM (6 children)

      by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:25AM (#641678) Journal

      No only that, but it only takes one, just one, 2400 year old Greek philosopher/astronomer to really throw off the averages for mortality.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:31AM (5 children)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:31AM (#641681) Journal

        How much that Greek drinks, tho?

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:40AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @07:40AM (#641684)

          Whether the man was standing up ramrod straight or bent over, his anus was always visible. His anus was always visible, and always leaking liquid fecal matter. For this reason, famished African children would often drink from his anus like it was a water fountain. The possibilities, as you can imagine, were endless.

        • (Score: 4, Funny) by riT-k0MA on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:03AM (3 children)

          by riT-k0MA (88) on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:03AM (#641745)

          Socrates himself was permanently pissed, Plato could stick away... half a crate of whisky every day, and Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle.

          Source [youtube.com]

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @03:00PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @03:00PM (#641808)

            At no point is a youtube video acceptable as a source. Its far less reliable then wikipedia.

            • (Score: 2) by riT-k0MA on Thursday February 22 2018, @03:30PM (1 child)

              by riT-k0MA (88) on Thursday February 22 2018, @03:30PM (#641827)

              Wooooosh

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:16AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:16AM (#641694)

      About that first study, the article literally says: "The results do not show causation, only an unexplained link between drinking and longevity."
      [...]
      Since that's totally infeasible, we will keep having contradictory studies until someone finds the biological pathway which explains it.

      I disagree. This phenomenon has been known for a long time [azquotes.com]:

      Certain old men prefer to rise at dawn, taking a cold bath and a long walk with an empty stomach and otherwise mortifying the flesh. They then point with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdy health and ripe years; the truth being that they are hearty and old, not because of their habits, but in spite of them. The reason we find only robust persons doing this thing is that it has killed all the others who have tried it.

      --Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary