The harm caused by excessive drinking seems as simple as 1+ 1 = 2. However, in real life, many people and even some researchers at home and abroad insist on the view that "a small amount of drinking is good for health" and try to find various supporting evidence. However, a recent report in Nature magazine clearly declared that "even a small amount of drinking is harmful to health".
Traditional view: a small amount of drinking is good for health.
It is said in Shuo Wen Jie Zi that wine can create both good luck and evil light. Although there is no wine and no table, wine is also poison.
Hu Sihui, a medical scientist in the Yuan Dynasty, summed up the advantages and disadvantages of drinking as follows: "The wine tastes sweet and pungent, while the heat is toxic. It is better to give priority to medicine, eliminate all evils, dredge blood vessels, thicken gastrointestinal tract, eliminate sorrow and drink less; Drinking too much is harmful to life, easy to change people's nature, and its poison is even worse. Excessive drinking is the source of death. " Li Shizhen, a great medical scientist in the Ming Dynasty, also said, "If you drink too much, you will die in an instant." .
In recent years, some studies at home and abroad believe that a small amount of drinking is good for your health:
A small amount of drinking can improve IQ. A study by the National Life Science Association in Aichi, Japan, found that the average IQ of men who drink less than 540 ml of Japanese sake or wine every day is 3.3% higher than that of men who don't drink. The IQ of female drinkers is 2.5% higher than that of teetotalers.
Drinking a small amount of alcohol can reduce the risk of heart disease. Dr ian wright from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said: Drinking a glass of wine every day can reduce the risk of heart disease in men over 40 and postmenopausal women. In addition, alcohol can also increase the protective cholesterol in the body. At the age when drinking a small amount of alcohol is good for health, men will start at 35 and women will reach 55. This latest research shows that alcohol can only help the health of elderly men and women.
Coincidentally, a new scientific research achievement of Montreal Heart Research Institute in Canada shows that moderate drinking can protect the heart and avoid 20% ~ 30% of coronary heart disease attacks. They believe that alcohol can control the level of total cholesterol and increase the level of high density lipoprotein for a long time. Alcohol can reduce platelet thrombosis, and alcohol in wine, spirits or beer can reduce the mortality of coronary heart disease.
Drinking a small amount of alcohol can reduce the risk of dementia. Researchers from Eiras Morse University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, conducted a six-year follow-up survey on 5395 elderly people over 55 years old (including 55 years old) who had no signs of dementia. The results show that people who drink 65,438+0 ~ 3 glasses of wine a day have lower risk of dementia than those who don't drink.
"Natural" viewpoint:
Even a small amount of drinking is harmful to health.
A report in Nature magazine pointed out that even a small amount of alcohol is harmful to health. The researcher listed his supporting arguments: people under 35, as long as they drink alcohol, will increase the risk of many diseases; Men aged 35-65 drink more than 5 cups a week, and women drink more than 8 cups. The risk of illness increases with the increase of alcohol consumption.
At the same time, there are also some studies that come to a conclusion similar to Nature:
A small amount of drinking will increase the incidence of 60 diseases. Epidemiological evidence shows that studies carried out around the world since 1970 have proved that a small amount of drinking (65438+ 0 ~ 2 cups a day) can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease in elderly men and women by about 20% ~ 30%, but even a small amount of drinking will increase the chance of injury and contribute to about 60 diseases, such as various tumors, cirrhosis and nerves.
A small amount of drinking will have a bad effect on the brain. A study published by American scientists also shows that whether it is light or moderate drinking, it will inevitably have a negative impact on these people's brains. People who drink between 1 ~ 6 glasses a week are considered as light drinkers, while moderate drinkers drink more than 7 glasses a week. According to the results of magnetic resonance imaging, light and moderate drinkers do cause brain atrophy after drinking. The study also found that this situation does not distinguish between men and women, nor between races.
