> I would say that 3-4 beers several times a week is allot of alcohol.

I agree, I drink on average 1-2 a month, it's going to be 3-4 this month because of extra family and friend gatherings because of the holidays and I'm already feeling like its excessive. The article doesn't answer if my level of drinking would require the same length of abstinence.

Thanksgiving through new years is the season for conceiving. September is by far the most popular birth month!

Exactly. Maybe I’m just a lightweight, but 4 beers is into ‘drunk’ levels for me. Doing that 2 or 3 times a week? Of course that’s going to have health impacts.

Regular drinking exercises your liver and keeps it at peak performance.

(I am not a doctor.)

(Also not a doctor.)

Your liver is pretty unique here, as most other organs don't grow back (they get covered in scar tissue if they grow back at all). You can donate your liver, they'll remove about half, and it'll be back to normal in about 2 months.

Makes you smarter too. Your brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells, and alcohol tends to kill the weakest brain cells first. It's like culling the herd, you speed everything up.

(.../s)

It's all about tolerance. Half a pint gets me quite tipsy now because I drink maybe once a month at best, a pint will get me past the sweet spot already. A few years back I could have half a bottle of wine and be in the same perceived state

Is it also age? As I got old (50s) I could feel it hitting more. It’s stronger now (60s)

Depends on the timeframe and body weight. For a 280lb guy 4 beers over 4 hours isn’t particularly noticeable.

As a 270lb guy who is also tall, with a healthy mix of muscle and fat... Two beers 12oz beers will get me a really nice buzz, if not quite tipsy.

I drink maybe once a month, though- it's pretty wild to notice how much more affected you are once you lose your tolerance.

Sure, knock back 2 12oz beers back to back on an empty stomach and that’s noticeable. But, I’m at the it’s warmed to room temperature long before I’ve finished side of things.

>> but 4 beers is into ‘drunk’ levels for me.

Bro 4 beers in I would be actually sick, I definitely can't drive after 1 beer(nor would I want to). I literally don't understand how some people can chug 10-12 beers in an evening, like even ignoring the alcohol where does all of this liquid go?? I'll have two beers and the third one is literally a struggle to drink, it's just too much.

For most people, it's just tolerance. The more regularly you drink, the less effect it has.

> like even ignoring the alcohol where does all of this liquid go?

Into pee. You know how starting around the third or fourth round, everybody is getting up to pee every round or two?

Some of those people probably feel less from those 12 beers than you did from your one.

The volume part is trivial. Average human stomach is about half a gallon and it is not hard to drink a gallon over a few hours

yet many people still think that having 2 to 6 beers after work every day is somehow normal

"Normal" is a function of one's social environment, so for many people, having 2 to 6 beers after work every day actually is normal.

right, I guess I was meaning normal as in people do it because there's no harm in it at all

That's interesting; is it your perspective that people generally believe "that which is commonly done" to be equivalent with "that which is probably harmless"?

I don't see it that way at all, but my attitude about risk doesn't fit well with what I see in the culture where I live; perhaps the people I'm observing experience the world more in the fashion you describe.

it's a pretty normal and established occurrence I'd Say. I don't know if most people do that, but yes one way to rationalize or reassure yourself that what you are doing is safe is to look around at the wider group and see if people are doing it without worry.

As pointed out by the parent comment, one strong 16 Oz can is already 2 drinks. Having 2 of those in a night or even slightly weaker ones puts you in the 3-4 drink range. I'm sure I'm not the only one with a habit of having 2 of those a few nights a week to tie a long day off.

When I think of "beers" in America, I usually think of Bud Light or similar lightweight lagers that are usually in the 4-5% alcohol range. Drinking 3-4 of those over a few hours with food will not get most people very drunk at all, depending on bodyweight and tolerance.

I prefer IPAs which average closer to 7% and that higher alcohol concentration seems to make a big difference. Drinking 3-4 of those can get a person quite drunk.

It seems you've been downvoted by people who get drunk on two Bud Lights, lol

I guess so! I mean hey, if you never drink and you weigh 150lbs and have an empty stomach and you chug two Bud Lights... you're gonna get drunk! But this is not the situation most people are in when we think of someone "having a few beers".

And maybe people have different ideas of "drunk"? I don't think simply feeling some effect from alcohol constitutes being drunk.

There is an interesting explanation for this. Instead of thinking of apv what matters to your body is more the “retained alcohol” over a period of time. Your body can process something like a 4% beer every hour, so drinking one 4% beer an hour isn’t going to get you that drunk as your body is keeping up. Drinking a 5% beer though you start retaining 1% of beer an hour, but with a 6% beer you retain 2% per hour (twice as much alcohol) and you get twice as drunk. So for a 7% beer you will be 3 times as drunk. Rough math and everyone will be different, but you get the idea.

