To drink on a weekend

[TORONTONY]

Hi owethemnowt can I request a copy of your detailed diet plan, exercise regime and lifestyle choices?

 

I just want to make sure you're doing everything correct so I can decide whether or not I'd be ok with you getting medical help at any point in your life.

 

Cheers.

 

His typing finger(s) well be the first to go

[Ridgewalk]

The debate remains undeveloped until someone starts to address both sets of facts I have posted.

 

Alcohol-related brain damage is the damage that occurs to brain structures or function of the Central Nervous System as a result of the direct neurotoxic effects of alcohol intoxication or acute withdrawal. ... Alcohol abuse especially during adolescence causes or worsens executive functions in the frontal lobe.

 

Certainly sounds like poison to me.

 

When consumed in moderate amounts, ethanol is not a toxin. However, in large enough quantities it can cause alcohol poisoning. In such cases, the dosage makes alcohol a poison or toxin.

 

Although classified as a depressant, the amount of alcohol consumed determines the type of effect. Most people drink for the stimulant effect, such as a beer or glass of wine taken to “loosen up.” But if a person consumes more than the body can handle, they then experience alcohol’s depressant effect. They start to feel “stupid” or lose coordination and control.

 

Alcohol overdose causes even more severe depressant effects (inability to feel pain, toxicity where the body vomits the poison, and finally unconsciousness or, worse, coma or death from severe toxic overdose). These reactions depend on how much is consumed and how quickly.

 

Alcohol as a toxin poisons the body.

 

Happy now?

 

Technically accepted as a toxin it poisons the body.

 

Does that make it safe to consume? Hey, I'm only drinking a toxin ..... it's not a poison. But it poisons my system and my body , through evolution, has learned to re-act by vomiting, in an attempt to rid me of the ''toxin'' that actually isn't a poison but is poisoning me.

 

Well, that's cleared that one up!

 

Alcohol is classed as a drug.

 

Now try this: Alcohol kills more teenagers than all other drugs combined. It is a factor in the three leading causes of death among 15 to 24-year-olds: accidents, murders and suicides.

 

In 2005–2006, there were 187,640 National Health System alcohol-related hospital admissions in England.

 

There were 6,570 deaths in England in 2005 from causes directly linked to alcohol use.

 

In 2006, alcohol-related deaths in England rose to 8,758. This amounts to an annual increase of 7% from the previous year.

 

According to one study, of the 490 million people in the European Union, more than 23 million are dependent on alcohol.

 

In Europe, alcohol contributes to nearly one in ten of all cases of illness and premature deaths each year.

 

39% of all traffic deaths involved alcohol in 2005.

 

40% of violent crimes occur under the influence of alcohol.

 

A long term effect of alcohol abuse is alcohol poisoning. Allow me to reference the NHS Choices web site, which states that 'Alcohol poisoning occurs when a person drinks a toxic amount of alcohol, usually over a short period of time (binge drinking).'

 

The NHS refer to alcohol consumption to a level where it is toxic and then starts to poison the body.

 

Poison again. From the NHS. May be they are 'amateurs' and don't know what they are talking about. Perhaps we should have some bar room experts put me and the NHS right.

 

But the NHS does try to explain itself clearly: 'More than 12 units and you're at high risk of developing alcohol poisoning, particularly if you're drinking lots of units in a short space of time.

 

Oh dear, alcoholic poisoning!

 

The alcohol can begin to interfere with the automatic functions of your body, such as your breathing, heart rate and gag reflex.

 

May be it's because the body is being ........ poisoned!

 

You're at risk of losing consciousness.

 

That's what poison tends to do. Passing into unconsciousness is listed amongst the NHS signs and symptoms of alcoholic poisoning.

 

Therefore, alcohol is a poison. Unless of course you're just 'un-winding' at the end of the day with a bottle of red. You'd be better off making that HP Sauce. Rather than the sauce. Or a can. Open a can. Just a few cans. If it were beans you'd soon be alarmed at the unpleasant effect that would have. But booze?

 

A poison that doesn't discriminate between adults and children with the result that more than 40% of children who start drinking before the age of 13 will go on to abuse alcohol or to become alcoholics at some point in their lives.

