December 4, 2024
10.1 The Myth Of Alcohol
I have read on many sites that just a glass of wine or a drink of alcohol a day is actually good for us (10.1). I want to dig deeper into both sides of the pros and cons of this argument, mind you, we are talking one drink at a time in a day, which is a rarity. So there are three myths about alcohol, 1) one drink a day is good because it reduces your stress, 2) you can drink one drink and stop, 3) Since you don’t find any other issue after drinking except hangover, and the effects go away in a few days, moderation is ok.
If stress reduction is the pro, yes, that effect can stay around 6 hours. Against this pro, the con is the inflammatory pathways are triggered with any amount of alcohol. So now this is an effect that lasts 3 days, the amount of time it takes to clear the alcohol completely. I have sensed this clearing every time I stop drinking, the feeling of reduced inflammation on the third day. My skin suddenly becomes smooth and I can do my yoga poses a little better. Yes, there are many research papers to support all this. So the benefit of reduction of stress over 6 hrs vs the damage of inflammation over 72 hrs, the con outweighs the benefit. You can see simply by the area under the curves below, even if the stress response is higher, the total benefit by way of the area under the curve can never reach the area under the inflammation curve, simply because it’s a much prolonged period of damage inside the body.
https://www.facebook.com/kaki0980/posts/pfbid02Tx4pTJiGoRYLTNFxDmixFK4hL5hnZtTvhwsUiaFtMzHog2LHbmu2zpHameZYEhUrl?rdid=619WD8R4Fxlvt9v4#In healthy people, the inflammation response may not be perceptible as they may not have the benefit of the body reaction of an older person like me, who can sense the change. Therefore, they never sense the bad effect, do sense the quick stress relief benefit as it’s quick in response. So that positive benefit works like a positive feedback, that sense of dropping the uptightness after a few drinks. Now stopping after one drink? Why? The feedback is positive due to quick stress response, so we continue to drink. As we do, the benefit of the stress response does not change, but the inflammation response can grow higher and higher. In my own case, after three drinks, the inflammatory damage I can sense is much higher than with a single drink. So essentially, the dose-response curve of the inflammation is bigger. So now, the total damage is much more with multiple drinks vs the stress relief benefit that only lasts with the first drink. Therefore, the argument that moderate drinking is good, does not make sense and is a myth. The best approach is not to drink at all. All or Nothing, no limited drinking.