+Skip6235 It depends on what counts as moderation. If you take the average of 0 drinks a day and 100 drinks a day, does that count as a 'moderate' amount?
+Skip6235 Moderation by definition means a non-excessive amount. Excessive amounts when referring to health would be the amount that causes harm. As such the moderate amount is going to be whatever the healthy range is.
+Jeremy Downey "Moderation" basically means "a little bit is better than none, but increased amounts become bad at some point". Where that point is doesn't depend on the average individual behavior, it depends on the physical properties of the thing in question.
Ditocoaf Uranium. Doesn't matter how little of it you have in you, eating none is better. That rule is not a constant, just a result of the human mind looking for patterns.
Hi, in the video at 4:35 there seems to be dissonance between what Aaron says and what is written. It's written: "..beverages reduce the levels of HDL..." but he says : "..beverages increase the levels of HDL..". So which one is correct?(was to lazy to check the literature but wanted to point it out.)
What if we add these two factors into the discussion?: - people might not drink if they know their health isn't that great - people stress over being the ones that don't think it's fun to drink. Stress --> heart disease - those who have a lot to do = more stressede, might drink less. You don't usually have time to drink much if you work a lot - some health-consious people might stress more in general - drinking is considered a social activity. Being social reduces stress. But what about being social in other ways? I see the associations, but I don't think there's a simple explanation, like "eat fruit, and you'll get lots of vitamins". It would be interesting to look at drinking people in the general population (where non-drinkers are almost considered outcasts) vs for example people from Christian, non-drinking communities, where not drinking is quite normal. Would one see the same differences after controlling for that religion might be protective against diseass for some people (I'm non-religious)?
+lollsazz While we should obviously look at other factors, I would have thought alcohol consumption would increase with stress levels, not the other way around. Either way, some form of control or correction for average stress levels should be in place for studies of heart disease, as those are very correlative.
Factoid It's a little complicated. The alcohol might increase the level of certain neurotransmitters, but at the same time, also give a placebo effect. Stressed people drink more, and they are more likely to get dependent on alcohol in social situations, and addicted in general. Alcohol can also increase stress for people with certain enxiety disorders, but that might be because they respond more to the change in neurotransmitters because those levels are already off. So it's kinda hard for me to say. As far as I have seen though, people often drink when they are stressed, and so do I, and it tends to calm me down, but I really don't know what causes theeffect. But yes, it would definitely be important to count stress-levels into this
+lollsazz If you work a lot, drinking is one of the only things you have time to do. And alcohol is itself relaxing. I occasionally have a glass of something after work and it gets me ready to go to sleep much faster than just watching TH-cam videos or something. So I end up getting a couple more hours of sleep, which can be a godsend even if the quality of the sleep is lowered (which I've heard drinking can do, but never observed it doing to me.)
+lollsazz With all that said, stress is certainly connected with cardiovascular disease, which is one of the things you're most likely to die from. Small amounts of drinking certainly reduce stress, so it almost has to be good for you.
HisRoyalCarlness Correction: if you work a lot, drinking is the thing you CAN use your free time for :) Otherwise I agree - it's interesting to hear other opinionson the matter :)
That's what confuses me, I get drunk once a week usually and although it's probably considered heavy drinking by a doctor, I'm sure the damage of that is not even comparable to someone who gets drunk several times per week which is what I consider heavy drinking.
+Knugen av Swärje it's usually defined in terms of the total volume of pure alcohol you drink. eg in the UK 1 unit of alcohol is equivalent to 10ml of pure alcohol. a shot of 40% whiskey is 1 unit and a pint of beer is between 2-3 units. so if you had one shot every day it could be less than four pints in one sitting.
Oliver Galgut But that's not the whole story, it's known that it's much more damaging to have all your units at once, you could chug a lot of beers one day a week without technically going over your unit allowance if you don't drink anymore throughout the week. This is why I'm confused, in these studies they seem to be more focused on how much alcohol is consumed and not how it is consumed. Someone who gets drunk once a week and someone who drinks a glass of red wine with their dinner every day still consume the same amount, but one of them is a heavier drinker than the other IMO.
Moderate drinking is defined as up to four alcoholic drinks for men and three for women in any single day, according to The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism (NIAAA), and a maximum of 14 drinks for men and 7 drinks for women per week.Dec 4, 2015 Moderate Drinking: Alcohol Limits, Benefits, Risks - Medical News Today www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265799.php
Moderate drinking is 3 drinks a day on average, without any instances of heavy drinking. Even a single "drunk" episode already has immediate negative effects and completely negates any benefits alcohol may have. Heavy drinking is defined as having 4 or more instances of being drunk per month. At that stage the damage that's done so far exceeds any benefits that you may as well be doing cocaine.
If you're taking ANY meds at all, including OTC ones, run your meds through a drug interaction checker and add ethanol to the list of meds. You'd be shocked at how many meds interact with alcohol. That's one of the big problems with alcohol.
Good basic advice but ... Those interactions checkers provide information that can be difficult for people without a medical degree to interpret. It's best to go straight to your doctor with these questions
FINALLY! Ever since your video on how daily milk has no evidence of improving health I was wondering about the research on alcohol. Officially replacing my morning milk with whiskey.
They should do a study on raw milk. Besides pretty decent nutrition you should also benefit from the good bacteria in milk wich can improve lots of things. Or idk maybe just do a raw milk vs kefir see wich improves your microbiome the most.
Based on your videos, here’s a rough impression I’m getting. Is this right? (Best) Coffee > tea > water > light alcohol > soda > milk > heavy alcohol (worst)
I am with holding giving this a "thumbs up" until this matter is fixed. This hurts me more than it hurts you, but I have to be stern in these situations.
Yeah, as someone with general anxiety disorder, I have to avoid alcohol or it can set off bad anxiety attacks. I can maybe have one drink, slowly and I've got to be in a good mood already. Otherwise, I'll end up in an anxious fit over nothing, which sets off my depression... and it's all downhill from there. It's hard to think about health benefits when drinking one too many drinks can make you suicidal. Thus, I'm glad you guys pointed out that people with certain disorders can't drink. Being one of those, these updates on the benefits of stuff I still can't enjoy on that regular basis are kind of a downer.
