The coronavirus pandemic is causing serious problems around the world. Many companies and their employees are hit hard. COVID-19 and unemployment are closely connected.  COVID 19 especially threatens restaurants and bars. These have been places where people typically gather in groups.  However, social distancing and sheltering in place threaten to destroy such businesses. Trying to survive, they have closed their dining rooms and taprooms. Thus they must rely on takeout and/or delivery. This also true… Read more

Research has shown that alcohol drinking reduces Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other causes of dementia. This has long been true. Recently, research has implicated plaques in the brain in causing AD. And a cause of such plaques are beta-amyloid peptides. These are short links of amino acids. OK, so this isn’t a chemistry class. The important thing is that moderate drinking appears to reduce these peptides. I. The Study Researchers at Seoul National University and… Read more

Researchers wanted to know if there is a link between drinking alcohol and blood vessel function or health. The endothelium is the thin interior surface of small blood vessels. Endothelial dysfunction (ED) is when it fails to perform all of its important functions normally. As a result, several bad things can happen to the tissues supplied by those arteries. For example, ED is a risk factor for heart and vessel diseases. That includes heart attacks… Read more

Are drinking alcohol and weight gain connected? We hear much about the calories in alcohol. So what’s the story? I. The Study Researchers wanted to find out. To do so, they studied 37,000 non-smokers for five years. Smoking and drinking interact to influence weight. Therefore, the researchers limited their study to people who had never smoked. Thus, they could focus entirely on the effects of alcohol itself on weigh. Some people are tall while others… Read more

What should alcohol policy for youth be in the U.S.? This is a heated subject. Here the National Youth Rights Association (NYRA) gives its views. I. Alcohol Policy for Youth NYRA believes U.S. youth alcohol policy should recognize the inevitability of alcohol consumption among youth. Therefore, it should seek to reduce the harm of that alcohol use. It shouldn’t try to keep young people from drinking at all. That won’t work. Congress and states could enact any… Read more

Many U.S. states prohibit alcohol education by parents. Historically, this is a radical change I.  Tradition Both common law and societal tradition give parents very wide latitude in raising their children. Parents can raise their children in whatever religion they wish. Or they can raise them as atheists or agnostics. Parents can teach them whatever social and political views they wish. And they can determine their education (public, private, parochial or home-school). Historically, parents have… Read more

A common way of trying to discourage alcohol drinking among college students is to emphasize the calories in alcoholic beverages. However, this may have dangerous outcomes. I. The Study A study of 4,271 undergraduate college students from ten universities participated in the study. Thirty-nine percent of the students had consumed alcohol within the previous 30 days. They reported that they restricted their eating on days they planned to drink alcohol. Of these, 67% said they… Read more

Scare Tactics The use of scare tactics has been traditional in alcohol education. However, the alcohol education scare approache isn’t very effective. Yet this fact has’t discouraged its use. But research beginning in the 1930s has found that scare tactics tend to be ineffective and can be counterproductive. In short, people tend to “tune them out.” That’s because they tend to create mental discomfort. And there appear to be many other reasons they tend to… Read more

There are, and have been, many alcoholic politicians. Today, some have reported themselves to be alcoholic and have sought treatment. For alcoholic politicians of the past, it’s harder. Therefore, historians base their judgements on accounts of those who knew the politicians and their actions. However, it’s safe to assume that there are many politicians who are alcoholic who are not on this list. Alcoholism cuts across societies. It’s among different genders, races, economic levels, religions,… Read more