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rule #1: be kind
My dad lived a healthy lifestyle. Worked out everyday except the weekends; even competed in amateur competitions. He followed all the scientist’s advice and ate what was healthy and stayed away from what wasn’t. Still got Stage 4 cancer and died before his 69th birthday.
Point is: we’re still going to die, no matter how healthy we are. If you want to drink, do it responsibly (don’t drive, or text). Enjoy as much of this shitty life as you can, while you can.
Same with people who smoke or eat bacon every day and live past 100. It's an odd crapshoot.
I've seen it said that your date of death (if natural) is somewhat set in stone by genetics, but the condition you'll spend your final years in will be the result of your lifestyle instead. So living to excess will fuck you up in your later years but won't necessarily kill you any sooner.
Oh no. My grandmother is 92 and my grandfather is 93 and my great grandfather passed at 102.
I don't know if I want to live that far. I better start drinkin'.
20-30% of lifespan is based on genetics and 20-30% of health in later years as well. The rest is all lifestyle.
This is controlling for external elements like accidents or disasters.
So somewhat genetics is true but it can be overcome with lifestyle to some degree. Figuring out which lifestyle choices is tricky and one of those times where sciences' replication crisis makes it all muddled.
Advancement in medicine also plays a role because it can reign in some poor lifestyle choices that were death spirals just a generation prior.
Getting cancer is largely based on genetics.
certain cancers like breast or thyroid and certain stomach are genetic.
For everything else age is a huge factor. It’s usually in late 60s a person gets more chances of cancer as your cells age and create mutations.
Certain life styles such as HPV are on the rise because of …well basically free loving in the 70s/80s prior to the vaccine. This is why you’re suddenly seeing a huge spike in throat cancer right now in 60 yr olds. Especially men and a lot of women are getting cervical cancer right now as gardisil was not around when they were most sexually active.
And then you have certain hernias as you age are likely to happen that can lead to stomach cancer as your cells will make more mistakes to try to heal these hernias.
Basically your cells heal. And each time they heal they increase in chances of mutation of becoming cancer. This becomes even more so as you age.
Waiting for all the COVID cancers, wildfire smoke cancers, etc. in 60 years
Yep, as the saying goes, living will kill you.
My approach is moderation. Enjoy life, enjoy those guilty pleasures, but, do it in moderation.
Everything in moderation, including moderation
Right, so I should do some moderate excess then?
Yes but avoid heroin. Some things are in excess even at the minimum possible amount.
This argument is so odd and it depends on what you take away from it.
Is the message "some people still get sick, so what's the point".....that's very misguided.
The point is that all the lifestyle actions you take, give you the best chances, but there are no guarantees with anything in life. You're still playing the odds, but trying to stack them in your favour as much as possible. If you prepare for an interview, you're not guaranteed to get the job; but you prepare to give yourself the best chance you can. You can't decide to do nothing because the outcome is not guaranteed. Concluding "why even bother" is such odd thinking.
Sorry about your dad though, RIP.
The message is meant to be that you shouldn’t waste your time chasing the perfect healthy lifestyle, because in the end you’re going to die. Instead, do things that you enjoy while you have time to enjoy them right now.
Nothing in the above should suggest to go buck wild and live an unhealthy lifestyle. For example, despite my experience with my dad and his chase for the healthy lifestyle, I too exercise, eat healthier, and drink in moderation. I’m certainly not trying to stave off death (who wants to live forever?). Rather, I’m trying to make the best of the life I have so I can enjoy time with my family.
That’s the point I was trying to make. 😊
Some things will cause you to probably get cancer like using tobacco heavily but there isn't any way to make yourself healthier really, if you're going to have a major medical problem like random cancer it's going to happen. Being healthier just makes it easier to resist it or have a better chance of survival.
Ya everything is probability and risk factors, nothing is certain. Life is for living, might as well have a good time (within reason/with moderation of course).
Alcohol is a carcinogen. No two ways about it. There aren't really "safe" levels for a toxin; it's not a matter of what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, it'll gradually and insidiously weaken you by ways of fatty liver disease and worse.