Question: when the studies state "an average of one drink per day," are they controlling for binge drinking? There should be a marked difference between someone who has wine with dinner every night and someone who drinks a six pack every Friday.
Yeah, if you can keep it to under 3-4 drinks a day, and make sure that binge drinking episodes (of having more than 4 drinks in under 2 hours) are either non-existent or very rare, because they are harmful. If you binge drink 4-5 times a month, you're already considered a heavy drinker with a list of side effects, increased risks for almost everything and zero health benefits.
please do an episode on the long term effects of behavior altering drugs like depression medication and anxiety medication. The effects are very serious and not many people know about them.
I'd love to see an update to this video in light of the WHO report this January suggesting there is NO level of alcohol consumption that is 'safe'. Is this just another study cherry picking diseases that have a negative association with alcohol, and ignoring other beneficial effects? Or have the past 7 years of research since this video was released changed minds?
I'm so confused. I'm 30, and I don't drink more than maybe 10 drinks in a year (it's just not to my taste). Should I be considering putting myself on some kind of an alcohol regimen? My family has a high risk of heart disease, and I work out every day because of how scared I am, and how bad it is for my family. Is there an alcohol pill or something I should be taking? Are you recommending that those of us with concerns about our heart make alcohol consumption a priority? ;_;
Having worked for liquor stores in the past and directly seen the impact of alcoholism I'm not going to support an industry where 60% of it's revenue comes from a minority of people who are abusing it and causing themselves such harm. I learned about that evidence from you Aaron from your video on Oct. 10th 2014. For me, it's never been about whether alcohol is good or bad for you. It really comes down to whether or not I'm gonna give money to people who aren't going to help the issue. If I want to drink I'll make my own alcohol from hops or grapes I've grown myself. The same concept applies if I want to smoke tobacco, or cannabis. At least by doing that I'm not enabling others (feel free to object to that, I'm open to ideas). It's also my belief, and just my belief, that the effort required to make such things might help to change the increasing disrespect, for lack of a better word, towards these things. It's hard to say that it doesn't feel different drinking or smoking something you just put months of hard work into than some pibwasser you bought for cheap at the corner store, or some ludicrously overpriced bud* with an awful THC:CBD ratio. *(Canada doesn't understand a 400-500$ Oz, but we also don't get that 15-20$ 24-pack unless you're in Quebec.). This isn't to say buying a case of beer and having a drink is wrong, just that it isn't the only way to go about it. All in all, it is at least nice to know those who do drink reasonably aren't doing themselves a great harm.
I'm interested in this designation of slow vs fast ethanol metabolism. I've always felt like I process alcohol quickly, but it could just be my habits. (Drink one beer, drink water like a fish for the rest of the night.)
These studies he quotes are mostly supported by alcohol industry. Also the participants were not very well controlled for other factors that confound the results. There has been studies that show there is no safe amount of alcohol ingestion.
Good to see that not all affects of alchohol consumption are negative. I certainly thought so until this point, and it's good that light moderation can do more good than harm.
Although there are many reasons that alcohol is bad for the typical person because of its addictive problems, it is not only a bad substance. Like any drug or substance out there, it does have both a positive and negative side to it. Alcoholism is a very real and pressing issue to be talked about when discussing the use of alcohol and it can be potentially fatal to those who are heavy drinkers consistently. There are many studies recently that have noted that moderate alcohol drinkers have been linked to decreased rates in diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and death but it does have adverse effects as well. Although it has been linked to decreases in areas such as these in moderate drinkers, heavy drinkers have been found to completely reverse all of these because the effect the imbalance of alcohol in the bloodstream causing long term issues. Alcohol has also been found to have a small but scientifically significant correlation to certain cancers, for example breast cancer. Although it makes sense that it would only feed the fire, I do not think I believe that alcohol could be a factor in cancer. I know that alcohol weakens certain systems when overused but that would only cause an increase to the possibility of it getting worse, not from getting it in the first place. Although alcohol has been seen to have some decent effects when used in moderation, I do not believe that alcohol should be recommended for people who have never drank before. Alcoholism is scary and very real and the possibility of having alcoholism is more dangerous than the supposed health benefits that drinking lightly could have for you.
I totally agree with you, Haley. Alcohol is a drug with a high potential for abuse, but if a person without an addictive personality and the right mindset is able to avoid addiction, then the benefits are undeniable. The decreased chance of cardiovascular disease and the an increase in HDLs, which help prevent cholesterol plaque build-up, is a major plus for alcohol; however, I will have to disagree with you on your denial of the link to breast cancer. The connections between alcohol and cardiovascular disease are not apparent, as I'm sure the effect of alcohol on breast tissue might not be apparent. Most people would say that moderate alcohol consumption decreases stress levels, which leads to lower blood pressure and less damage to arterial and venous walls. The link to breast cancer is probably similar. While alcohol might not be harming the production of NK immune cells that target cancerous cells, it might be sent to the mammary glands for milk production and there within probably is causing the higher rates of mutations of breast cells.
Children in this day and age have begun earlier and earlier to consume alcohol. It is interesting that some studies however have shown that alcohol may have some benefits. I think the most important part is that this video is talking about moderate drinking. This is not referring to heavy or excessive binge drinking. It has been shown when drinking moderately that it lowers the chance of death. Although some studies have shown it has a worse effect on cancers. I think however these studies could cause more than good. Publishing these alcohols studies with positive results could cause people to believe that they need to consume it in order to get these health benefits. This could lead to alcoholism or related diseases to excessive alcohol consumption. The main problem is people don't know when to stop. One glass of wine turns to two and then before you know it the bottle is gone. This then has caused no benefits for you and the reason you drank that glass of wine in the first place was lost. People need to read these studies with extreme caution knowing that it is possible that they are not going to be able to only drink moderate amounts. alcohol is dangerous and has many effects that are extremely harmful to health and I believe videos such as this one portray it differently. It is always important to realize this is talking about light to moderate consumption and never heavy. If you are capable of drinking responsibly, which most people are not, then you may be able to see some of these effects.
