Benefits Of Going Teetotal?

Gopnik

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After 14 years of moderate drinking, I decided to go teetotal because I want to try to slow the ageing process down. I'm trying to research whether not drinking any alcohol would help, but so far I'm only getting results for teetotallers vs alcoholics, not teetotallers vs moderate drinkers. Can anyone please give me any information on whether teetotallers have better health than moderate drinkers?
 

ddjd

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i also wonder if 1 big night of excessive drinking once a month, is better or worse than regular moderate drinking
 

sunraiser

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Moderate or light drinking is often a reflection of an already healthy persons drinking pattern. It implies a social network and a lack of physiological need for a crutch, merely following cultural and social trends.

Teetotallers are often responding to addiction or addictive tendencies (poor physiology and/or overt stress. They often have worse health outcomes as their teetotalness is a coping mechanism for poor function somewhere in their dopamine metabolism pathway (perhaps liver health for copper and t3 processing).

Correlation != causation. I believe a healthy person that chooses to be teetotal will be healthier. For the above reasons you can’t use the mortality figures as a useful set of data.
 
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Alcohol poisons all bodily tissues. It’s used to sanitize medical equipment because it kills everything. People use it because of boredom or for coping with problems because it’s dopagenic. You should be so busy enjoying life that you don’t need alohol. Get your dopamine hit from something healthy.
 
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The benefit is allowing your liver and gut to heal, and possibly reducing the level of metabolic waste alcohol being used for energy produces. If you are a responsible moderate drinker I’m not sure if there is a lot of benefit other than that.

I have gone 2 to 3 months not touching a drop and always by the end of the stretch I talk myself out of it as I don’t perceive any amazing benefits to justify the complete abstinance. Alcohol has accompanied human life as far back as history goes, there are hundreds of beer recipes written in cuneiform. The difference between it being poison or a medicine is in the dose, and one’s general state of health. I feel best with the following pattern; day one: protect system around drinking hours with berberine, activated charcoal, b vitamins and have 3 or 4 drinks total for the day, day two: wake up feeling fine, no more than one drink on this day. Repeat cycle. Drinking daily more than just one or two drinks takes a toll, even if you have perfected protecting from endotoxin like effects and never being hungover - the truth is calories from alcohol will prevent you from having much room left to get better calories from real foods. The more alcohol calories replace the other calories the greater the deficit that is produced. Pulsing drinking like I mentioned allows one to have a little inebriated fun, not build up a tolerance, and not create a large deficit. Now if you can’t follow simple rules like this then you likely have a problem and likely are better off not drinking at all.
 
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Gopnik

Gopnik

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Alcohol poisons all bodily tissues. It’s used to sanitize medical equipment because it kills everything.
Thanks, that's a helpful answer. Exactly the sort of information I'm looking for.

It's a shame that I haven't seen any scientific papers advocating teetotalism though.
 

Lurker

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Peat said PUFA is what caused cirrhosis in alcoholics (and probably applies to NAFLD as well). He mentioned an Indian study that showed alcoholics that consume a lot of dairy fat don’t get FLD.
 
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Olive oil is pretty great for preventing hangovers.
 
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Teetotallers are often responding to addiction or addictive tendencies (poor physiology and/or overt stress. They often have worse health outcomes as their teetotalness is a coping mechanism for poor function somewhere in their dopamine metabolism pathway (perhaps liver health for copper and t3 processing).

do u really think every person drinks alcohol consistently to the point where if they don't, they must be battling a previous addiction?
 

sunraiser

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do u really think every person drinks alcohol consistently to the point where if they don't, they must be battling a previous addiction?

That’s not what I intended to put across. It was merely the fact that drinking is so culturally ingrained in the Western world that to absolutely flat out abstain is quite rare. Many will drink very lightly but total abstinence often (but not always, of course) comes from an addictive or troubled past.
 
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Isn't that kind of similar to antibiotics though, which could be considered good at times?

No because antibiotics kill bacteria not tissue. Alcohol causes esophageal and liver cancer because of how it damages the tissue.
 

InChristAlone

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I have gone yrs without a drop and yeah I was going through health problems. But now I mostly abstain still and am healthier than I was. I decided to test it out again and handled it great. So I am not.avoiding due to my health anymore just that I have no desire to harm my liver.
 

Jackrabbit

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There was a study recently that a third of a unit of alcohol (ie. A glass of wine, beer or a shot of liquor) was preventative for Alzheimer’s and helped clear the waste in the brain better than no alcohol. And one whole unit of alcohol was enough to render the benefits void. Since I drink so rarely I find having a third of a glass of beer actually gives me a nice little buzz and I feel great in the morning!
 

sunraiser

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To add some balance, I've read some interesting stuff about raw beer or ale being a good probiotic (like other fermented foods). It can also be something of a digestive aid.

I wonder if the benefits many receive from light alcohol intake are related to it being a probiotic? Mass produced quick-made pasteurised stuff isn't going to contain live cultures, but a longer fermented raw beer will do. The mediterannean cultures that are drinking wine are probably not drinking the anti-freeze type stuff that's mass produced.

I've been having a little bit of a raw Belgian Beer called St Stefanus recently and I'm enjoying it. Maybe only 150-200ml at a time but it tastes so crisp and full that's enough for me.
 

CrystalClear

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Just reading through this older thread because it is relevant to me atm.

When I started my Peat inspired hypothyroidism diet about 3 years ago I stopped drinking alcoholic drinks. Before "Peating" I would usually have a small glass of red wine in the afternoon. But it was easy enough to forego.

I've had some health improvements thankfully, but I'm still bothered by sleep issues. One is waking up to go to the toilet through night, and I can't remember a night in the last 8 or more years when I have slept right through to morning.
I've worked hard on trying to get the stress hormones down.

Recently though, my husband and I went out for a special lunch with another couple and I had a small alcoholic drink. Do you know the Bailey's Irish Cream?
That night I slept all night without having to get up to to the loo. Didn't click it was the alcoholic drink though. I thought it was my large salty lunch.
My husband a few days later surprised me when he brought home a cheaper version of the Bailey's but just as nice and based on brandy, not whisky.
Had a bit with the same loo free night results again. When it clicked, I tried it again, same result.

I don't really want to make a habit of it but it's interesting.

In my earlier days at times I used have some brandy to relieve excruciating period pain as it was an old remedy my mum told me about.

In answer to the OP though, teetotalling, if you have hypothyroidism, is a must. Once recovered, I suppose alcohol in moderation doesn't hurt as long as our diet and lifestyle is protective, but as with our other food we need to source what's best.
 

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