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The Health Risks of Not Drinking
Earlier today Radley Balko noted that "the map showing the places where people are most likely to drink alcohol looks a lot like the map showing the healthiest counties," while "the map showing the places were people were least likely to drink looks a lot like the map showing the least healthy counties." In the same vein, addiction psychologist Stanton Peele looks at America's Health Rankings and finds:
In all of the healthiest five states, a majority drinks. In all the unhealthiest states, a minority drinks. The United Health Foundation's health ranking of the states is subtitled, "A Call to Action for People & Their Communities." Should they call for more people to drink?
Since moderate drinking is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, a causal connection is not out of the question. It may also be that teetotaling correlates with income or other demographic variables that are independently related to health.
|11.7.07 @ 7:44PM|#
Hey, kids. Stay healthy.
Don't not drink.
And stay in school.
That's...one to grow on.
|11.7.07 @ 7:48PM|#
Now, everyone knows that correlation does not equal causation. The unhealthiness in non-drinking counties probably has more to do with the giant sticks stuck up their asses than a lack of alcohol.
|11.7.07 @ 8:13PM|#
Waaaaiiiiiiiit a minute.
It seems that the healthy states do indeed correlate with drinking,
but only two of the unhealthy states correlate with non-drinking.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm no teetotaler, but I'm a little more
curious as to the sociopolitical aspects of the phenomenon.
|11.7.07 @ 8:29PM|#
Shawn is 100% correct. I think teetotalers would just tend to be uptight, unhappy, wet blankets that (mercifully) maybe die a little earlier. The shorter the time they spend butting into everyone else's lives the better.
BakedPenguin|11.7.07 @ 8:50PM|#
I think teetotalers would just tend to be uptight, unhappy,
wet blankets that (mercifully) maybe die a little
earlier.
Depends on the reason for their teetotaling. Someone with a history
of substance abuse is a different case than "Jeebus or Mahmud or
Sheeva tolds me to not to drink"
|11.7.07 @ 9:06PM|#
I don't think Shiva has ever asked anybody not to drink, in fact
the chap encourages it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_use_of_cannabis#Hindu_use
|11.7.07 @ 9:22PM|#
Red wines and dark beers are especially healthful to drink! Red wines cuz they contain resveritol. And studies have revealed healthy results from their consumption. And dark beers cuz their consumption has been correlated with lower circulatory disease rates. (It prevents heart attacks and strokes) This is probably due to the fact that dark beers have lots more anti-oxidants. Darker pigmented vegetables and fruits do as well. For example, there are lots more anti-oxidants in red and yellow onions than in white onions.
BakedPenguin|11.7.07 @ 9:46PM|#
SM - my bad, although you weren't really talking about alcohol. I'd thought I'd read somewhere that in more religious parts of India, there were anti-alcohol laws, but I was unable to find any confirmation on teh Internets.
|11.7.07 @ 10:05PM|#
The people compiling this did a nice job of cherrypicking the
data. Number 6 on the healthiest list is Utah, which is the state
with the lowest number of drinkers (and smokers, and ...) due to
the huge percentage of Mormons. Care to explain that anomaly?
Oh, and Hawaii is number three in large part because it has lots of
Japanese and other Asians who tend to be a lot healthier due to
eating healthier.
And states in the South that have terrible eating patterns are
being smacked around on this list. Care to adjust the data for
non-alcohol diet factors, smoking, etc.?
I'll bet if you adjusted this data for ethnicity, the numbers would
be far more jumbled.
|11.7.07 @ 10:15PM|#
Closing the tag...
What does that mean? Sounds like site maintenance or something
might be going on as we blog...
Sleazy P. Martini|11.7.07 @ 10:26PM|#
What does that mean? Sounds like site maintenance or
something might be going on as we blog...
It means he was closing the "bold" tag that someone left open...
yes, "Off Topic" I'm looking at you.
BakedPenguin|11.7.07 @ 10:30PM|#
Rick, that was me, actually. Off Topic left a bold tag open, so I closed it.
BakedPenguin|11.7.07 @ 10:34PM|#
Thx, Sleazy Martini, didn't see you there. Have a couple jalapeño olives on me...
M|11.7.07 @ 10:48PM|#
As an uptight, happy, dry-blanket teetotaler with no history of
substance abuse who enjoys not butting into other people's lives
(except on this blog) and who likes to see his friends enjoy
themselves, I hereby asseverate:
For.
A.
Magazine.
Called.
Reason...
|11.7.07 @ 11:11PM|#
Off topic but could be good for you:
Diet Of Walnuts, Blueberries Improve Cognition; May Help
Maintain Brain Function
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071106122843.htm
|11.8.07 @ 12:12AM|#
...Are you the same M who did that fine New Wave tune, "Pop
Music"?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HaAOCGb3bw
(Actually, I think that M was the name of the whole ensemble)
|11.8.07 @ 12:36AM|#
Wow! I am so stoked to learn that you mess with future posts by forgetting to use ! If only Reason honored the tag...
The Wine Commonsewer|11.8.07 @ 12:45AM|#
Someone with a history of substance abuse.....
My old friend Amphetamine Annie was a lot more fun when she could
drink everybody here under the table.
