Geodog

Drinking booze is good for you?

One of the amazing things that I read while disconnected from the net was a fascinating and seemingly paradoxical article by Abigail Zuger in the NYT on the benefits of drinking alcohol (in moderation). The thesis of the article is that "A drink or two a day of wine, beer or liquor is, experts say, often the single best nonprescription way to prevent heart attacks — better than a low-fat diet or weight loss, better even than vigorous exercise." Ms. Zuger goes on to cite several doctors quoting numerous studies that she says have more than proved her thesis. She has some great examples and analogies. Recommended.

The article raises two interesting issues. One, which she brings up in the article is what to do with this information, since, as she states, "for every one of alcohol's health benefits there is an equal and opposite risk if a single glass turns into three or four." What do you do with a drug that will be reasonably beneficial for a majority of people, but will be terrible for a significant and large number of people? Do you promote the drug? I have seen the effects of alcoholism up close, and it is awful, both for the alcoholic and the people around the alcoholic. I want to answer that you just make the information available to people to do with as they see best, and that is probably where I come to rest in the debate, but I worry that I am ignoring how big an effect marketing by people with an economic interest in what people belive can be. Just ask women who were prescribed Viagra for an imaginary disease.

Another interesting issue is epistemological. While I remember hearing some discussion of whether a glass a day of red wine was good for you, I had no idea that there was so much data on the health effects of moderate alcohol consumption and that alcohol was so beneficial. Like this summer's article, What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?, on the public heath and medical establishments' hostility to the ideas behind the Atkins diet, this article made me wonder how much of what we accept as medical facts has no more basis in reality than what doctors used to deride as Old Wives Tales. It has also confirmed my belief that an ounce of good data is worth a pound of logic. Humans seem to be hardwired to be seduced by logic and reasoning. People can and do logically argue for all kinds of ideas that sound plausible, but which in fact turn out to be false when someone goes out and collects data.