Maybe the moderate consumption of alcohol is just a sign that one has the willpower to control his consumption, and the willpower is a sing of good health. So alcohol per se would have little to do with this
Just what do we mean by light, moderate and heavy drinking? It would be very helpful is there was some guidance such as alcohol units / week or something like that. Oh, and what about no alcohol days to allow the liver the rest?
Interesting video,!I would love to see one about animal testing in medical research and whether its shown to have made major differences and whether alternatives are viable. I'm not really swayed on either side of the debate but have watched some interesting videos recently presenting both sides and would love to see your take on the topic!
How was the oral health of the participants? I ask because good oral health is a factor that determines whether or not one gets cardiovascular, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, Alzhiemer's--just to name a few. So many questions, so few answers. It seems studies like these are generally inadequate. How does one determine if one is a slow-metabolizer of alcohol? Was the alcohol drank during a meal, or before or after?
this data is supported by alcohol industry. Also the participants were not very well controlled for other factors that confound the results. There has been studies that show there is no safe amount of alcohol ingestion.
So its also like picking your poison you can either have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease or certain cancers so its would depend on which one you consider worse.
Why is there no mention of the fact that people who drink absolutely no alcohol tend to be ex addicts, who have negative health outcomes for a number of reasons? I don't ask this to accuse. I'm simply curious. Other articles and videos I've seen about the topic tend to mention this.
Anything on effects of types of alcohol? I heard something about congeners being carcinogenic. So is it likely or possible that vodka is better for you than say tequila?
Alcohol is alcohol (at it's base, it's only a molecule comprising of 1 Oxygen and 1 Hydrogen.... But since the Oxygen has a spare connection it wishes to make, it attaches itself to whatever else)... The question would rather touch whatever else is in the "type" of alcohol.
You mention pregnant women should avoid alcohol. I've been seeing a lot of stuff lately that this advice isn't based on sound science (flawed studies, etc), and people just propagate that because it's accepted as fact. Can you weigh in on this? Am I being misled?
+Asmor As far as I know it's really bad to drink during pregnancy. The negative outcomes for the newborn are called 'fetal alcohol spectrum disorder en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_alcohol_spectrum_disorder. I'm not an physician though, I'm a kindergarden teacher (do you call it like this?) and thats what I've been told.
+Florian Flasbart That article you link says "Evidence of harm from less than two drinks per day or 10 drinks per week is not clear." The article makes it sound like FAD is only known to be a problem with heavier drinking.
+Asmor If you are pregnant, your blood gets shared with that of your infant I think. I doubt that an underdeveloped baby's body can deal with alcohol very well.
At 4:37 you say "all of those beverages increased HDL cholesterol", but the text says "all of those beverages REDUCED HDL cholesterol" [emphasis added]. So which is it? Please clarify.
Can't help but notice that you said "8 milligrams of mercury" at 3:58, when it should be "8 millimeters of mercury" (mmHg), referring to the height the mercury rises as a function of pressure. Great video otherwise :)
3:55 just a mistake I noticed. You said that it reduces blood pressure by 8 *milligrams* of mercury. I am no medical expert, but I am pretty sure that pressure is measured in *millimeters* of mercury, not milligrams. (Pressure=density*gravity*height) Trust me; I am an engineer ;-)
The real question is whether the benefits come from the ethanol or something else in the wine. For example, I've never seen anything saying vodka has health benefits
One thing that is never discussed is why alcoholic beverages became so popular thousands of years ago. People who drank alcoholic beverages didn't get sick as often, especially the greater the population density, because alcohol kills germs. Tolerance for alcohol became a survival trait.
I love your videos! It's great how thorough you are with the research and stuff--instead of just glossing over all the technical stuff and saying "____ is good/bad," you always give more precise answers citing research and stuff during the actual video, and that's why I love this channel. As a student trying to decide what to do with my future, these videos have made me more interested in medical research than I would have been otherwise. Keep up the good work! : D
i have a question What is a "drink", both in weight and kind. Weight : i mean the range in mL of consumption Kind: there are many kinds of alcohol - from beer to whiskey - all with significantly different actual alcohol content. i understand you should not drink whiskey in the same quantity you may consume beer, but are drinks with higher alcohol content best be avoided totally? are we only talking about beer and wine here?
Idk alcohool is not my thing honestly. Only once i can remember it making myself a bit more extroverted but any other times i remember just a decrease in my mental clarity and performance too and idk i feel weird. On the other hand matcha (basically green tea but from the whole leaf) makes me feel great, makes me happy, energized and no caffeine crash so that's what i personally prefer and hey sometimes i'll have cocktails too so yeah that's that.
What about those who are non-drinkers for medical reasons, including recovering alcoholics? Don't they skew the health benefits of moderate drinking? Are they factored into these epidemiological studies?
I heard that alcohol can reduce the damage of a brain injury when a small about (half shot ish of vodka or something) soon after the event when the brain swelling it going on or something like that.
Hey, great videos, but, in this one, at minute 04:30 you can be heard to say "..increased HDL, the good cholesterol", when the graphics shown actually read "..reduced levels of HDL cholesterol"?! Did nobody else notice this? ;]
It this for all types of alcohol? Were there reasons listed for why people don't drink? Don't you guys always talk about correlation vs. causation? What makes this scenario different? Wouldn't it be just as likely that people with health problems would be told not to drink so they have problems anyway? Maybe all those studies addressed this and I missed it, but I was just wondering.
I wonder is it a myth that when you mix different kinds of alcohol you get drunk faster? So many people swear by this, but I wonder if that is true and why? Is there any research that explains this?
