Re:Army Corps of Engineers to Build Temporary Hospitals in NY
by burfog on Monday March 23, 2020 @03:12AM
(#22661848)
The tonic water that is available without prescription is too dilute to matter as a drug. You would get the permanent vision problems after using it daily for about 500 years, except that you are unlikely to live 500 years anyway.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Army Corps of Engineers to Build Temporary Hospitals in NY
by DoreenMichele on Monday March 23, 2020 @03:19AM
(#22661881)
Historically, a gin and tonic was developed to be used as a prophylactic against malaria for British soldiers stationed in areas where malaria was a problem. So it was a medicinal drink. This is easy enough to verify:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonic_water
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin_and_tonic
https://flaviar.com/blog/gin-tonic-history
http://activehistory.ca/2012/08/gin-and-tonic-a-short-histor...
I've done the math. I know how much tonic water you need to drink to be roughly equivalent to being prescribed quinine as a drug for medical use.
It's a lot, but not so much that you can't consume that much in a single day. I'm not posting the figures I remember here because I'm not interested in encouraging people to do something like that.