Drink?: The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health

Product Information

Nutt helps the reader self-assess the level you may be at, and gives tips and advice for how to limit your drinking, and how to talk to others about their drinking. He also discusses talking to your children about drinking. Tell them: Chapters 1-5 are the "why" - chemistry and biology - and chapters 6-10 are the "how" - psychology and sociology. 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. For me, reading Drink?: The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health has been a wake up call. It's a book most drinkers should probably read.

Drink? : The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health

My continuing trend of reading health, brain/body, or psych types book lead me to this one, which outlines the relationship of alcohol to an individual. Now Drink? isn't only a book bashing the safety of alcohol. What I most enjoyed about the book was learning the interactions of the ethanol molecule on the brain. Did you know there is over 400 variations of the ethanol molecule that can lead to the difference in highs between drinks like wine, beer, and spirits? In my opinion this may be the reason there is so many wild stories around tequila in particular. 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. Mixing factual and anecdotal evidence, Nutt discusses the UK response to alcohol, and the struggles he faced whilst attempting to advise the government on alcohol policy. From denying its classification as a drug to allowing alcohol companies to make up 50% of alcohol advisory boards, politicians’ response to drinking is surprising, especially given the burdens it places on our national services. However, the evidence is pretty damning, even though alcohol is associated with blue zone diets and minor improvements in cardiovascular health drinking any amount of alcohol has more negative effects than positive.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. Drinking while driving is a huge cause of death. In the US we have a .08% limit, which is actually not even that safe. Many countries in Europe have .05%, and many in Scandinavia have .02% (basically sober).

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

Early in the second half of the book, Professor Nutt relays some social the history of alcohol. One interesting part discussed how "...ancient Persians would only finally make a decision after the issue at hand had been discussed both sober and drunk," since being drunk brought out one's creativity. And though I knew alcohol was ancient, I didn't know that "It's only been in the last millennium that it has been banned by some religious groups, for example in Islam." [The irony isn't lost on this reader that modern "Persia" now Islamic.] All in all, we shouldn't drink. Or at least try drink as little as we can. And shouldn't wash the food down with glasses of alcohol. I think that some further information on counterfactual opportunity cost, based on time/money spent related to alcohol, could have been a helpful addition to this book, albeit difficult to acquire overly didactic data on such factors.Kinda wish this focused more on psychosocial vs physical aspects. Also wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style but did learn some things which is always good. I didn't realize that in the old days, beer and wine had much less alcohol in them than they do today (3-4% vs 5-8% today for beer). In middle ages I think it was even less, which is why people could drink it so often.