From what I've heard red wine is good for you because of the certain types of antioxidants it has in it that not only helps strengthen your immune system, but also your cardiovascular disease now this probably isn't because of the antioxidants but I'm not sure. This video said that it is good to drink in moderation or a small amount to reduce the risk of cardiovascular illness , now this doesn't mean to get blasted 24/7 because it also showed that if you were to go over the moderation amount you would increase your risk of certain cancers like breast, and colon. Now I am interested in wondering that if you were to do a study a have a group just drink grape juice and another red wine to see if red wine isn't healthy because of what happens when it ferments or if its just something in red grapes. he also said that moderation would consist of possibly 30 drinks a week, now that sounds like a lot that's around 3-4 drinks a day and still be in the healthy range yet he said anything over 4 drinks is over moderation? Now even though alcohol has many other dangerous factors to it like impaired vision, etc.
+Tyler Pelzer Most things I've read say drinking more than 2-4 for males (and 1-3 for females) within one day is harmful, and that you can't "save it up."
If people who drank before middle age at a moderate rate were shown to be more knowledgeable then why is our drinking age in the United States still sitting at 21. It could possibly help a substantial amount of people if it were lowered. Is that what I am hearing or would that not change anything? I realize that is not the only thing looked at when determining the age restriction but it seems to be just fine sitting at a lower age for other countries.
Even if alcohol is reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, I would advise not consuming it at all and prefer to exercise, rest properly, not to smoke and avoid stress, since alcohol is a carcinogen.
Are the benefits of alcohol directly associated with the affects and effects of alcohol or is it something else that's in the beverage such as flavonoids or other ingredients? To me, more study needs to be done to see not only a causation but a correlation between the two.
+Lucid Moses Incandescent bulbs have a much better color spectrum for photography. LEDs and Flourescents have huge spikes at certain frequencies of light.
FoundObjectFilms Um. The set lights are not the lights they use for filming. Those dull things wouldn't be nearly enough. But that aside. True for Florescent but your the first person I've ever heard say that about LEDs. In fact, better spectrum is typically one of the selling points of LEDs.
+Eric Lin Not entirely clear why, but in the most hand-wavingly way possible: I'm guessing that it messes with Liver function in ways that help the heart and brain through altered lipid processing, (in those that see a positive).
Could be any number of factors. - Yeast in the wine/beer, baker's yeast is very nutritionally dense. - Lot of trace biochemicals, tannins, etc that need to be sorted out before anyone can figure out health benefits. Beer in particular has compounds that weakly target the cannabinoid receptors. - Ethanol itself may have some health benefits, contradictory with its status as a carcinogen. - Social drinking may have benefits to emotional health.
I imagine it's the stress reduction. Stress is a big contributor to heart disease, and I know I would be a lot more stressed if I didn't have one or two beers a night.
Ok you keep mentioning averages but what's the difference between having one drink a day or 14 drinks at one time every two weeks... the average is the same but surely it has different health affects? I prefer to drink seldom but get a good buzz when I do. ...
I'll definitely pop open some bubbly if Bernie wins New Hampshire. Better health for me with a small drink, better health for all America with a large improvement in policy. Cheers!
I am by no means an expert, but it seems like the key to a lot of dietary concerns is "moderation"
+Skip6235 It depends on what counts as moderation. If you take the average of 0 drinks a day and 100 drinks a day, does that count as a 'moderate' amount?
MAXIMUM MODERATION!!!!
+Skip6235 Moderation by definition means a non-excessive amount. Excessive amounts when referring to health would be the amount that causes harm. As such the moderate amount is going to be whatever the healthy range is.
+Jeremy Downey "Moderation" basically means "a little bit is better than none, but increased amounts become bad at some point". Where that point is doesn't depend on the average individual behavior, it depends on the physical properties of the thing in question.
Ditocoaf Uranium. Doesn't matter how little of it you have in you, eating none is better. That rule is not a constant, just a result of the human mind looking for patterns.
Hi, in the video at 4:35 there seems to be dissonance between what Aaron says and what is written. It's written:
"..beverages reduce the levels of HDL..."
but he says :
"..beverages increase the levels of HDL..".
So which one is correct?(was to lazy to check the literature but wanted to point it out.)
+igor oh somebody else mentioned it NVM...
According to his article on the NY Times the right answer is "..beverages increase the levels of HDL..".
What if we add these two factors into the discussion?:
- people might not drink if they know their health isn't that great
- people stress over being the ones that don't think it's fun to drink. Stress --> heart disease
- those who have a lot to do = more stressede, might drink less. You don't usually have time to drink much if you work a lot
- some health-consious people might stress more in general
- drinking is considered a social activity. Being social reduces stress. But what about being social in other ways?
I see the associations, but I don't think there's a simple explanation, like "eat fruit, and you'll get lots of vitamins". It would be interesting to look at drinking people in the general population (where non-drinkers are almost considered outcasts) vs for example people from Christian, non-drinking communities, where not drinking is quite normal. Would one see the same differences after controlling for that religion might be protective against diseass for some people (I'm non-religious)?
+lollsazz While we should obviously look at other factors, I would have thought alcohol consumption would increase with stress levels, not the other way around. Either way, some form of control or correction for average stress levels should be in place for studies of heart disease, as those are very correlative.
Factoid It's a little complicated. The alcohol might increase the level of certain neurotransmitters, but at the same time, also give a placebo effect. Stressed people drink more, and they are more likely to get dependent on alcohol in social situations, and addicted in general. Alcohol can also increase stress for people with certain enxiety disorders, but that might be because they respond more to the change in neurotransmitters because those levels are already off. So it's kinda hard for me to say. As far as I have seen though, people often drink when they are stressed, and so do I, and it tends to calm me down, but I really don't know what causes theeffect. But yes, it would definitely be important to count stress-levels into this
+lollsazz If you work a lot, drinking is one of the only things you have time to do. And alcohol is itself relaxing. I occasionally have a glass of something after work and it gets me ready to go to sleep much faster than just watching TH-cam videos or something. So I end up getting a couple more hours of sleep, which can be a godsend even if the quality of the sleep is lowered (which I've heard drinking can do, but never observed it doing to me.)