Sunlight is also a carcinogen, but that doesn't mean you always stay indoors.
No, of course not. You should apply sunscreen when outdoors
There's no "safe" level of sunlight, even if you wear sunscreen.
Yeah but you don't have to drink alcohol to live.
Going outside is unavoidable and using sunscreen, long clothing and a hat, protects you from a lot of the radiation damage.
Most outdoor activities are avoidable. Avoiding those activities entirely is safer than wearing protection.
Indoor humans represent!
If outside was completely avoidable, I absolutely would.
10 minutes of sun per day is typically less likely to give you cancer than 0 minutes. Vitamin D (and other compounds involved in the synthesis from cholesterol that you won't get in supplements) upregulate DNA repair polymerases that protect against carcinogens. Of course after a few minutes the costs of UV exposure outweight this benefit though.
There aren't really "safe" levels for a toxin
There is, actually. Everything is toxic if you take enough of it. The only difference between what is called "toxic" and is not called "toxic" is that what is called "toxic" has a very low threshold before it is toxic to us.
Now I'm not here to defend alcohol, but that statement is simply wrong.
So many people defending alcohol, it shows the current alcoholism problem.
You get told that something useless (yes alcohol is useless, if you don't agree you might already have a problem), that causes a LOT of deaths, violence and sickness, is absolutely not healthy (I struggle understanding how people were still believing that shit), and your reaction is to try to argue against it?
Then people panic at the mention of sweeteners because "maybe they're dangerous", but for alcohol which is one of the biggest sources of avoidable deaths, nah, it's probably fine, no matter what science says.
Addiction is a sad thing.
Alcohol isn't useless... It can sterilize things and be used as fuel. 😤
If you drink it, tho, you're just wasting it.
I'm sterilizing my insides! I'm so healthy!
It's kind of an interesting phenomenon here. There was the news of the flight attendant this week who want allowed on the flight she was planned on because she was too drunk, so much in fact that she crashed her car on the way to the airport, and quite some people were basically "I think being drunk at work is fine"
It's very much engrained in society still, I mean go out, drink, IDGAF, but don't hit me with that "it's actually good for you / this is culture / this world can't be enjoyed sober" stuff. Quit lying and take some responsibility
I had to have a pre employment drug test once, and one part was literally just a breathalyzer. It was vaguely confusing because why wouldn't you just not drink before a test, but it's actually for people that are alcoholics and their BAC never goes to 0 or they just drink all the time.
Addiction is a sad thing.
yeah god forbid someone find a bit of pleasure in the smouldering shitscape.
What if moderate drinking keeps my stress levels lower, is it healthier then?
Healthier than what? There are many ways to reduce stress that are healthier. If you refuse to learn how to have fun without alcohol then I guess it is, but you have eliminated a lot of better options already.
I guess I'm just wondering if it's stress or alcohol that's more dangerous to my body
Of course there is sometimes people don’t have the time and money. Can’t someone have some beers while gaming with their kid?
Meditation is one way to lower stress. 5 minutes a day is better than nothing, and it costs €0.00 / second and has no negative side effects.
Some people don’t get that 5 minutes of quiet away from their kids to meditate properly. There’s no single solution that is available to everyone.
Supposedly most of the benefit alcohol brings is in fact the idea that it helps people spend more time socializing, which has enormous benefits. A little poison for a lot of community can be a good trade.
The relationship between alcohol and stress is very complex, and if I'm not mistaken research shows that it can reduce resilience to stress. I didn't find dedicated studies on the issue quickly though. The ones I did find stayed that alcohol consumption for stress relief is associated with a higher risk for alcohol use disorder.
Personally, when I was still drinking, I avoided this scenario and never drank when stressed because of that issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xU5yIH_P9I talks about the issue, I guess there are more out there and it's not a scientific source. But maybe it's a start
If there is any "health" benefit I could see the stress relief from a couple drinks doing less damage to your body than being in constant heavy stress. Pure speculation tho.