 

Data released by the NHS reveals that 33 children are admitted to hospital each day in England, with drink related problems. The NHS figures also reveal that 7034 kids under 18 years old received treatment for problems related to drinking alcohol in the first six months of 2011.

 

1000 young people under the age of 15 are admitted to hospital each year with acute alcohol poisoning. All need emergency treatment and some die.

 

Alcohol is now causing more deaths than heroin, speed, cocaine, ecstacy and cannabis combined.

 

All drugs.

 

I don't, for a minute, think people will condone heroin abuse. Decent people will neither defend the use of the other drugs listed above with the possible exemption surrounding the debate of therapuetic usage of cannabis, which I don't condone.

 

And yet there is a mob mentality in the blanket defence of the most lethal drug readily available across our society.

 

A drug that is killing someone that we all know, are related to, work with, call a neighbour or a friend.

 

The terible effects of alcohol, its use, its abuse, its normalisation throughout society are known to us all and yet are denied by so many.

 

It is unfortunate.

 

It is tragic.

 

But it is self inflicted and for that reason I have no sympathy.

 

We need to rationalise health care in order to provide for the deserving. For example, one operation only can be funded by the NHS: If your waster son needed a liver transplant due to being an alcoholic and at the same time your health aware daughter needed heart surgery due to cardiac arrest; who would you choose to save?

 

It would be a good place to start by tackling the alcoholic scourge that contribute so little to society and yet demand so much.

 

The stats are there for you to consider.

 

Facts.

 

 

Have you told them about Korsakoffs Psychosis yet ?

[Cyclone]

Blah, blah, toxin, poison, blah.

 

Look at these vitamins, vital for life, but also fatal toxins

Vitamin A - may lead to liver damage, headache, vomiting,

abnormal vision, constipation, hair loss, loss of appetite,

low-grade fever, bone pain, sleep disorders, and dry skin and

mucous membranes.

D - an cause irreversible damage to kidneys and

heart. Smaller doses may cause muscle weakness, headache, nausea,

vomiting, high blood pressure, retarded physical growth, and mental

retardation in children, and fetal abnormalities.

Niacin - Doses higher than the RDA raise the production of liver enzymes

and blood levels of sugar and uric acid, leading to liver damage

and an increased risk of diabetes and gout.

H2O - Hyponatremia - death

 

Many, many things are toxic if taken to excess, that doesn't mean that they are harmful in smaller quantities, or indeed absolutely vital.

[Owethemnowt]

Korsakoffs Psychosis? I've observed its effects on here, though would doubt it is confined to an older age group. Clearly, all inclusive!

 

Ignorance is bliss as Cyclone missed a wonderful opportunity to highlight the effects of a deficiency in Vitamin B1 [ Thiamine.]

 

But then ignorance has dominated this attempt at debate. Too much reporting of what a mate down the pub says ....... or should that be slurs?

 

As for medical help; having only ever been in hospital to visit I'm not planning, expecting or seeking any 'help' any time soon. Rather boringly I expect to be one of those who dies of ripe old age. After all, the myriad of diseases associated with alcohol won't be afflicting me.

 

Toronto Tony [TT] does make a rather amusing typing error of his own. Actually, it's more akin to a freudian slip: 'his typing finger's well .....' It is well. Very well. Effective too and I'm glad TT recognises it, albeit subconsciously.

 

I accept the compliment.

 

But I must return to Cyclone and his whirlpool of non-witisisms whilst listing the contents of a middle shelf in Holland and Barretts. The point he makes so forcefully regarding Vitamins, that many things are toxic, ergo poisonous, dependant upon the quantity consumed, is quite correct. Hence, we are discussing alcohol - the poison.

 

The science proves no benefit. That is, a small quantity of alcohol, as in 'moderate' drinking. However, the clue is found in the word 'alcoholic' where excessive consumption of the alcohol, of toxins, of poison is done on a daily basis. Just like some of us would take our vitamins! Daily, but not morning, noon and night with a snifter in between. That's what alcoholism is: drinking to excess, fast tracking your body to the grave by way of one of many diseases readily available. It's a long list. I invite Cyclone to provide it.