+lollsazz With all that said, stress is certainly connected with cardiovascular disease, which is one of the things you're most likely to die from. Small amounts of drinking certainly reduce stress, so it almost has to be good for you.
HisRoyalCarlness Correction: if you work a lot, drinking is the thing you CAN use your free time for :) Otherwise I agree - it's interesting to hear other opinionson the matter :)
Free wine for 2 years? Where do I sign up for the study?
+Nolan Thiessen
Hi Nolan, I got your nuclear paper, but I couldn't open the file. Do you have a different format?
I'll resend it when I get home. Granted, of course I remember. If I don't, just keep poking me in comments.
Nolan Thiessen
Well, I'll be happy to pester you. :P
Diana, the Inorganic Vegan You certainly are no stranger to persistent pestering ;)
Nolan Thiessen
Oh, scathing.
did we define low, moderate and heavy alcohol consumption? are these definitions consistently applied between studies?
That's what confuses me, I get drunk once a week usually and although it's probably considered heavy drinking by a doctor, I'm sure the damage of that is not even comparable to someone who gets drunk several times per week which is what I consider heavy drinking.
+Knugen av Swärje it's usually defined in terms of the total volume of pure alcohol you drink. eg in the UK 1 unit of alcohol is equivalent to 10ml of pure alcohol. a shot of 40% whiskey is 1 unit and a pint of beer is between 2-3 units.
so if you had one shot every day it could be less than four pints in one sitting.
Oliver Galgut But that's not the whole story, it's known that it's much more damaging to have all your units at once, you could chug a lot of beers one day a week without technically going over your unit allowance if you don't drink anymore throughout the week.
This is why I'm confused, in these studies they seem to be more focused on how much alcohol is consumed and not how it is consumed. Someone who gets drunk once a week and someone who drinks a glass of red wine with their dinner every day still consume the same amount, but one of them is a heavier drinker than the other IMO.
Moderate drinking is defined as up to four alcoholic drinks for men and three for women in any single day, according to The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism (NIAAA), and a maximum of 14 drinks for men and 7 drinks for women per week.Dec 4, 2015
Moderate Drinking: Alcohol Limits, Benefits, Risks - Medical News Today
www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265799.php
Moderate drinking is 3 drinks a day on average, without any instances of heavy drinking. Even a single "drunk" episode already has immediate negative effects and completely negates any benefits alcohol may have. Heavy drinking is defined as having 4 or more instances of being drunk per month. At that stage the damage that's done so far exceeds any benefits that you may as well be doing cocaine.
If you're taking ANY meds at all, including OTC ones, run your meds through a drug interaction checker and add ethanol to the list of meds. You'd be shocked at how many meds interact with alcohol. That's one of the big problems with alcohol.
Good basic advice but ... Those interactions checkers provide information that can be difficult for people without a medical degree to interpret. It's best to go straight to your doctor with these questions
FINALLY! Ever since your video on how daily milk has no evidence of improving health I was wondering about the research on alcohol. Officially replacing my morning milk with whiskey.
They should do a study on raw milk. Besides pretty decent nutrition you should also benefit from the good bacteria in milk wich can improve lots of things. Or idk maybe just do a raw milk vs kefir see wich improves your microbiome the most.
Based on your videos, here’s a rough impression I’m getting. Is this right? (Best) Coffee > tea > water > light alcohol > soda > milk > heavy alcohol (worst)
At 4:35 the text says "beverages reduced levels" but Dr. Carroll says increased.
I am with holding giving this a "thumbs up" until this matter is fixed. This hurts me more than it hurts you, but I have to be stern in these situations.
I began watching this episode and drinking water. I finished this episode by drinking wine.
Thanks, HT
Yeah, as someone with general anxiety disorder, I have to avoid alcohol or it can set off bad anxiety attacks. I can maybe have one drink, slowly and I've got to be in a good mood already. Otherwise, I'll end up in an anxious fit over nothing, which sets off my depression... and it's all downhill from there. It's hard to think about health benefits when drinking one too many drinks can make you suicidal.
Thus, I'm glad you guys pointed out that people with certain disorders can't drink. Being one of those, these updates on the benefits of stuff I still can't enjoy on that regular basis are kind of a downer.
Question: when the studies state "an average of one drink per day," are they controlling for binge drinking? There should be a marked difference between someone who has wine with dinner every night and someone who drinks a six pack every Friday.
So what I am really hearing is that alcohol has a relatively small effect on health, so I should drink a little if it makes me happy.
Yeah, if you can keep it to under 3-4 drinks a day, and make sure that binge drinking episodes (of having more than 4 drinks in under 2 hours) are either non-existent or very rare, because they are harmful. If you binge drink 4-5 times a month, you're already considered a heavy drinker with a list of side effects, increased risks for almost everything and zero health benefits.
please do an episode on the long term effects of behavior altering drugs like depression medication and anxiety medication. The effects are very serious and not many people know about them.
Im sad that i never hear "Thanks Cameron and Qadeem" anymore. It always sounded so cheerful when you said it
I'd love to see an update to this video in light of the WHO report this January suggesting there is NO level of alcohol consumption that is 'safe'. Is this just another study cherry picking diseases that have a negative association with alcohol, and ignoring other beneficial effects? Or have the past 7 years of research since this video was released changed minds?
after them saying vaccines were safe. whose going to listen to them?
Still glad i don't drink and since there's no history of heart disease in my family I'll keep going as i have.
This video uses outdated and highly misleading information (from flawed studies). Keep doing exactly what you've been doing - you're doing great.
I appreciate you looking at randomized controlled trials. Most people don't bother and take headlines as truth.
