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Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: MillCreek on January 07, 2015, 12:35:51 PM

Title: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: MillCreek on January 07, 2015, 12:35:51 PM
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129502.600-our-liver-vacation-is-a-dry-january-really-worth-it.html#.VK1t4ntqmQf

The British medical establishment has been experimenting with the concept of a 'dry month' for a few years now. Benefits include lower amounts of liver fat, cholesterol and blood glucose.
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: Ben on January 07, 2015, 01:04:56 PM
But if I have lower amounts of fat, how will my arteries stay lubricated?  =D
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: gunsmith on January 07, 2015, 01:31:47 PM
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129502.600-our-liver-vacation-is-a-dry-january-really-worth-it.html#.VK1t4ntqmQf

The British medical establishment has been experimenting with the concept of a 'dry month' for a few years now. Benefits include lower amounts of liver fat, cholesterol and blood glucose.

I was told I had high cholesterol after 17 years of not drinking 
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: Ron on January 07, 2015, 02:21:09 PM
I was told I had high cholesterol after 17 years of not drinking 

The drop was only 5%. That is not enough to go from high to low cholesterol unless you were only marginally high.

 
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: dm1333 on January 07, 2015, 03:57:03 PM
Was there any mention of how much these people were drinking before they gave it up.
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: zxcvbob on January 07, 2015, 04:14:13 PM
I sometimes give up alcohol during Lent.  (I don't think I could give up coffee for that long)
Part of it is to give my liver a rest.  It's amazing how one's tolerance for alcohol resets in a month and a half -- and how quickly it comes back when you start drinking again.
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: AJ Dual on January 07, 2015, 04:45:39 PM
Cutting out sugar, white flour, corn, and rice will drop your LDL a lot more.
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: dogmush on January 07, 2015, 08:38:41 PM
No.
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: GigaBuist on January 07, 2015, 09:13:19 PM
I was told I had high cholesterol after 17 years of not drinking 

I had an idiot of a doctor tell me it was a "waste of resources" to give me a cholesterol test at the age of 30 because I drank.  He "knew" the result would be high.  I insisted, pointed out my wife wanted me to get tested.

Result:  115.

He never discussed the results with me.
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: Devonai on January 08, 2015, 07:43:41 AM
I did that last year, 9/17 - 10/17.  I had abdominal pain, my doc said it could be fatty liver, so off I went.  The pain went away, I returned to moderate drinking, and I'm still fine 10 weeks later. If the pain returns, I'll do another month, lather, rinse, repeat.

By the way, all of my blood work is normal, cholesteral was 179. I am convinced the pain was a perniciously pulled muscle, and the doc said it could even be osteoarthritis.  I am being careful either way.  Also I've lost 18 pounds since June, which can't hurt.
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: 230RN on January 08, 2015, 08:00:40 AM
It took me a year after I quit to feel 100%, mentally, again.  But I don't know what it did for other health parameters.  That was 1993 or so.
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: Doggy Daddy on January 08, 2015, 08:02:48 AM
Do you suppose these people might have partaken of the free peanuts to go with their beers.
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: charby on January 08, 2015, 08:22:21 AM
If I gave up working for a month I'd be a lot healthier.
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: Monkeyleg on January 08, 2015, 09:12:44 AM
My whole life changed when I quit drinking, some things for the better and some for the worse. In terms of health, it improved a lot. Mentally and emotionally, things got better. My marriage? Not so much, since she was still an alcoholic.

I'm sure I was drinking a lot more than most people here.
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: 230RN on January 08, 2015, 10:26:06 AM
THEE:
Quote
My whole life changed when I quit drinking, some things for the better and some for the worse. In terms of health, it improved a lot. Mentally and emotionally, things got better. My marriage? Not so much, since she was still an alcoholic.

I'm sure I was drinking a lot more than most people here.

ME:
Exactly the same thing here.  After I quit, her drinking seemed to get worse.

Almost as if she resented my quitting.  

Had to call the cops once when she got particularly violent.  (This was before the "arrest both" doctrine.)  The cops asked if I either wanted her arrested, or committed to a recovery facility.  I opted for the recovery facility, which she resented even worse, saying, "If you had just had me arrested, I would have bailed myself out that night."

But the enforced five-day program in the "drunk tank" didn't do any good.  
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: MechAg94 on January 08, 2015, 11:27:06 AM
 I figure I could name those same benefits for using a breathing machine at night with my sleep apnea.  Also, what do they mean by high cholesterol?  The target for high cholesterol is a good bit lower than it used to be.
Title: Re: Give up booze for a month and be healthier
Post by: AJ Dual on January 08, 2015, 12:01:44 PM
THEE:
ME:
Exactly the same thing here.  After I quit, her drinking seemed to get worse.

Almost as if she resented my quitting.  

Had to call the cops once when she got particularly violent.  (This was before the "arrest both" doctrine.)  The cops asked if I either wanted her arrested, or committed to a recovery facility.  I opted for the recovery facility, which she resented even worse, saying, "If you had just had me arrested, I would have bailed myself out that night."

But the enforced five-day program in the "drunk tank" didn't do any good.  

IMO, often "programs" exist equally for the addict, and their circle of family and friends affected by the addiction. Either the addict gets better, or the kin at least gets the comfort of knowing they tried.

Personally, I think interventions need to be more binary. On one table is the plane ticket and the rehab escort sitting there. On the other is a bottle of Everclear and a nice ball of high quality Mexican Black Tar.  The 'Will they or won't they?' pussyfooting around is tedious.