The Hangover That Lasts

NY Times ^ | December 29, 2007 | PAUL STEINBERG

[neverdem]

NEW Year’s Eve tends to be the day of the year with the most binge drinking (based on drunken driving fatalities), followed closely by Super Bowl Sunday. Likewise, colleges have come to expect that the most alcohol-filled day of their students’ lives is their 21st birthday. So, some words of caution for those who continue to binge and even for those who have stopped: just as the news is not so great for former cigarette smokers, there is equally bad news for recovering binge-drinkers who have achieved a sobriety that has lasted years. The more we have binged — and the younger we have started to binge — the more we experience significant, though often subtle, effects on the brain and cognition.

Much of the evidence for the impact of frequent binge-drinking comes from some simple but elegant studies done on lab rats by Fulton T. Crews and his former student Jennifer Obernier. Dr. Crews, the director of the University of North Carolina Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, and Dr. Obernier have shown that after a longstanding abstinence following heavy binge-drinking, adult...

--snip--

So, some possible resolutions for the New Year:

Stop after one or two drinks. Studies of the Mediterranean diet have shown that one or two drinks on a consistent basis leads to a longer life than pure teetotaling.

If you must binge, start at age 40, not at age 16 — and always have someone else drive. Just as youth is wasted on the young, so perhaps is alcohol.

If you have binged excessively when younger, follow it up with some regular exercise. Get those brain cells regenerated.

As Shakespeare once pointed out without the benefit of studies on lab rats, “O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!”

[incredulous joe]

But it’s a learning process.

Alcohol is weird! When I was your age I swear that there were times when I could drink an entire 6 pack in an hour and be completely unphased; literally felt stone-dead sober. At other times, I could get a serious buzz from a single beer. I think a lot has to do with metabolism and body chemistry.

Today, I can't drink beer fast enough to really get drunk. I fill up before I get that buzz. But I exercise conservative philosophy in all things; so, just make sure that you have a trustworthy FRiend to hold those keys when you don't know the limit.

I never ran into any problems personally, but can tell from a few close to me that DUI totally sucks. I also have a cousin who killed someone as a result of drunk driving back in the 70's. As you can imagine his life was changed forever.

[incredulous joe]

Don’t mess with Texas, man!

At least you kids ‘splode lemons fully clothed down thar.

Happy New Year, my Lone Star FRiends.

[dragnet2]

I also have a cousin who killed someone as a result of drunk driving back in the 70's. As you can imagine his life was changed forever.

Not to mention what it did for the dead guy and his family.

[VOA]

“When I turn 65 I plan to really start drinking hard. I also plan
to become a mean, nasty, embittered old man.....
Everyone need goals in life.”

That’s a good plan especially if you end up in a rest home.
I remember reading a social work study with a general “take-home” message:
In a nursing home, the loud, griping patients got care. The quiet ones
that never complained got less care and expired after a significantly
shorter stay than the angry, complaining residents.