The Upsetting News Thread

[WarpGirl]

Maybe we should start a new topic for this discussion. On the other hand it's great nothing too terrible has happened to anyone lately. No illness or deaths!

[Aikiweezie]

I don't know about that Kotik....My husband's grandfather was an alcoholic on beer, just beer, as was my uncle. Grandpa John was skinny as a rail because in his 80s he barely ate anything at all, he pretty much lived on beer. He broke his hip leaving the retirement home to buy, guess, what, beer and it was downhill after that, but he was also rather malnourished. He wouldn't go down to dinner because he would rather drink beer alone in his room. My uncle, on the other hand, was over 400 pounds and drank a case of beer a day. Chirrosis got him.

[Distracted]

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one, Kotik. I'm not trying to tell you what to do. I just didn't want any young people who happened to read this thread to think that binge intake of alcohol (even beer) is harmless. It's not. It could get them into all sorts of trouble. I see the results frequently at work.

Alcohol is a metabolic poison, but it can be detoxified in the liver if you drink slowly enough for the liver to keep up. That's why it's virtually impossible for someone to OD on beer (if you look back at my previous post you'll see that I agreed with you.) Someone who doesn't usually drink could still get seriously ill, though, because the level of alcohol dehydrogenase in their liver cells is lower than the level of enzyme in the liver of a steady drinker, so they're not able to detoxify the alcohol as quickly, it hangs around longer, and it does more damage. The fact that you've been drinking since puberty means that you've got higher enzyme levels and therefore greater tolerance, so my warning to kids who might be reading this still holds. Also, the diuresis (copious urination) following the intake of beer is an effect of the alcohol on the kidney, but alcohol is not eliminated in the process. All of it stays in, to hopefully be detoxified by alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver before it has the chance to kill too many liver or brain cells. So please... do whatever you want to do, but don't try to convince people that it's harmless because I will argue with you to protect them.

You are obviously going to do what you want to do. Good luck. I hope your liver holds out a very long time.

I'm done. Back to your usual bad news.

[Kotik]

I don't know about that Kotik....My husband's grandfather was an alcoholic on beer, just beer, as was my uncle. Grandpa John was skinny as a rail because in his 80s he barely ate anything at all, he pretty much lived on beer. He broke his hip leaving the retirement home to buy, guess, what, beer and it was downhill after that, but he was also rather malnourished. He wouldn't go down to dinner because he would rather drink beer alone in his room. My uncle, on the other hand, was over 400 pounds and drank a case of beer a day. Chirrosis got him.

There's a huge difference between drinking beer and drinking beer without eating, or drinking a whole crate of the stuff. As I said a normal person would never make a full crate a day, much less more than once. And living on beer is pretty much impossible. What I can tell is that drinking beer on an empty stomach is physically painfull as it enhances the feeling of hunger.

[Kotik]

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one, Kotik. I'm not trying to tell you what to do. I just didn't want any young people who happened to read this thread to think that binge intake of alcohol (even beer) is harmless. It's not. It could get them into all sorts of trouble. I see the results frequently at work.

Dis, you seem to have the complete wrong picture of me. I'm not trying to promote or even justify binge-drinking. I've done that for about 2 months in 2006 and paid dearly for it. I'm a regular beer drinker, but in quantities that would be tolerable to the uninitiated. Binge-drinking implies to drink until you're p*ssed out of your skull, which I never do. I've not been really drunk more than 2 or three times in the last 5 years What I was trying to get across is, that painting ANY alcoholic beverage as the ultimate evil is equally wrong, all it gets you is these ridiculous rituals that people in america do, like drinking 21 on your 21st birthday. That's when they poison themselves, because they don't know crap about the stuff. A mate 'o mine studied in Idaho and he told me stories that made my blood freeze. People need to learn to take it with responsibility. What happens if you tell a youth "don't do that, ever!" - exactly, they are gonna try it and the results are going to be hideous. Drinking beer is possible without ruining your health, but there's a lot of responsibility involved. There's a definitive difference between drinking a six-pack and calling it quits or drinking until the lights go out. I've learned that lesson 5 years ago.

[Cogito]

Some time ago somebody (eK, I think) mentioned Karoshi - the syndrome of working yourself to death.

One of my friends and colleagues dropped dead yesterday. He was in his thirties. Makes you think, eh?

[justTripn]

!!! I'm so sorry Cogito. A few years back, a man I worked with closely in the astronomy club died inexplicably of nothing as he was exercising. It's very shocking. I hope you are OK. And if you are, it might be helpful to go write something at his obituary page.

[marchale]

I'm so sorry to hear about that too, Cogito - thats a damn shame!

[panyasan]

Some time ago somebody (eK, I think) mentioned Karoshi - the syndrome of working yourself to death.

One of my friends and colleagues dropped dead yesterday. He was in his thirties. Makes you think, eh?

I am so sorry to hear, Cogito. That's terrible to hear. The stress on work can be very hard.
for you and your friends.

[Silverbullet]

Kotik, I loved Beer. But when I went out to have a Beer I usually walked between stube so in th end I only had about three beers a night. As I say I liked it but didn't need it. That is the difference between a drunk and an alchoholiic (sp). One likes it but doesn't need it; the other needs it but usually doesn't like it.

Priosit

SB