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Re:Pothead Ph.D. - This is most definitely not a cautionary ... by silentbicycle on Monday July 07, 2008 @04:48PM (#239170)
If you define alcoholics as the set of people who, for whatever reason* , tend to drink to excess, that is, who as a rule do not drink moderately, then these health benefits are irrelevant to them. For example, if they try to drink moderately, but only succeed half the time and otherwise seriously overdo it, then the net effect on health is likely to be very negative.

* The debate whether alcoholism is a disease, a personality trait, or something else entirely is irrelevant here.

The health benefits of alcohol are an unusual case, also -- many of its benefits are related to other chemicals that frequently accompany it, such as polyphenols in red wine. This does not apply to "LSD/Cocaine/Heroine" (sic), though there are comparable benefits for coffee and tea (particularly green tea), mostly antioxidants.

Many doctors are reluctant to recommend moderate drinking for its health benefits because it is also addictive and impairs judgment, and in cases where people drink excessively, the health costs are severe. This doesn't apply to most things recommended for health (exercise, eating fruits and vegetables, getting enough sleep, nethack, green tea, pomegranate juice (or whatever the health craze of the moment is, ac,ai berries? peach fuzz?)), because most of those are less likely to be taken to excess, and would probably be several orders of magnitude less harmful even if they were.

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