Talk:Alcohol and health

I was surprised to read this page. For such an important topic, its both incomplete in terms of what it should contain, and overly inclusive of irrelevant information. For example, the lead says "Alcohol stimulates insulin production, which speeds up glucose metabolism but the detail on this (and effects on hormones and glands) is missing from the body. Likewise, I think that the information on alcohol and religion in most irrelevant. Sorry its beyond my expertise to make profound changes to this article, but thought I should flag it. +|||||||||||||||||||||||||+ (talk) 02:30, 16 July 2013 (UTC)

The definition of "unit of alcohol"

What the hell is a "unit"? Please supplement with the equivalent in milliliters and ounces. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Robert Franks (talk • contribs) 16:10, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

Needs a lot of work

This article is a mess! Just looking at the Pregnancy and alcohol section, it cites a single study instead of review studies, and it mis-states the results of the study is does cite. I'll try to do something about this but the article needs more eyes on it. --MelanieN (talk) 14:35, 15 August 2014 (UTC)

Looking a little closer, I'm not sure about this article in general. It seems like a hodgepodge of unrelated material. There are already many articles here on the subject of Alcohol and health, see Category:Alcohol and health; much of the content of this article is copied from those other articles or could be merged into them. Most of the content here was contributed by User:David Hedlund, whose previous contributions on the subject of alcohol were so problematic they mostly had to be dismantled and he was indefinitely blocked. Is this another such article? What do people think? --MelanieN (talk) 15:16, 15 August 2014 (UTC)

Information is coming in from several talk pages. At this point people don't have a firm opinion whether the article should be kept or not; I don't either. I have learned that Alcohol (drug) still exists at Draft:Alcohol (drug), and at that talk page I found the information that this article (Alcohol and health) was created when David Hedlund split it off from Alcoholic beverage last year. That gives me an idea of where to start analyzing this article for duplication, merit, etc. --MelanieN (talk) 23:49, 15 August 2014 (UTC)

Violation of WP:ADVOCACY + Exposure to litigation?

This article seems to be advocating the point of view that alcohol has no health benefits whatsoever. The only thing it has to say about the many studies finding health benefits for alcohol in moderation is to deny them, sourced [39] by Alcohol Action NZ, an anti-alcohol advocacy group in New Zealand.

To quote from Alcohol and cardiovascular disease, "Multiple studies on moderate alcohol consumption have now reconfirmed earlier suspected cardioprotection findings. A 2006 study concluded, 'Even in men already at low risk on the basis of body mass index, physical activity, smoking, and diet, moderate alcohol intake is associated with lower risk for MI [myocardial infarction].' Another study found that when men increased their alcohol intake from very low to moderate, they significantly reduced their risk of coronary heart disease."

In my case my cardiologist advocated for red wine following my quintuple bypass in 1992, based on the research to date, which I duly followed. Had I instead followed the advocacy of this article against all alcohol, for all I know I might not have lasted 22 years.

Furthermore reduced cardiovascular disease is not the only benefit. Seven studies each finding a different benefit of alcohol are listed at http://www.medicaldaily.com/7-health-benefits-drinking-alcohol-247552.

The wisdom of Islam's prohibition against alcohol is called into question by the article http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Moderate_Alcohol_Consumption_and_its_Health_Benefits which offers a further list of health benefits of alcohol including stroke, diabetes, brain trauma, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, anxiety and depression, always with the caveat "in moderation" of course.

This article could be made more neutral in either of two ways: discuss each of the health benefits of alcohol that have been noted in the literature, or delete the article. Outright denial of any and all benefits based on a single anti-alcohol source is obvious advocacy promoting a point of view that not only contradicts a great many studies but is potentially fatal for readers of Wikipedia predisposed to heart disease. Given its large readership, Wikipedia could easily find itself exposed to multiple lawsuits obliging it to demonstrate that this article was in fact correct and that alcohol indeed has no health benefits. Vaughan Pratt (talk) 00:39, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

You are absolutely correct that this article has major problems. It was created by an editor who has since been banned for his anti-alcohol advocacy. I have been meaning to work on it but have not had time - and won't for at least another week. But I will keep it on my radar. In the meantime I encourage anyone else to try to improve it. MelanieN (talk) 00:59, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Agreed on the NPOV concerns; I've done my best to rework the last paragraph (which was egregious enough to make me sign up and do my first ever edit) and provide quotes from the source material, but the whole article is really a mess as you say, and I don't have the necessary skills yet to know the proper methodology to improve it. Will get on learning the Wikitext skills/Wikipedia policies and do better next time. Statera (talk) 02:50, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

Criteria

User:Benlisquare stated that "Medical articles on Wikipedia have a higher standard of verifiability compared to others." LOL. SundayRequiem (talk) 07:55, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

There is WP:MEDRS. How is this humorous? Sizeofint (talk) 08:03, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

He's just a long-term problematic user. His very first edit on Wikipedia essentially represents the gist of the other 371 edits that he's made, to varying degrees. Let him do as he pleases; give him enough rope, and he'll make my job much easier. --benlisquare_T•C•E 09:05, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

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No amount of Alcohol is Good For Your Health

Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for disease burden worldwide, accounting for nearly 10% of global deaths among populations aged 15–49 years, and poses dire ramifications for future population health in the absence of policy action today. The widely held view of the health benefits of alcohol needs revising, particularly as improved methods and analyses continue to show how much alcohol use contributes to global death and disability. Our results show that the safest level of drinking is none. This level is in conflict with most health guidelines, which espouse health benefits associated with consuming up to two drinks per day. Alcohol use contributes to health loss from many causes and exacts its toll across the lifespan, particularly among men. Policies that focus on reducing population-level consumption will be most effective in reducing the health loss from alcohol use.

source: Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016 Published:August 23, 2018DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31310-2 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31310-2/fulltext#%20

Added high-quality secondary citation and this global burden of disease study to the article.Sbelknap (talk) 20:57, 30 August 2018 (UTC)

Hyperlinks to this article

There is an active RfC underway on the Whisky talk page as to whether the "whisky" article will include links to this "Alcohol and health" wikipedia article, and similar articles. Specifically: Should the whisky article provide direct links to articles about the effects of ethanol on those who consume whisky? Here is a proposed sentence with hyperlinks: Some effects of whisky consumption are due to its alcohol content. See: Alcohol intoxication, Short-term effects of alcohol consumption, Long-term effects of alcohol, and Alcohol and health. sbelknap (talk) 21:21, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

moderate use of alcohol does not protect against heart disease, New Jama Network Meta-Analysis

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2802963 I haven't done a deep dive on this publication but just wanted to drop it here since it appears to be new and big. MarshallKe (talk) 13:12, 2 April 2023 (UTC)

portals

Hi, I'm somewhat surprised to see that the portals "insects" & "arthropods" are listed at the bottom of this article. Wonder if it's a joke ...? Ethyle64 (talk) 12:47, 20 July 2023 (UTC)