I'm so confused. I'm 30, and I don't drink more than maybe 10 drinks in a year (it's just not to my taste). Should I be considering putting myself on some kind of an alcohol regimen? My family has a high risk of heart disease, and I work out every day because of how scared I am, and how bad it is for my family. Is there an alcohol pill or something I should be taking? Are you recommending that those of us with concerns about our heart make alcohol consumption a priority? ;_;
nope, there other ways like grape juice with low suger
No, no doctor would every recommend starting to drink for the health benefits. The risk for abuse outweights any possible benefit.
Having worked for liquor stores in the past and directly seen the impact of alcoholism I'm not going to support an industry where 60% of it's revenue comes from a minority of people who are abusing it and causing themselves such harm. I learned about that evidence from you Aaron from your video on Oct. 10th 2014. For me, it's never been about whether alcohol is good or bad for you. It really comes down to whether or not I'm gonna give money to people who aren't going to help the issue. If I want to drink I'll make my own alcohol from hops or grapes I've grown myself. The same concept applies if I want to smoke tobacco, or cannabis. At least by doing that I'm not enabling others (feel free to object to that, I'm open to ideas). It's also my belief, and just my belief, that the effort required to make such things might help to change the increasing disrespect, for lack of a better word, towards these things. It's hard to say that it doesn't feel different drinking or smoking something you just put months of hard work into than some pibwasser you bought for cheap at the corner store, or some ludicrously overpriced bud* with an awful THC:CBD ratio. *(Canada doesn't understand a 400-500$ Oz, but we also don't get that 15-20$ 24-pack unless you're in Quebec.). This isn't to say buying a case of beer and having a drink is wrong, just that it isn't the only way to go about it. All in all, it is at least nice to know those who do drink reasonably aren't doing themselves a great harm.
Well, a bunch of their revenue comes from partying college students.
.... Then theirs the alcoholics.
I'd wonder who funded these studies, much like how the dairy industry funds most favorable dairy studies
Have we had an episode on RCTs about health benefits of other recreational drugs?
I'm interested in this designation of slow vs fast ethanol metabolism. I've always felt like I process alcohol quickly, but it could just be my habits. (Drink one beer, drink water like a fish for the rest of the night.)
These studies he quotes are mostly supported by alcohol industry. Also the participants were not very well controlled for other factors that confound the results. There has been studies that show there is no safe amount of alcohol ingestion.
Good to see that not all affects of alchohol consumption are negative. I certainly thought so until this point, and it's good that light moderation can do more good than harm.
Although there are many reasons that alcohol is bad for the typical person because of its addictive problems, it is not only a bad substance. Like any drug or substance out there, it does have both a positive and negative side to it. Alcoholism is a very real and pressing issue to be talked about when discussing the use of alcohol and it can be potentially fatal to those who are heavy drinkers consistently. There are many studies recently that have noted that moderate alcohol drinkers have been linked to decreased rates in diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and death but it does have adverse effects as well. Although it has been linked to decreases in areas such as these in moderate drinkers, heavy drinkers have been found to completely reverse all of these because the effect the imbalance of alcohol in the bloodstream causing long term issues. Alcohol has also been found to have a small but scientifically significant correlation to certain cancers, for example breast cancer. Although it makes sense that it would only feed the fire, I do not think I believe that alcohol could be a factor in cancer. I know that alcohol weakens certain systems when overused but that would only cause an increase to the possibility of it getting worse, not from getting it in the first place. Although alcohol has been seen to have some decent effects when used in moderation, I do not believe that alcohol should be recommended for people who have never drank before. Alcoholism is scary and very real and the possibility of having alcoholism is more dangerous than the supposed health benefits that drinking lightly could have for you.
I totally agree with you, Haley. Alcohol is a drug with a high potential for abuse, but if a person without an addictive personality and the right mindset is able to avoid addiction, then the benefits are undeniable. The decreased chance of cardiovascular disease and the an increase in HDLs, which help prevent cholesterol plaque build-up, is a major plus for alcohol; however, I will have to disagree with you on your denial of the link to breast cancer. The connections between alcohol and cardiovascular disease are not apparent, as I'm sure the effect of alcohol on breast tissue might not be apparent. Most people would say that moderate alcohol consumption decreases stress levels, which leads to lower blood pressure and less damage to arterial and venous walls. The link to breast cancer is probably similar. While alcohol might not be harming the production of NK immune cells that target cancerous cells, it might be sent to the mammary glands for milk production and there within probably is causing the higher rates of mutations of breast cells.
Could it be that those that can drink in moderation can do other things in moderation as well?
what do you consider moderate consumption for a 24 year old man, 75 KG?
Children in this day and age have begun earlier and earlier to consume alcohol. It is interesting that some studies however have shown that alcohol may have some benefits. I think the most important part is that this video is talking about moderate drinking. This is not referring to heavy or excessive binge drinking. It has been shown when drinking moderately that it lowers the chance of death. Although some studies have shown it has a worse effect on cancers. I think however these studies could cause more than good. Publishing these alcohols studies with positive results could cause people to believe that they need to consume it in order to get these health benefits. This could lead to alcoholism or related diseases to excessive alcohol consumption. The main problem is people don't know when to stop. One glass of wine turns to two and then before you know it the bottle is gone. This then has caused no benefits for you and the reason you drank that glass of wine in the first place was lost. People need to read these studies with extreme caution knowing that it is possible that they are not going to be able to only drink moderate amounts. alcohol is dangerous and has many effects that are extremely harmful to health and I believe videos such as this one portray it differently. It is always important to realize this is talking about light to moderate consumption and never heavy. If you are capable of drinking responsibly, which most people are not, then you may be able to see some of these effects.
Maybe the moderate consumption of alcohol is just a sign that one has the willpower to control his consumption, and the willpower is a sing of good health.
So alcohol per se would have little to do with this
I would have found definitions of "light", "moderate" and "heavy" drinking useful...
Just what do we mean by light, moderate and heavy drinking? It would be very helpful is there was some guidance such as alcohol units / week or something like that.
Oh, and what about no alcohol days to allow the liver the rest?