No matter how much asthma attack it can induce, some data show that it is harmful to asthma patients, no matter how much alcohol they drink or how high or low their alcohol level is. This is because alcohol can not only cause allergic diseases, but also induce asthma attacks.
A small amount of drinking will also vary from person to person.
It can be seen that a small amount of drinking may be beneficial to some diseases (such as cardiovascular diseases), but it will also increase the chances of suffering from other diseases. Experts tell us that when deciding whether to drink alcohol for health, we should weigh the pros and cons according to our own situation and avoid blind obedience.
A general view is that whether a person can drink or not and how much he drinks every day should be decided by a doctor, because everyone's physical condition is different.
Judging from the current research, opinions on alcohol restriction are not uniform, but some institutions and researchers have put forward some standards. On June 5438+February, 2003, the International Wine Policy Center in Washington, D.C. determined that the standard drinking amount of different countries was 8 grams per day for British people and 14 grams per day for Americans, but Japanese people could drink 19.75 grams, and confirmed that a small amount of drinking 1 2 times per day could reduce the incidence of cardiovascular diseases by 20% ~ 30%.
Professor Li Youming, who has been engaged in the research of alcoholic fatty liver for a long time, has found the incidence law of alcoholic fatty liver after years of epidemiological investigation and research, and recently formulated the "safe limit" for "drinking a little". They designed a simple formula to calculate alcohol intake, that is, alcohol consumption (grams) = alcohol consumption (milliliters) × alcohol concentration (%) × 0.8. For example, if you drink 100 ml of 52-degree (52%) liquor at a time, the alcohol content = 100 ml × 52% × 0.8 = 4 1.6 g of alcohol. Drinking more than 40 grams a day for more than five years in a row, that is, accumulating more than 73 kilograms, 48% people will suffer from alcoholic liver disease to varying degrees.
Professor Li Youming pointed out that "safe dose" is relative, because different people have different sensitivities to alcohol, and individuals vary greatly. Their investigation also found that no matter liquor, wine, beer or any other alcoholic beverage, as long as the total amount is too large, it is harmful to the liver. Long-term drinking is more harmful to the liver than occasional heavy drinking. Drinking every day is more harmful than intermittent drinking, and drinking in large quantities is more risky than drinking several times a day.
Excessive drinking is more harmful to the whole body.
It is inevitable for relatives and friends to get together on holidays. Some people drink or toast frequently when they are happy, until they are too drunk to control themselves. The reporter learned from the emergency department of Zhongshan and Renji Hospital in Shanghai yesterday that the number of patients who have relapsed or gone to infusion has increased recently because of excessive drinking, and some children have finally been sent to the hospital because of excessive drinking. Medical staff reminded the public that excessive drinking will not only damage the liver, heart and stomach, endanger the whole health, but also affect the IQ of children, which may lead to sudden death in severe cases.
Drinking will dull children's thinking.
Dr. Chen from Shanghai Children's Hospital once met a 9-year-old "Brewmaster". As long as someone invites him to drink, he will eat whatever wine is served, which is quite a bit like "a thousand cups are not drunk". It turns out that when friends and relatives get together, parents ask them to propose a toast or accompany adults to drink for fun. Later, the child gradually became addicted to alcohol and was finally taken to the hospital because of frequent headaches.
According to reports, alcohol is mainly detoxified by the liver, and the final metabolites are carbon dioxide and water, which cannot provide any nutrition to the body. Excessive drinking will cause liver and kidney damage and affect brain cell metabolism. The child is in the stage of growth and development, and the functions of various organs are still not perfect. At this time, drinking is more harmful to the body. Someone has done experiments. Even if children drink a small amount of wine, their attention and memory will decline, and their thinking speed will become slow, which will seriously affect their intellectual development. In addition, children's ability to detoxify alcohol metabolism is low, and children who drink too much will have headaches, even coma and even death. Parents must pay attention to this.
Drinking is not only harmful to the liver, but also to the whole body.
