Quote:
Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Ever read a doc's warnings on booze? I'd be dead already if they were true, and I'm not alone. I'm also not cirrhotic. I'd sue the fucks for falsely warning people for no good reason if I could.
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Sebby, that is because you don't understand that you have to have both heavy alcohol consumption
and a genetic predisposition (or some other disease like Hep C) to get cirrhosis. The problem is that they don't know the gene that is responsible for this so there is no test for it. They just know that there is a hereditary predisposition. So that is why they warn you - because a certain percentage of heavy drinkers will get cirrhosis and you cannot tell ahead of time who is in that percentage and who isn't. The exception to that is if you have a family history of cirrhosis. Then if you are a heavy drinker, you should definitely consider stopping. Same is true if you are Hep C positive or have some other disorder that is known to predispose you to cirrhosis.
OTOH, if you have a bunch of ancestors who are heavy drinkers and none of them has ever gotten cirrhosis, you are in all likelihood not going to get it. Alcoholic encephalopathy you may get, though. That takes quite a bit of drinking for a long time.
Quote:
Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
But the goddamn AMA says any cigarette is too much, because they think we're all too stupid to moderate our consumption. I've smoked for years, but only sparingly, here and there. Never been addicted.
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Genetics plays a role with this, too. While many people become addicted to nicotine quickly, others never become addicted. The problem is that you cannot tell who is in which group (yet) and for those in the addictive group, it doesn't take many cigarettes for them to become addicted. Once addicted for those people, quitting is very hard.
It isn't about moderation. You just weren't born with the genes that predispose to nicotine addiction.
