Cheers! If you are reading this while having a cocktail, you might want to put the cocktail down or skip this newsletter because it is not good news. I was going to put this out before the holidays but with everyone needing to indulge at the holidays, because apparently we cannot enjoy our family or friends without social lubricant, I thought better of it. Sadly, every single shift I work in the Emergency Department there is at least one but usually multiple people that either health and or family has been destroyed by alcohol. Its hard to believe, when this is a legal, socially acceptable drug that you can get anywhere including a gas station (which is ironic since drinking and driving is so dangerous). Alcohol has claws that reach so deep once it grabs you it is hard to get away and so many people are suffering from its effects. Ahhh but you just drink wine and wine is good for you right? Wrong…. the amount of wine you need to drink to get the benefits of resveratrol would kill you and guess where the resveratrol comes from, grapes! And grapes are not addicting and won’t kill you slowly. Oh but you read a glass a day is ok….how big is your glass? That data is wrong anyway it is that people that can control their alcohol and drink moderately to very little or NONE, typically have other healthy habits. It is like saying vegetarians are skinny because they don’t eat meat, no vegetarians (that happen to be skinny) and label themselves as vegetarians are likely to also be hiking, doing yoga etc. these are correlations not causations. You know what alcohol does do for sure, kill you slowly by rotting you from the inside out. Oh, I drink a few times a week and I am fine you say….? The body is soooo resilient that when things start to go wrong like elevated liver enzymes, abdominal pain, skin changes that is not the beginning of problems that’s the beginning of the END. It is not fast, its slow and painful, trust me I see it. If it was so bad it would not be legal you say….um look around, do you think being healthy is in corporate America’s financial best interest? I’m not going down that rabbit hole, but no it is not, being sick is very profitable for corporate America. What about the dose makes the poison, if you drink too much water you can die. Well true, and you can imbibe safely, but 99% of people who drink alcohol have the same brain chemistry and will easily become addicted and build up tolerance to just one cocktail so then you need 2 then 3. You don’t become addicted to or build up tolerance to water.
So now that I ruined your evening cocktail and you hate me, I too have an occasional cocktail, and I used to have many (guilty confession), and it was a thing. Do not take this as never drink again but know what it is you are doing and know that it is sneaky and will grab you without you realizing it. Think of it like a gun, maybe necessary, maybe you enjoy shooting but it’s still dangerous and you should educate yourself about every aspect before you accidentally kill yourself or someone else.
How to Avoid Alcohol
If you are looking to cut back or quit and could use some help, feel free to reach out to me. Ironically the magic weight loss drug Semaglutide has an interesting side effect of making you not want to drink alcohol. There are some other meds and ideas that I can throw at you to try and help if you choose.