People always mistakenly think that drinking will only hurt the liver and not other parts. In this regard, Professor Kai Keung Lai, deputy director of the Department of Gastroenterology, Shanghai Renji Hospital, pointed out that excessive drinking will endanger the health of the whole body. Generally, there will be the following symptoms: increased heart rate, warmer skin, dizziness, nausea, unconsciousness, failure of nervous system command, and a series of adverse consequences. Clinically, there are quite a few people who died suddenly because of alcoholism.
Professor Li said that many people think that a small amount of alcohol stimulation can make people concentrate, but the actual result is not the case. A small amount of alcohol only has some sedative effect, while a large amount of alcohol will seriously damage memory and attention. Drinking too much will cause slurred speech, blurred vision and loss of balance; For the liver, long-term heavy drinking will almost inevitably lead to cirrhosis or acute pancreatitis; From the aspect of skin, alcohol is a vasodilator, which can dilate blood vessels on the body surface, cause excessive heat dissipation of body tissues, lead to cold body and lower body temperature in cold weather; People who drink a lot of alcohol will also get cardiomyopathy, and even lead to severe gastritis and gastric bleeding, which will do great harm to the human body and add hidden dangers to the safety of the public.
Wine should not be eaten with carrot soda.
Professor Li reminded that people must drink alcohol in moderation when eating and drinking, not to drink high-alcohol liquor, and not to eat wine and carrots together. Because carrots are rich in beta carotene, when they enter the human body with alcohol, they will produce toxins in the liver, leading to liver diseases. Also be careful not to drink on an empty stomach. Because drinking on an empty stomach directly stimulates the gastric mucosa, it is easy to lead to gastritis, gastric bleeding, digestive tract ulcers and other diseases, and chronic alcoholism will occur for a long time. Finally, avoid drinking white wine with soda. Because after drinking liquor and soda together, alcohol will volatilize rapidly in people's whole body, accompanied by a lot of carbon dioxide, which is harmful to stomach, intestine, liver, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
When can't I drink?
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When drinking coffee
Alcohol will poison all cells in the human body. Caffeine is the main component of coffee. If it is drunk properly, it can excite, refresh and strengthen the stomach, while excessive drinking can also cause poisoning. If alcohol and coffee are drunk together, it will add fuel to the fire, aggravate the damage to the brain, stimulate vasodilation, accelerate blood circulation, and greatly increase the cardiovascular burden, causing many times more harm than drinking alone, and even endangering life.
When taking medicine
There are hundreds of drugs taken after drinking, which will increase toxicity and side effects. If you take drugs such as furazolidone after drinking, you will have arrhythmia and high blood pressure. Another example is taking sedatives, sleeping pills, antiepileptic drugs, antiallergic drugs, antihypertensive drugs and so on. After drinking, on the one hand, it can increase the inhibitory effect on the brain, on the other hand, it makes the power of drugs increase sharply, exceeding the normal tolerance of human body, which is dangerous. In particular, people who are old and weak or suffer from heart, liver and kidney diseases should avoid taking drugs after drinking.
When you catch a cold.
If people who have a cold drink alcohol, they will not cure the disease, but will make the cold worse. The reason is that most patients with colds, especially those with serious illness, have different degrees of high body temperature, which is also commonly known as fever. The doctor will definitely prescribe antipyretics, usually paracetamol. If you drink white wine or spirits once, its metabolites will cause serious damage to the liver until it is completely necrotic.
Patients with acute hepatitis, fatty liver, cirrhosis, liver disease and diabetes are absolutely forbidden to drink alcohol, including beer. As for the recovery period of hepatitis and chronic persistent hepatitis, when the liver function is basically normal, it is ok to drink beer in moderation, because beer can promote the secretion of digestive juice and stimulate appetite, and beer also contains a variety of amino acids and B vitamins, so drinking beer in moderation is conducive to improving the appetite and nutritional status of patients with chronic liver disease. But generally it does not exceed half a liter a day.
Source: family medicine