Here's the next in my series of 31 reasons why I'm doing Dry July. This one may be a little scary!
Good progress today. I've spent a bit of my Sunday lining up my blogs so I can still trot them out during a busy week. Big thank you to all my supporters. Keep reading!
Day | Sunday 2nd July |
|---|---|
Days without alcohol | 17 |
Funds raised | $1,215.80 |
Badges earned | Top of the world |
I'm feeling | Encouraged |
No safe level
All of us who like a drink (and yes, I am one of those) are always keen to understand what level of alcohol consumption is ok.
For a long time, doctors in General Practice would give a standard answer of two drinks a day for men and one for women. Leaving aside that this seems like yet another example of patriarchy, we know from scientific evidence that it’s bulls**t for other reasons.
There is another form of social BS which gives people a social reward for being able to “hold their drink”. We like to “try people out” by plying them with drinks to see how they hold up and in many social situations from business conferences to rugby clubs your status in the social order is tied to your ability to play this game.
As an Irishman I am expected to be very good at this game (and unfortunately, I am) but as I get older, I am increasingly uncomfortable with this being one of the measures of me as a man.
And the reason is that the evidence is incontrovertible and yet still not widely accepted by society at large: Alcohol is a group 1 carcinogen.
Yep, you read that right, booze is just as dangerous to our metabolism as cigarette smoke, asbestos and nuclear radiation.
What that means is that there cannot be any safe level of drinking, every drink increases your risk and not just of cancer but also heart disease despite what you might have heard about a little red wine being good for you, which turns out to be more BS.
So that’s my reason number 2 for undertaking Dry July.
Gotta say, It’s a big one!
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