In real life, one of the phrases we often hear at the dinner table for entertaining guests is "a drunken party to rest". It seems that the wine has become a "test of love water", only drunk into a pool of mud, in order to show a piece of hospitality for the other party, otherwise, it is empty to cope, there is no sincerity.
So, is it true that when entertaining guests, only drinking wine can express hospitality? We can say with certainty: "Non-also! "From a health perspective, drinking alcohol is not only not beneficial, but can even cause serious health problems.
First, long-term drinking of liquor, health or injury?
According to the traditional folklore of the mainland, there has been a tradition of wine since ancient times. The custom of "no wine, no table" has been passed down from generation to generation, and without wine there is no atmosphere of gathering. But some people hold the saying that "moderate drinking is good for health", every day to drink a few drinks, Xiao Ai has a cousin, every day insist on drinking 2 or two liquor, claiming that they can fight cancer and prolong life.
The claim that liquor can fight cancer mainly comes from a paper a few years ago, which said that liquor contains anti-cancer, bacteriostatic, antiviral effects of lilchlin and terpene compounds, which can help inhibit tumors.
But in fact, these so-called "anti-cancer substances" have not been verified by any clinical treatment, and the content in liquor is extremely low, even if it can really fight cancer, if you want to achieve significant results, its intake is huge, obviously unrealistic. In addition, the composition of liquor is complex, there are beneficial ingredients to the human body, there are also harmful ingredients, taking liquor starter as an example, which is rich in strains of bacteria, including yeast, mold and bacteria, not all of which are beneficial to the human body.
Therefore, just by containing some substances that "may have anti-cancer effects", the conclusion that "liquor can fight cancer" is too one-sided. On the contrary, liquor belongs to the category of alcohol, and alcohol was listed as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as early as 1988, and long-term drinking of liquor is not only not beneficial to physical health, but may even have serious consequences.
Second, long-term drinking of liquor may "provoke" four major harms
1. Foodborne methanol poisoning
Inferior bulk liquor not only has a bad taste, but may even use industrial alcohol blending, resulting in excessive methanol content in liquor. According to reports, methanol is a colorless, transparent, slightly ethanol-flavored liquid, which is one of the main components of industrial alcohol. Drinking methanol 5 to 10 ml can cause poisoning, oral 8 to 36 hours onset, manifested as headache, dizziness and fatigue, gait instability, drowsiness, etc., heavy consciousness hazy, delirium, epileptic convulsions, coma, death and so on. Therefore, do not drink and privately mix bulk liquor of unknown origin in daily life to prevent methanol poisoning.
2. Alcohol dependence
Medical studies have shown that taking 50 degrees of liquor as an example, men should not exceed 2 taels per day, women should not exceed 1 taels per day, once long-term excessive drinking, it is easy to form alcohol dependence (commonly known as alcohol addiction). Alcohol dependence is actually a serious poisoning of the central nervous system caused by long-term excessive alcohol consumption, and the stimulation brought about by long-term thirst for alcohol. Once alcohol dependence arises and there is a strong desire for alcohol, it is easy to lose self-control, lose will and even lose the sanity of normal people, as well as the dignity of human beings, bring misfortune to family life, and also adversely affect work.
3. Stomach damage
In general, alcohol can enhance the permeability of cell membranes, destroy the gastric mucosal barrier and cause ulcers. In particular, liquor, which has a high alcohol content itself, not only destroys the gastric mucosa, but also stimulates the violent peristalsis of the stomach, which is easy to cause mechanical stomach damage.
4. Increase the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis
Regardless of the type of alcohol, its main ingredient is ethanol, and baijiu is no exception. Modern medical research has shown that anyone who drinks alcohol for more than five years can cause chronic alcoholic liver damage. Ethanol in the human body can be converted into acetaldehyde, acetaldehyde is the real culprit of the liver, it can cause hepatocyte necrosis, cell swelling, due to partial cell ischemia, thereby stimulating liver cells gradually fibrosis. Once you suffer from alcoholic cirrhosis and ascites, your life expectancy can only be about five years at most.
In summary, like all liquors, long-term drinking of liquor is not "healthy". Regular alcohol intake can be seriously detrimental to memory, attention, judgment, function, and emotional response. Drinking too much alcohol can cause slurred speech, blurred vision, and loss of balance. Alcohol can also cause men to experience a decrease in sperm quality; For women during pregnancy, even small amounts of alcohol increase the risk of physical defects in unborn babies.