 

Hence, the evidence from the NHS Choices website. Evidence equating with facts.

 

Those awkward facts again.

 

So, having presented yet more facts, there does seem to be an un-ending myriad of them out there, all of which clearly condemn alcohol and do not redeem it. That's why we are encouraged to 'stoptober' a month without alcohol and not 'boozeober' a month with alcohol.

 

If your best friend still floats at the bottom of a bottle I suggest you choose your friends more carefully.

 

Finally, I'd like to consider confabulation. It is quite clear that this thread is dominated by such mindful meanderings of memories from down the pub, cracking open a bottle at home, or enjoying 'just the one'.

 

The leader of Ukip, a man who goes by the surname of 'Nuttall' has just had his moment of conflabulation. So perhaps there are quite a few 'Nuttalls' on here.

 

It sounds something like that.

 

Korsakoffs Psychosis ......... try to remember the facts!

Edited February 15, 2017 by Owethemnowt
Too many facts!

[dorberman]

Korsakoffs Psychosis? I've observed its effects on here, though would doubt it is confined to an older age group. Clearly, all inclusive!

 

Ignorance is bliss as Cyclone missed a wonderful opportunity to highlight the effects of a deficiency in Vitamin B1 [ Thiamine.]

 

But then ignorance has dominated this attempt at debate. Too much reporting of what a mate down the pub says ....... or should that be slurs?

 

As for medical help; having only ever been in hospital to visit I'm not planning, expecting or seeking any 'help' any time soon. Rather boringly I expect to be one of those who dies of ripe old age. After all, the myriad of diseases associated with alcohol won't be afflicting me.

 

Dear Tony does make a rather amusing typing error of his own. Actually, it's more akin to a freudian slip: 'his typing finger's well .....' It is well. Very well. Effective too and I'm glad Dear Tony recognises it, albeit subconsciously.

 

I accept the compliment.

 

But I must return to lovely Cyclone and his whirlpool of non-witisisms. The point he makes so forcefully, that many things are toxic, ergo poisonous, dependant upon the quantity consumed, is quite correct. Hence, we are discussing alcohol - the poison.

 

The science proves no benefit. That is, a small quantity of alcohol, as in 'moderate' drinking. However, the clue is found in the word 'alcoholic' where excessive consumption of the alcohol, of toxins, of poison.

 

Hence, the evidence from the NHS Choices website. Evidence equating with facts.

 

Those awkward facts again.

 

So, having presented yet more facts, there does seem to be an un-ending myriad of them out there, all of which clearly condemn alcohol and do not redeem it.

 

If your best friend still floats at the bottom of a bottle I suggest you choose your friends more carefully.

 

Finally, I'd like to consider confabulation. It is quite clear that this thread is dominated by such mindful meanderings of memories from down the pub, cracking open a bottle at home, or enjoying 'just the one'.

 

The leader of Ukip, a man who goes by the surname of 'Nuttall' has just had his moment of conflabulation. So perhaps there are quite a few 'Nuttalls' on here.

 

It sounds something like that.

 

Korsakoffs Psychosis ......... try to remember the facts!

how old are you?

nothing personal.just wondered with your views on life

[gomgeg]

Have you told them about Korsakoffs Psychosis yet ?

I've never heard of that one, but does it mean I can have an extra pint tonight? If so I'm all for it, it'll give me a good excuse to give Mrs Gomgeg.

[Ridgewalk]

I've never heard of that one, but does it mean I can have an extra pint tonight? If so I'm all for it, it'll give me a good excuse to give Mrs Gomgeg.

 

 

It's classed as a form of dementia caused by heavy alcohol use, but strangely not recognised as a mental illness by the psychiatric profession. Difficult to get your head round that one ( no pun intended).

 

It is not deemed to be progressive, meaning it won't get worse, but in my experience not reversible. There is another condition called Wernickes Encepholopathy ( spelling) which presents with similar symptomology but can be reversed with vitamins and a good diet and abstention from alcohol.

 

Someone will be along to correct what I've got wrong

[Padders]

blimey.. owethemnowt has driven me to drink.

