CHAMBERS BROTHERS...LIVE

Saw these guys live in 1972, absolutely great...

but Larry might not think so...

DRINK UP, MY FRIENDS...

Heavy Drinkers Outlive Abstainers

by JAY BROOKS

Many different studies have shown that people who drink alcohol in moderation liver longer than binge drinkers and abstainers. Anti-alcohol groups, and especially AA, have petulantly insisted the reason that abstainers show up in the data as having shorter lifespans than moderate drinkers is because they are all former heavy drinkers who stopped drinking after the damage was done. A new study finally puts that self-serving lie to rest.

Late-Life Alcohol Consumption and 20-Year Mortality was recently published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The study examined “the association between alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality over 20 years among 1,824 older adults, controlling for a wide range of potential confounding factors associated with abstention.” The results, according to the abstract were the following;

Controlling only for age and gender, compared to moderate drinkers, abstainers had a more than 2 times increased mortality risk, heavy drinkers had 70% increased risk, and light drinkers had 23% increased risk. A model controlling for former problem drinking status, existing health problems, and key sociodemographic and social-behavioral factors, as well as for age and gender, substantially reduced the mortality effect for abstainers compared to moderate drinkers. However, even after adjusting for all covariates, abstainers and heavy drinkers continued to show increased mortality risks of 51 and 45%, respectively, compared to moderate drinkers.

And here it is again in a handy chart I made:

See, drinking is good for you. It is part of a healthy lifestyle. Drinking moderately is the best choice you can make to lead a healthier life. It’s better for you than drinking only occasionally, drinking heavily or not at all.

Here’s how Time Magazine put it.

But even after controlling for nearly all imaginable variables — socioeconomic status, level of physical activity, number of close friends, quality of social support and so on — the researchers (a six-member team led by psychologist Charles Holahan of the University of Texas at Austin) found that over a 20-year period, mortality rates were highest for those who had never been drinkers, second-highest for heavy drinkers and lowest for moderate drinkers.

They conclude:

These are remarkable statistics. Even though heavy drinking is associated with higher risk for cirrhosis and several types of cancer (particularly cancers in the mouth and esophagus), heavy drinkers are less likely to die than people who have never drunk. One important reason is that alcohol lubricates so many social interactions, and social interactions are vital for maintaining mental and physical health. As I pointed out last year, nondrinkers show greater signs of depression than those who allow themselves to join the party.

That said, the new study provides the strongest evidence yet that moderate drinking is not only fun but good for you. So make mine a double.

Of course, the researchers bend over backwards to make sure no one thinks they might be advocating for drinking. Heaven forbid. That’s been pretty much SOP for academic papers that have findings at odds with the anti-alcohol community for as long as I can remember. If they discovered tomorrow that chocolate cured cancer, do you think there would be warnings about the dangers of obesity attached to it? My point is everything has consequences but it seems that alcohol continues to carry a stigma that most others do not.

Still, this is great news.

With thanks to Brookston Beer Bulletin

YACHT ROCK EPISODE 1

GOING TO MOOSEVILLE

Be gone for 2 weeks, and most likely no internet. So I'll be back later in June, hang in there...

...and with any luck, beer #700 when I'm there...

RIP: GARY COLEMAN

Dead at 42...a life cut short...

(Oh, wait, he was already short - sorry, couldn't resist.)

RIDDLE ME THIS...

So the BP oil spill has been going on for about 2 weeks now, so why is it the price of gas has gone down almost 30 cents in that time...???

BEER NUMBER 698

Closing in on the big 7-0-0! And this was a tasty one, brewed by Lagunitas Brewing in California. Released on the 40th anniversary of the Frank Zappa album of the same name, a tasty dark beer listed as a American Double / Imperial Stout. Whatever.

A tasty beer nonetheless, though I was surprised to find it a dark beer, as you

couldn't tell through the bottle what it was, and didn't see anything on the label. But a fine drinking experience, and of course, a nice collectable label.

RIP: RONNIE JAMES DIO

Black Sabbath, Elf, Rainbow and Dio singer Ronnie James Dio has died after losing his battle with stomach cancer.
The 67-year-old singer, who passed away early yesterday morning (May 16), was diagnosed last November and seemed to be making good progress earlier this year.
The singer, who replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath in 1979, fronted Heaven & Hell and Dio before his death.

And, for those of you unaware, Ronnie invented the heavy metal devil horns, after replacing Ozzy in Black Sabbath. Ozzy used to use peace signs when working the crowd, and when Ronnie took over, chose to replace the signs with the evil-eye/devil horn symbol.

A man with a truly incredible voice, sorry to see him go.

Rock on Ronnie, rock on...

ODD HOURS

By Dean Koontz:

"Blossom said, "Grandma Melvina taught a gorilla named Percy to write poetry."

Annamaria said, "Free verse, I imagine."

"No sane person would have paid for it," Blossom said, and they both laughed.

'Someday the telephone will be a small voice-activated chip embedded just behind the jawbone and under the ear, and then cell phones will be as outmoded as the coin-operated variety that they have gradually but steadily replaced.'

THE EGYPTOLOGIST

by Arthur Phillips:

"The following items will be irretrievably lost someday quite soon: Beethoven's works. The beer you prefer. All record of your ancestry. The place you first kissed a girl. Toffee. Coffee. The landscape you associate with peace and liberty. Any evidence of your boyhood, real or just fondly recalled."