M|11.8.07 @ 6:55AM|#
who likes to see his friends enjoy themselves
You da man/woman.
Seem the t-shirt slogan is right that says "I drink to make other
people more interesting." :-)
|11.8.07 @ 9:09AM|#
There could also be some correlation from a societal expectation perspective. If a geographic area has a healthy moderation view of drinking, people could be less likely to abuse (see Europe), but if drinkers are judged in a geographic area, they are probably more likely to binge in their basements.
|11.8.07 @ 9:33AM|#
And dark beers cuz their consumption has been correlated
with lower circulatory disease rates. (It prevents heart attacks
and strokes)
Our family physician prescibed bock beer for Mom when she was
nursing. This was in the '50s. He was a very cool doctor. Great
with kids, and even yanked my tonsils himself rather than farm in
out.
robc|11.8.07 @ 9:43AM|#
people could be less likely to abuse (see Europe)
I see this mentioned a lot, but does anyone have any proof? Both
from personal experience and from some numbers Ive seen, I think
European 16-24 year olds abuse alcohol at least as much as
Americans.
I guess it may depend on what parts of Europe, however.
|11.8.07 @ 9:56AM|#
Different parts of Europe are totally different. In Germany I
went to a three day rock festival. There were thousands of people
camping in a tent city next to the venue, armed with unlimited
alcohol and stereos blasting heavy metal. In Australia that would
be a recipe for a riot, but at this event I saw no problems
whatsoever. I didn't even see anyone yelling at each other. Same
throughout Germany. When I went to a country concert in Norway,
however, everyone got completely annihilated and a couple were
apparently threatening to beat my head in in Norwegian (which they
would have been incapable of doing due to barely being able to
stand up). Estonia also has big problems with alcohol abuse.
If you were designing a country to have low alcohol abuse problems,
you'd want the national drink to be beer, not vodka or moonshine,
and you'd want the society to value order. i.e. Germany. I also
think it helps a lot if parents introduce their kids to alcohol
early, by drinking a little wine with dinner as they do in France
and Italy. This prevents drinking alcohol from being seen as an act
of rebellion.
Skallagrim|11.8.07 @ 11:50AM|#
The irony of this story is that if the correlation had been the
other way around, it would be USAToday front page news and blasted
everywhere through the MSM and morning talk shows. I only read
about in Reason....
And to those of you who are arguing about the correlations true
meaning and efficacy, you miss the point. Having actual scientific
proof as opposed to mere correlations never stopped the
anti-drinking crowd (note MADDs continued insistence that raising
the drinking age is responsible for lower alcohol related traffic
deaths).
|11.8.07 @ 1:15PM|#
Public health is not about mortality rates, its about decadence. What is decadent is unhealthy, evidence nothwithstanding. Even though the new data is out, drinking and obesity are still going to be harmful according to the "scientific consensus" oracle.
|11.8.07 @ 4:48PM|#
I was going to say that the low health states have less healthy
outcomes because instead of drinking for relaxation they eat. But
yesterday we learned that being overweight is not so bad.....
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/chubby-could-be.html
|11.8.07 @ 5:00PM|#
I'm just waiting until 5PM to post this, and then I'm going to
have a martini.
For my health, of course.
|11.8.07 @ 5:52PM|#
On the "Reason" website, someone basically says that
non-drinkers are probably just miserable busyboddies ... so good
riddance!?!?
Yikes!
Folks, I've got news for you. Even when a study is designed by
actual experts in statistics, who actually try to identify and
correct for all the factors that could skew results, the end result
is at best educated guesswork.
This "study" looks like junk, anecdotes notwithstanding. Yeah
George Burns smoked a lot and lived past 100. Yeah, I have a
relative who didn't smoke or drink and who was skinny, whodied in
his 40's. Doesn't prove anything.
TallDave|11.8.07 @ 6:40PM|#
Heh, funny.
Still, seems likely to be a cross-correlation rather than
causative: the poorer states tend to more austere, and poorness
correlates to poorer health.
Full disclosure:I usually have one beer or one glass of wine a
day.
|11.8.07 @ 10:04PM|#
Ernie G. The first sign of alcoholism is drinking on a schedule... so drink up, why wait?
|11.9.07 @ 7:36AM|#
Even more correlated than with drinking, the healthiest states are the wealthiest states, and the poorest states are the unhealthiest. (See e.g., WI, big drinkers, not wealthy not healthy; and Hawaii, wealthy, healthy, not big drinkers.) Alcohol is a spurious correlation here. These states drink more cappuccinos too, but it's not the cappuccinos making them healthy.
WellnessAid|11.11.07 @ 11:40PM|#
It appears that alcohol does have some protective effect on health. The effect is maximised at 7-14 drinks per week. Exceeding this limit quickly reverses the protection and it becomes harmful. It is a slippery slope and that is where one of the biggest dangers is. Here's a link to a self-assessment tool in case anyone wants to know where he or she is at: http://www.wellnessaid.com/health-practices/alcohol Keep in mind, one of the signs of alcoholism is... denial ("I'm fine, don't need to drink", "Doing it just for fun", "Can stop any time", etc.). To your health!
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