[gomgeg]

It's classed as a form of dementia caused by heavy alcohol use, but strangely not recognised as a mental illness by the psychiatric profession. Difficult to get your head round that one ( no pun intended).

 

It is not deemed to be progressive, meaning it won't get worse, but in my experience not reversible. There is another condition called Wernickes Encepholopathy ( spelling) which presents with similar symptomology but can be reversed with vitamins and a good diet and abstention from alcohol.

 

Someone will be along to correct what I've got wrong

Thanks for that, a few doctors I've known have been among the biggest <removed> artists I've known which is probably one of the reasons it's not recognised as a mental illness.

Edited February 16, 2017 by nikki-red

[Owethemnowt]

how old are you?

nothing personal.just wondered with your views on life

 

You are nothing other than personal and, as I've clearly stated before, I have no intention of entering into the personal.

 

How you can attempt to extrapolate my 'views on life' based on an opinion about alcoholism beggars belief.

 

It seems one view of life you would endorse would be that of the Cyreniacs. Clearly, I am not of that persuasion.

 

Or would you think I am more Mohist in my thinking. You would be wrong.

 

Partly I can identify with the Cynics and the teachings of Socrates, parhessia being exhibited here. I can also identify with the notion of self-sufficiency in a philosophcal sense.

 

Then again Einstein believed that 'highest stage of consciousness as the highest ideal', while for me that too is appealing for the alcohol besotted dullard it is an impossibility.

 

Darwin allows for the meaning of life for a plant being different from that of a fish. I can empathise here as my meaning of life is certainly different from that of a drinker let alone an alcoholic. The latter being to have a drink. As for myself I choose to have a life. Major difference. One thing that many interpretations of Darwinism agree upon is that part of the meaning of life for any living organism is to pass their DNA on to the next generation.

 

Clearly quite a challenge for a sexually dysfunctional drinker.

 

So perhaps you'd like to consider nihilism? A true nihilist believes that there is no such thing as value or knowledge, and there is no point whatsoever to a person’s existence. Friedrich Nietzsche argued that nihilistic beliefs would ultimately lead to the downfall of everything, because people would simply cease to care about anything.

 

Now I can see some sense in that as it must be a belief [ a way of life, a consequence] of being an alcoholic. But it is not a view I share.

 

I can see more sense in Tibetan philosophy as it leans towards ending the world's suffering. Such an action would be to rid the world of alcohol and alcoholics. I'm not sure which is the best order. However, I am sure we'd be well on the way to deny them health care.

 

Now the Epicureans is an interesting view as all you have is what you have here on earth. There is nothing after. Hence, it offers the excuse to have a 'good time', and as so many have said on here, to open another bottle, the extra pint, a glass or two. Clearly, not my cup of tea are the Epicurean Philosophers.

 

However, one of the most important aspects of the Epicurean meaning of life is the cultivation of friendships, as friendship is one of the most pleasant, secure, safe, and everlasting feelings to which mortal man can aspire.

 

But as I've stated before, it doesn't apply if your best friend floats in the bottom of a bottle.

 

The aztec philosophy with its teotl polar opposites and it's belief that life's meaning is to to live in such a manner that future generations may enjoy the same good life that you did, is one I can not ascribe to.

 

You may be an alcoholic waster but why on earth would you want to pass that on to your children?

 

So, in not answering the question I leave you with the Humanists view. Which is that there is no meaning to life other than the meaning it has to us. The greatest mystery being what that meaning inside us is.

 

Clearly, for the alki it is nothing more than to have a drink. Because that brings contentment, happiness. There still remains the legacy that is left for those who come after, which in the case of an alcoholic, is worthless.

 

You may draw your own conclusion. Oh, I forgot, that's where you started.

 

I hope you feel enlightened as you can now pick and choose whatever answer best fits your view, give it a label, just like shopping for cheap booze to take down to the park, back home, into the office toilet, wherever and whenever you can't resist that craving to numb life from your ..... life.

 

But enough of my musing; let's get back to the facts shall we?

Edited February 15, 2017 by Owethemnowt