Third, there is no "safe intake" of alcohol consumption, and it is more harmful to start drinking at the age of 20
The health effects of alcohol come from alcohol and other fusels in it, as long as it is alcohol, it has the same harm to health. Based on data from no less than hundreds of thousands of people dying of alcohol poisoning each year around the world, the United Nations World Health Organization's view of liquor is that "even small amounts are not recommended."
1, drinking alcohol does not have a "safe intake"
The latest large-scale population survey from the University of Pennsylvania shows that even moderate alcohol consumption can make our brains smaller, and the more we drink, the more obvious the degree of brain volume change.
If the brain volume reduction caused by alcohol consumption is compared with the brain atrophy caused by aging, compared with people who do not drink alcohol, the brain aging is 0.5 years earlier than the daily intake of 1 unit of alcohol; the daily intake of 4 units of alcohol is 10 years earlier.
2, 20 years old to start drinking more harmful
A paper published in the International Journal of Cancer shows that excessive alcohol consumption in youth (20-39 years old) greatly increases the risk of cancer in old age, and even if the amount of alcohol is reduced later, the risk remains.
The study looked at data from 22,756 women and 15,701 men ages 40 to 69 and looked at the association between their lifetime drinking trajectories from age 20 and their risk of upper respiratory gastrointestinal, breast, liver and colorectal cancers.
The results showed that in men, compared with participants who did not drink alcohol for life: early heavy drinking (average daily alcohol intake of ≥60 grams at ages 20 to 39 years old) greatly increased the risk of alcohol-related cancers. And even if alcohol consumption is reduced later, the risk remains, of which the risk of alcohol-related cancer increases by 75% in people aged 40 to 49 who continue to reduce alcohol consumption; People between the ages of 60 and 69 who began to reduce their alcohol consumption increased their risk of alcohol-related cancer by 94 percent;
In women, alcohol intake was about 20 g/day at age 20 compared to participants who abstained from alcohol for life, and gradually increased to about 40 g/day at age 50-59 years over time, with an average alcohol-related cancer risk increased by 25%.
It can be seen that the harm of drinking alcohol is far more than people have previously imagined, the so-called "safety line" of alcohol consumption does not exist, and drinking may also increase the risk of certain cancers. If you want to reduce your cancer risk, you should try to drink as little as possible. For people who don't have a drinking habit, don't start drinking for the sake of so-called health benefits.
Fourth, drinkers pay attention: If you have these 4 symptoms, really don't drink anymore
Having said so much about the harms associated with drinking, some people may say: These are all things that will happen later, and I have no problem drinking now! In fact, some health problems may not seem serious, but they may also be caused by drinking alcohol and imply a great threat.
1. Jaundice
Jaundice is manifested as yellowing of the eyes, skin, and urine, and it is necessary to be vigilant against having alcoholic liver disease. Alcoholic liver disease is a liver disease caused by long-term heavy alcohol consumption. Initially, it often manifests only as fatty liver disease, but as the disease progresses, severe alcoholism can induce widespread hepatocyte necrosis and even liver failure.
2. Abnormal blood pressure
The World Heart Alliance notes that even small amounts of alcohol consumption increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, manifested by increased blood pressure, which can induce a variety of diseases, including coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, hypertension, cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation and aneurysms.
3. Joint swelling and pain
Long-term heavy alcohol consumption can also lead to high uric acid and induce gout. Repeated attacks of gout can cause bone destruction near the affected joints, appear joint redness, swelling and pain, and are also closely related to urinary stone formation, diabetes and coronary heart disease, which has formed a greater harm to people's health.
4. Abdominal pain
When epigastric tenderness, rebound pain, and the pain is long-lasting and difficult to relieve after drinking alcohol, acute pancreatitis should be considered. Patients are usually accompanied by pain radiating to the back, as well as nausea, vomiting, and bloating. Alcohol should be stopped and the hospital should be immediately visited, and if left unchecked, acute hemorrhagic necrotizing pancreatitis may occur leading to gradual or sudden shock.
Summary: China is a populous country, the rapid economic growth has led to an increase in alcohol consumption, the acceleration of people's pace of life and the increase of mental pressure, and the problem of drinking alcohol in the mainland has become increasingly prominent. At present, there are more than 500 million drinkers in the mainland, and the per capita consumption of alcoholic beverages is increasing by 13% per year, and the public health problems caused by alcohol use are becoming increasingly serious, which requires each of us to be vigilant. #Health Insight Program ##谣零零计划 #
Resources:
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[2] Topiwala A, Ebmeier KP. Effects of drinking on late-life brain and cognition. Evid Based Ment Health. 2018 Feb;21(1):12-15. doi:10.1136/eb-2017-102820. Epub 2017 Dec 22. PMID: 29273599.
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