Do I Drink Too Much?

Of course I don’t drink too much. That is purely a rhetorical title, because I am not a drinker. Being without sin, as the Bible says, I can cast stones at you, reader, as likely you do drink too much.

Alcohol consumption has been much in the news lately, as recommendations as to what is a safe and appropriate are changing. Again.

It seemed for quite a while that moderate consumption of alcohol, i.e. the red wine is good for your heart narrative, was the conventional wisdom. Now, both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have stated that there is no health benefit from alcohol consumption, and further, there is no safe amount of alcohol use.

I’ve been writing articles for decades, and each of them has been proofread by a certain persnickety female person who edits out things that might get me arrested or fired. She objects to my statement that I don’t drink. Okay, I do have the occasional cocktail, but by drinker, I mean someone who regularly drinks. Whatever.

Alcohol use is one of these personal decisions with a murky calculus. There are certain absolutes, in my estimation. Anything more than minimal alcohol consumption means you don’t drive. I know there are legal limits and all, but even subtle impairment can get you and others killed. As a surgeon, the amount of death, disability, and disfigurement from alcohol I have seen will never leave me.

Once again, the editor has objected, apparently to my use of the word “occasional.” Four days out of seven in my book is occasional, maybe five.

Alcohol consumption that financially compromises the family, makes you a lousy spouse or parent, affects work, or gets you beat up in the bar is problematic. Booze is a big risk factor for cancer, not to mention liver failure, heart problems, brain damage, and so on. Most of us know this stuff. We’ve all known drunks who ended up as a pathetic mess.

For most of us, however, the question of our own, less dramatic use, isn’t as easily answered. Intuitively, I think most of us would agree that putting a toxic chemical into our bodies can’t be good. The recent recommendations aren’t a surprise to me or probably to you.

But life is a series of these calculations and compromises. For years, as a surgeon dependent on my hands, I used table saws, jointers, chop saws, band saws, and so forth. People thought I was nuts. Driving in Montana—nuff said. I use chain saws and heavy equipment. I operated on lots of patients with AIDS and Covid.

We all do things that are ill-advised, potentially dangerous, or just plain stupid. Many of those things are fun. Bad things happen on snowmobiles, ATVs, boats, and mountain climbing, but we choose to do these things rather than sitting home in the dark.

So what to do with this latest information?

My main concerns with alcohol are brain damage and calories. My 66 year-old brain may have (almost certainly) lost a step, so its decline doesn’t need any help. Conversely, the waistline suffers no such diminution.

The message I see here is to dial it down. There is no safe level of consumption, but I don’t think I can be an abstinent vegan living in a tree top. Pick a night a week, have a drink or two, and think wistfully of a time before annoying scientists and their draconian recommendations.

Here again the editor objects. A drink, she says? Does the WHO or the NIH know you mix your drinks in a beer mug? She mentions that the official amount of liquor in a drink is 1.5 ounces, “not enough to bathe a baby.”

Maybe I will live in that tree.