No doubt you've seen more than one headline in the media: "Scientists have proven that a glass of wine a day prolongs life. " It's unbelievable for a number of reasons.
First, scientists do not "prove" anything. They test their hypotheses under certain conditions and draw correct conclusions with certain probability.
For example, a special study could test the link between alcohol and the deaths of white European men. As a result, it turns out that a glass of wine a day is associated with a longer life, but this is not true.
Perhaps a third factor is "guilty" of everything - for example, the level of income: rich European men can get quality food and good medicine in addition to the daily wine. Or the cause and effect are mixed: relatively healthy people can drink a little, not alcohol, which improves health. Finally, in such a study, nothing is known about women, people of other races and nationalities, and there are still many factors that are not taken into account. Therefore, there is no way to communicate the results of a study to all people.
The second point is that even if you analyze all the research, it turns out that there is no link between small doses of alcohol and improving health. There is a scientific method, such as meta-analysis - scientists collect, summarize and draw all the relevant research on a particular topic. In meta-analysis, the mistakes of individual scientific works are corrected, and the results are more or less applied to the life of each of us. So, according to meta-analyzes, there is no difference in the health of those who drink less and those who do not drink at all.
Thus, alcohol in small doses - more than 10 grams of ethanol per day (about a glass of wine, beer or a glass of vodka) is unlikely to improve your well-being in any way, but it will not get much worse.
Wait, but alcohol and a healthy lifestyle are not compatible!
I will tell you more - modern life is not very compatible with a healthy lifestyle in general. If you live in a city and drive a car, you will no longer lead a healthy lifestyle.
For example, a car has so many carcinogens in the air - vodka has never even dreamed of! Running on a busy highway is more killer than 20 grams of pure alcohol. And if you smoke, it doesn't matter what you drink.
This does not mean that you can drink as much as you want, because everything is already lost.
"Beer" alcoholism is worse than "vodka" There are no "beer", "vodka", "pynonoir" and other types of alcoholism. There is only one type of this - ethanol dependence.
For this addiction, it does not matter in what form alcohol enters the body. Another thing is that over time, an alcoholic's need for ethanol increases. The fact is that a person can no longer drink so much beer or wine to achieve the "condition" - because the size of the stomach is limited. Therefore, most alcohols eventually switch to vodka - ideal for them in terms of price / quality / impact.
Let's say that switching to vodka is an indication that the addiction is enough. Immediately few people start with spirits - generally, "light alcohol" is used primarily as beer and wine. But just as there is no "light medicine, " there is no "light alcohol" - any drink can be addictive - and there is no escaping vodka.
If you drink, do not mix drinks!
The body is no longer interested in the drink from which ethanol is obtained. The severity of intoxication (and subsequent hangovers) depends only on how much pure alcohol you drink. Stir, don't stir - if you overdo it, the morning will be bad anyway.
Of course, there are nuances - some drinks contain "aggravating" substances, the same methanol. It is often found in products, especially home-made, pectin for raw materials - pears, apples, cherries, in small quantities - in products that serve as rich fruits and berries, such as grapes. If you mix vodka and calvados now, you will feel the effects of both ethanol and methanol in the morning. After beer and cognac are about the same - hanging, there will be more "bright colors", there will be "notes" of toxic substances that are typical for both drinks. Therefore, if there is a possibility, it is better not to mix. In any case.
You can warm up by drinking 100 grams in the cold
You can't. Instead, you can freeze even more until death.
Alcohol causes the blood vessels in the skin to dilate and heat to dissipate. If you enter the room from the cold and drink a little, it can help you warm up faster: the blood vessels will dilate, but the heat will stay with you, because the environment also gets warmer. But if you drink alcohol on the street, the heat in the expanded vessels will quickly leave your body and you will freeze even more.
Thanks to this "special effect" of alcohol, drunken people freeze to death on such a street at + 20⁰C: the air and ground temperature is lower than body temperature, the body gives off too much heat and overcooles very quickly - to death.
Alcohol is a good sleeping pill
Alcohol actually suppresses brain activity, which can help you fall asleep and fall asleep faster. But such a dream is likely to be short and productive.
The effects of alcohol are similar to those of some sleeping pills. You fall asleep quickly, but the sleep stages are disrupted and you can wake up in the middle of the night - and don't go back to sleep until morning.
"Alcoholic" sleep is not physiological, it is incomplete, it does not bring normal rest. Therefore, it is not recommended to use alcohol as a sleeping pill, and it is generally recommended not to drink it immediately before bedtime.