That would likely classify you as a "heavy drinker" by CDC definitions.

> For men, heavy drinking is typically defined as consuming 15 drinks or more per week.

You're definitely not the only one.

https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/faqs.htm

I mean assuming you're hitting about 3.5 drinks like that, you'd need to be doing it 5 nights a week to hit 15 and qualify as heavy drinking.

It's in the eye of the beholder I suppose. I wouldn't consider that bad, but that's coming from a former hope-to-die alcoholic who would drink around a dozen units of alcohol on any given night. I also know others who drank at about that level. I was able to keep up a job at a tech company as well, though I'd say that job was degrading my life and the alcohol was more a result of that than the other way around. I'm certainly not under the impression that it was good for me; I don't drink at all any more.

>it's in the eye of the beer holder.

It's interesting to observe the varied attitudes towards the consumption of alcohol. If someone chooses to drink alcohol and it doesn't negatively impact other aspects of their life, it could be viewed as a personal choice rather than a matter of societal concern. Throughout history, many cultures have incorporated alcohol into daily life, often as part of their culinary traditions. It's important to remember that life is finite, and how one chooses to experience it, as long as it doesn't harm others, can be seen as a personal decision. However, it's also crucial to acknowledge that responsible consumption and understanding its potential effects on health and well-being are key considerations.

> If someone chooses to drink alcohol and it doesn't negatively impact other aspects of their life

Almost everyone who drinks has this view of their own alcohol consumption. They aren't always wrong about this, but certainly very many of them are. Even people who are very obviously experiencing negative consequences of alcohol use will confidently assert that this isn't the case.

> Almost everyone who drinks has this view of their own alcohol consumption. They aren't always wrong about this, but certainly very many of them are.

This just seems like a trap. "Alcohol doesn't negatively impact my life." "Well, that's exactly what an alcoholic would say!" So, you can't rely on the person's own judgment. But you can't rely on others' judgment either. For any level of alcohol intake, from 1 beer a year to a liter of vodka a day, you can easily find someone who says it's too much and someone who says it's fine (or at least 'it depends').

They're diagnostic criteria intended for use by physicians, not for random internet people to diagnose others without even performing any kind of assessment.

If someone drinks one glass of wine a year, but their significant other gets upset about it (it's now "affecting their relationship"), is it them or their significant other that has A Problem?

rationalizing it is really dangerous. I had a friend who who used to say, "everyone has addictions."

I'm not sure that makes it a trap, but no I would not trust anyone's view of the consequences of their own drug use. But the alternative is not to match their use against a number created by an uninvolved third party either. Probably a person's family and other close relations have the most useful perspective on their use and its effects.

I'm not a moralizing teetotaler or drug abolitionist here either. Recreational drug use is often fine, people can and in some cases maybe even should do it. But it should stop when the negative consequences reach a certain point, and it's probably impossible for an individual to have the perspective allowing them to see where they are relative to that point.

> I'm not sure that makes it a trap, but no I would not trust anyone's view of the consequences of their own drug use.

And I wouldn't trust about anyone else's view. It's either a feeling (when you have to rely on the "drug user", how they feel about it) or it is hard facts. Outsiders opinions are worthless.

Right, I'm saying an outsider doesn't have an experience of the user and so no grounds for any particular insight about them and their use and its effects.

Their family and friends however are not outsiders. They have hard facts about how the use affects them, which is often some of the most significant negative consequences of drug use. I don't think any single person is situated to confidently say that someone else's use isn't a problem. But in cases where it is a problem, family often have all the information necessary to know that it is.

90% of alcoholic drinks are consumed by the top 10%. Something like 40% of people don't drink ANY alcohol, another 10% a few times a year, 10% maybe once a month, the last once a week, and the final group, drinks 10-20 drink per day...

Aren't you missing the group in between the last two that has two a day?

Nope. It goes from 1 a week to 20 a day. Slippery slope I guess.

For anyone curious about a source, there's https://archive.is/j3lg3 . Though I still vaguely recall looking at the source data (now lost to linkrot) and thinking that they had misinterpreted it.

I couldn't help by reading your comment with Seth Mayers immitating Bernie Sanders in my head. Nor could I help posting this, sorry...

I have drank average of 3 oz. per day (3 beers, or one healthy pour of scotch or bourbon), 5-6 days per week for the last 30 years. All blood work is normal. My parents drink significantly more than that are still healthy in their 70s.

> I have drank average of 3 oz. per day (3 beers, or one healthy pour of...

Maybe `sed 's/oz. per/drinks per/'` here? Though if they're 12oz x 8.5% beers, and the "healthy pour" is 8oz of 80 proof...