Interesting video,!I would love to see one about animal testing in medical research and whether its shown to have made major differences and whether alternatives are viable. I'm not really swayed on either side of the debate but have watched some interesting videos recently presenting both sides and would love to see your take on the topic!
I am going home and having a healthy glass of cab tonight!
You should do an episode on opioid blockers as treatment for alcoholism.
How was the oral health of the participants? I ask because good oral health is a factor that determines whether or not one gets cardiovascular, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, Alzhiemer's--just to name a few. So many questions, so few answers. It seems studies like these are generally inadequate. How does one determine if one is a slow-metabolizer of alcohol? Was the alcohol drank during a meal, or before or after?
+Healthcare Triage there is a typo on the slide at 4:30.
FYI at 4:40, you mention that the meta-analysis increased levels of HDL, but your visual says decreased.
Thanks for letting me know just before valentines day.
so one glass of wine a day then.
this data is supported by alcohol industry. Also the participants were not very well controlled for other factors that confound the results. There has been studies that show there is no safe amount of alcohol ingestion.
So its also like picking your poison you can either have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease or certain cancers so its would depend on which one you consider worse.
Are these benefits specific only for wine? Or does even hard alcohol confers these benefits if consumed at the right amount?
Did any of the studies speculate on HOW alcohol had its positive results? What's the mechanism?
Are you able to do an episode on alcohols effect on weight loss?
At 4:45, the text says "reduced", but you say "increased" levels of HDL cholesterol. Which one is it?
At 4:40 you say "all of the beverages increase levels HDL cholesterol" but the type says "reduced levels". Can we get a clarification?
Why is there no mention of the fact that people who drink absolutely no alcohol tend to be ex addicts, who have negative health outcomes for a number of reasons? I don't ask this to accuse. I'm simply curious. Other articles and videos I've seen about the topic tend to mention this.
Anything on effects of types of alcohol? I heard something about congeners being carcinogenic. So is it likely or possible that vodka is better for you than say tequila?
Alcohol is alcohol (at it's base, it's only a molecule comprising of 1 Oxygen and 1 Hydrogen.... But since the Oxygen has a spare connection it wishes to make, it attaches itself to whatever else)... The question would rather touch whatever else is in the "type" of alcohol.
You mention pregnant women should avoid alcohol. I've been seeing a lot of stuff lately that this advice isn't based on sound science (flawed studies, etc), and people just propagate that because it's accepted as fact. Can you weigh in on this? Am I being misled?
that's terrifying. drinking while pregnant can have serious effects on your child. look up fetal alcohol syndrome for the most common example
+Asmor As far as I know it's really bad to drink during pregnancy. The negative outcomes for the newborn are called 'fetal alcohol spectrum disorder en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_alcohol_spectrum_disorder.
I'm not an physician though, I'm a kindergarden teacher (do you call it like this?) and thats what I've been told.
+Florian Flasbart That article you link says "Evidence of harm from less than two drinks per day or 10 drinks per week is not clear." The article makes it sound like FAD is only known to be a problem with heavier drinking.
+Asmor the real question is do you really feel like gambling the livelihood of your child on 'unclear evidence'?
+Asmor If you are pregnant, your blood gets shared with that of your infant I think. I doubt that an underdeveloped baby's body can deal with alcohol very well.
At 4:37 you say "all of those beverages increased HDL cholesterol", but the text says "all of those beverages REDUCED HDL cholesterol" [emphasis added]. So which is it? Please clarify.
Has there been a comparison study of red wine against grape juice (100% juice, not the sugar water in the store?)
Can't help but notice that you said "8 milligrams of mercury" at 3:58, when it should be "8 millimeters of mercury" (mmHg), referring to the height the mercury rises as a function of pressure. Great video otherwise :)
3:55
just a mistake I noticed. You said that it reduces blood pressure by 8 *milligrams* of mercury. I am no medical expert, but I am pretty sure that pressure is measured in *millimeters* of mercury, not milligrams. (Pressure=density*gravity*height)
Trust me; I am an engineer ;-)
Might as well convert it in Kilopascals.
lol
The real question is whether the benefits come from the ethanol or something else in the wine. For example, I've never seen anything saying vodka has health benefits
When I drink, I become another person, and doesn't that other person also deserve a drink?
One thing that is never discussed is why alcoholic beverages became so popular thousands of years ago. People who drank alcoholic beverages didn't get sick as often, especially the greater the population density, because alcohol kills germs. Tolerance for alcohol became a survival trait.
At 4:41 the text reads "reduced" but you read "increased"
Which is correct?
I love your videos! It's great how thorough you are with the research and stuff--instead of just glossing over all the technical stuff and saying "____ is good/bad," you always give more precise answers citing research and stuff during the actual video, and that's why I love this channel. As a student trying to decide what to do with my future, these videos have made me more interested in medical research than I would have been otherwise. Keep up the good work! : D
i have a question
What is a "drink", both in weight and kind.
Weight : i mean the range in mL of consumption
Kind: there are many kinds of alcohol - from beer to whiskey - all with significantly different actual alcohol content. i understand you should not drink whiskey in the same quantity you may consume beer, but are drinks with higher alcohol content best be avoided totally? are we only talking about beer and wine here?
At 4:37, he contradicts himself. He says "increased," but the text says "reduced." Which one is it?
Idk alcohool is not my thing honestly. Only once i can remember it making myself a bit more extroverted but any other times i remember just a decrease in my mental clarity and performance too and idk i feel weird. On the other hand matcha (basically green tea but from the whole leaf) makes me feel great, makes me happy, energized and no caffeine crash so that's what i personally prefer and hey sometimes i'll have cocktails too so yeah that's that.
how many vodkas per day is a moderate consumption? I've heard that more than half-liter per day is heavy. 250 ml is moderate and 100 ml low.
