People are proving that drinking in moderation is incredibly healthy.But what does “moderate” mean?How do you know when alcohol damages your health?In fact, even scientists admit that alcohol in certain (small) doses is beneficial; take the example of red wine, in which antioxidants, vitamins and microelements can be found.Harm occurs when alcohol damages a person’s internal organs, and this will certainly happen if you drink more than 170 g of alcohol more often than once every 8 days.
So is it possible to drink in moderation?What risks does a person who drinks alcohol face?At what point does moderate drinking end and alcohol abuse begins?
ALL THE MOST IMPORTANT ABOUT WHAT IT IS TO DRINK IN MODERATION
“The main thing is to drink in moderation,” a person who is already one step away from terrible and destructive alcoholism often thinks.
The dose, after taking which the human liver is in serious danger, is equal to 90 g of pure ethanol per day.For a moment, this is 285 ml of vodka (a little more than a glass of vodka).Harm to the human brain occurs from a much smaller dosage - 19 g of ethanol (or 60 ml of vodka) in 24 hours.And this applies to absolutely healthy people with a normal and working liver, a healthy brain, kidneys and other organs.
Now imagine what awaits a person if he drinks a glass of vodka every day:
- alcohol addiction will begin to develop, which is very difficult to get rid of;
- in six months he will begin to suffer from such dependence on alcohol in the presence of a hereditary predisposition to this disease;
- this trouble will manifest itself within 36 months (3 years) in the absence of a hereditary predisposition.
- after a couple of months there will be a strong desire to regularly increase the dose.
If we assume that a person has suffered a significant disease (for example, viral hepatitis), then the moderate dose for him will be 2 or even 3 times less.
It should be clear: moderate drinkers - how much can you drink without causing harm to your own body?How much can you drink so that all body systems are restored?
All calculations are carried out based on the fact that a healthy person processes alcohol in the amount of 170 g per day.As a result, interesting results and conclusions are obtained:
- If a person ingests 170 g of pure alcohol in 1 day, then for the next 8 days he must refrain from drinking any (even the weakest) alcoholic beverages.
- The permissible (acceptable) dose per month is 586 grams.
- In other words, you can drink a little more than one and a half classic bottles of vodka per month.
If it turns out that you have to drink more than 170 grams on one holiday, then you need to increase the period of time between drinking alcohol, and next time drink alcohol, say, not after 8 days, but after 10-12.This will significantly reduce the harm and negative consequences of alcohol.
What conclusion should you come to in such a situation: drink much less often or drink in moderation?Experts are more inclined to the first option.Less often means once a month and not more often than that.Although some argue that if the dosage is followed correctly, it doesn’t really matter how often a person drinks.
WINE: IS IT HEALTHY OR NOT?
Moderate drinkers, at least those people who call themselves that, insist on the following - drinking dry red wine is extremely healthy.Their rationale is based on the fact that wine contains a strong antioxidant and prevents cancer.
On the contrary, scientific research shows the following: drinking wine in large quantities is harmful.It contains certain substances, an excess of which will involuntarily cause complications, so such a drink will be harmful.
You need to know some well-founded facts about the benefits of wine:
- The drink contains the antioxidant resveratrol, which is also found in grape juice, only in much smaller quantities.
- It contains valuable microelements that improve human health.
- An acceptable dose for a person in good health is approximately 3 glasses of wine per 7 days (450 ml drink).
It should also be mentioned that talk about the effectiveness of red wine in the treatment of atherosclerosis turned out to be just rumors, since modern research proves the opposite.
It turns out that drinking wine is useful, but only when you comply with the established standards and do not exceed the safe dosage of the drink consumed.
IS IT ALLOWED TO DRINK BEER IN MODERATE QUANTITIES?
Another drink besides wine that many people claim is healthy is beer.Yes, indeed, unpasteurized or live beer can be beneficial for the body, but even here there are certain restrictions, after which the drink becomes harmful to humans.600 ml per day is a completely acceptable norm, although this norm is also subject to reservations, since drinking even a small amount of beer for several years leads to the development of the third stage of alcohol dependence.
Beer in moderation has beneficial effects:
- Cosmetic effect on skin condition.
- Normalizes blood pressure.
- Calms the human nervous system.
- Maintains necessary cholesterol levels.
It is important to remember that beer addiction progresses secretly and little by little, which makes it difficult to notice at the initial stage.Subsequently, this same disease is more difficult to treat than, for example, addiction caused by the abuse of vodka or other alcoholic beverages.Therefore, it is fundamentally wrong to prove that beer is a safe alcoholic drink.
STIMULATING EFFECT OF MODERATE DOSES OF ALCOHOL
As for all other alcohol, benefits from moderate consumption can be obtained, taking into account the so-called paradoxical stimulation effect.
What is the meaning of this principle?This is the stimulating effect of small doses of exposure to those substances that in higher doses cause a toxic effect.In simple words, if alcohol in large doses harms the body, then in small quantities it can have a stimulating effect.
This effect is obtained not by moderate drinking groups of people, but by those who consume just insignificant (about 50 ml of vodka 2 times every 7 days) doses of alcohol, and not a gram more.
WHAT IS BETTER: DRINKING IN MODERATE OR NOT DRINKING ALCOHOL AT ALL?
And what do you want to do now, knowing all these numbers that speak either about the benefits of alcohol or about its harm?Should you quit drinking forever or should you drink in moderation for your health?
Previous studies showing the benefits of moderate drinking turned out to be erroneous.Today scientists from leading countries of the world are talking about this.
Those experiments showed the following result: moderate and moderate drinkers were much healthier than absolutely non-drinkers.But what's the catch?The fact is that everyone was recruited into the category of abstainers: people with already poor health, those people who drank a lot in their youth, those who could not drink alcohol for medical reasons.
Thus, the result was unreliable.Scientists conducted a number of additional studies, correcting their mistake, and it turned out that non-drinkers are healthier than those who drink in moderation, and the former live much longer than the latter.
ARE THERE ANY BENEFITS FROM ALCOHOL AND SHOULD YOU DRINK IN MODERATION?
One study conducted in 1999 by a physician-scientist demonstrated that drinking alcohol in moderation has benefits for a person's cardiovascular system.A similar study was conducted in the same year, when the benefits of alcohol for the human brain were proven.
The results of the experiments were as follows:
- Those patients who learned to drink in moderate doses were less likely to experience myocardial infarction.They drank from 14 to 56 g of pure alcohol daily (less than 1 glass of vodka).Also, people who adhered to moderate doses were less likely to develop an intellectual disorder.
- Those who made the bold decision not to drink at all had a slightly increased risk of heart attack, and were slightly more likely to develop dementia.
- The most noticeable health problems were experienced by those who frequently drank alcohol in large quantities.In such situations, myocardial infarction occurred, and brain diseases more often manifested themselves.
After such research results, several pressing questions immediately arise in my head: can an alcoholic drink in moderation?So, it means it’s still better to drink a little alcohol than to become a teetotaler?
But here it is important to mention another experiment carried out by scientists in 2008, which showed a completely different effect - patients who drank alcohol moderately were more likely to experience serious brain diseases than those who completely abstained from alcohol.
CONCLUSIONS: IS IT POSSIBLE TO DRINK IN RESPONSE?
As you can see, the experiments showed completely different results, which is nothing abnormal, because health and how long a person will live on earth are influenced by many factors other than alcohol intake: daily nutrition, lifestyle, working conditions, climate.This is why one specific study cannot provide 100% objective information.
Only one thing can be said for sure - there are benefits from drinking alcohol in small quantities, but this benefit is not particularly noticeable against the backdrop of the danger that awaits you if you drink alcohol.In addition, the harm from alcohol manifests itself instantly, and it is easily detected by scientists and doctors when examining a person.
How to drink in moderation and is it worth doing it at all?If you really care about your own health, then it is better to forget about alcohol altogether.Consume only what brings real benefits and does not contain harm, so that you no longer have any doubts.