What about those who are non-drinkers for medical reasons, including recovering alcoholics? Don't they skew the health benefits of moderate drinking? Are they factored into these epidemiological studies?
usda typo in the slide say udsa. others have pointed out the discrepency between slide on cholestrol and what you are saying at the time
4:33 You say it increased HDL levels, but the text on the screen says it decreased them
I heard that alcohol can reduce the damage of a brain injury when a small about (half shot ish of vodka or something) soon after the event when the brain swelling it going on or something like that.
Hey,
great videos, but, in this one, at minute 04:30 you can be heard to say "..increased HDL, the good cholesterol", when the graphics shown actually read "..reduced levels of HDL cholesterol"?!
Did nobody else notice this? ;]
What is considered moderate consumption?
It this for all types of alcohol? Were there reasons listed for why people don't drink? Don't you guys always talk about correlation vs. causation? What makes this scenario different? Wouldn't it be just as likely that people with health problems would be told not to drink so they have problems anyway?
Maybe all those studies addressed this and I missed it, but I was just wondering.
I wonder is it a myth that when you mix different kinds of alcohol you get drunk faster? So many people swear by this, but I wonder if that is true and why? Is there any research that explains this?
please do another hypochondriac John asks Arron questions xxx
What about wine and beer with removed alcohol?
Will there be a retreat?
From what I've heard red wine is good for you because of the certain types of antioxidants it has in it that not only helps strengthen your immune system, but also your cardiovascular disease now this probably isn't because of the antioxidants but I'm not sure. This video said that it is good to drink in moderation or a small amount to reduce the risk of cardiovascular illness , now this doesn't mean to get blasted 24/7 because it also showed that if you were to go over the moderation amount you would increase your risk of certain cancers like breast, and colon. Now I am interested in wondering that if you were to do a study a have a group just drink grape juice and another red wine to see if red wine isn't healthy because of what happens when it ferments or if its just something in red grapes. he also said that moderation would consist of possibly 30 drinks a week, now that sounds like a lot that's around 3-4 drinks a day and still be in the healthy range yet he said anything over 4 drinks is over moderation? Now even though alcohol has many other dangerous factors to it like impaired vision, etc.
Is there any review about the effect of alcohol on no ADH individuals (people with asian flush)?
Serious question: I have ¨friend¨ who only drinks once a week, but he has 5-8 drinks or so. Would he be considered a moderate or heavy drinker?
+Tyler Pelzer that's binge drinking
+Tyler Pelzer Most things I've read say drinking more than 2-4 for males (and 1-3 for females) within one day is harmful, and that you can't "save it up."
So how much is moderate?
If people who drank before middle age at a moderate rate were shown to be more knowledgeable then why is our drinking age in the United States still sitting at 21. It could possibly help a substantial amount of people if it were lowered. Is that what I am hearing or would that not change anything? I realize that is not the only thing looked at when determining the age restriction but it seems to be just fine sitting at a lower age for other countries.
I think its important to note that wealthy people drink a lot more than poor people
I'd like to see social activity controlled as a confounding factor.
what's considered one drink a day? how many shots?
Even if alcohol is reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, I would advise not consuming it at all and prefer to exercise, rest properly, not to smoke and avoid stress, since alcohol is a carcinogen.
+Johnny ... No its not.
Wait, isn't pressure in units of millimeters of mercury, not milligrams?
4:38 I think you misspoke. You said increased and the text says reduced.
Are the benefits of alcohol directly associated with the affects and effects of alcohol or is it something else that's in the beverage such as flavonoids or other ingredients? To me, more study needs to be done to see not only a causation but a correlation between the two.
there was alot of talk about wine in this video but what about beer & hard liquor?
Everything is good as long as taken in moderation.
still valid now (November 2018) ?
What is "a drink"?
Porters and Stouts go very well with Chocolate cookies
But more importantly.... Why are you not using LED bulbs in your set? :p
+Lucid Moses Incandescent bulbs have a much better color spectrum for photography. LEDs and Flourescents have huge spikes at certain frequencies of light.
FoundObjectFilms Um. The set lights are not the lights they use for filming. Those dull things wouldn't be nearly enough. But that aside. True for Florescent but your the first person I've ever heard say that about LEDs. In fact, better spectrum is typically one of the selling points of LEDs.
So...
Why does booze have these positive effects?
+Eric Lin Not entirely clear why, but in the most hand-wavingly way possible: I'm guessing that it messes with Liver function in ways that help the heart and brain through altered lipid processing, (in those that see a positive).
+Eric Lin Stress reduction. If I drink after work it takes me an hour to get to the point where I can relax, as apposed to three.
Could be any number of factors.
- Yeast in the wine/beer, baker's yeast is very nutritionally dense.
- Lot of trace biochemicals, tannins, etc that need to be sorted out before anyone can figure out health benefits. Beer in particular has compounds that weakly target the cannabinoid receptors.
- Ethanol itself may have some health benefits, contradictory with its status as a carcinogen.
- Social drinking may have benefits to emotional health.
Because the Creator loves us and wants us to be happy
I imagine it's the stress reduction. Stress is a big contributor to heart disease, and I know I would be a lot more stressed if I didn't have one or two beers a night.
3:31 free drinking for 2 years?
Ughmmmm....
Where was this study conducted again?
Cheers!
Ok you keep mentioning averages but what's the difference between having one drink a day or 14 drinks at one time every two weeks... the average is the same but surely it has different health affects? I prefer to drink seldom but get a good buzz when I do. ...
So what's a "drink" here? A glass of wine, a can of beer or a glass of whiskey?
Is this all alcohol or red wine? As in, can I drink a shot of vodka or something while watching this?
I'll definitely pop open some bubbly if Bernie wins New Hampshire. Better health for me with a small drink, better health for all America with a large improvement in policy. Cheers!
How you must read a whole lot of scientific journals.
If you switch the playback speed of the video to 0.5, it kinda sounds like he's drunk.
+SCAREDBANANA fuck, that's an amazing insight
+SCAREDBANANA How do you do that?
Sayuas click the wheel-shaped settings button below the video and a menu will pop up that allows you to change the speed
3:46 what even is that gesture
Great video though, as always :))