Moderate alcohol consumption inversely correlated with all-cause mortality

My roommate recently sent me a review article that LW might find interesting:

Conclusions: Low levels of alcohol intake (1-2 drinks per day for women and 2-4 drinks per day for men) are inversely associated with total mortality in both men and women. Our findings, while confirming the hazards of excess drinking, indicate potential windows of alcohol intake that may confer a net beneficial effect of moderate drinking, at least in terms of survival.

Personal observation says that LWers tend not to drink very much or often. Perhaps that should change, to the degree suggested by the article?

Full article here.

My roommate recently sent me a review article that LW might find interesting:

Conclusions: Low levels of alcohol intake (1-2 drinks per day for women and 2-4 drinks per day for men) are inversely associated with total mortality in both men and women. Our findings, while confirming the hazards of excess drinking, indicate potential windows of alcohol intake that may confer a net beneficial effect of moderate drinking, at least in terms of survival.

Personal observation says that LWers tend not to drink very much or often. Perhaps that should change, to the degree suggested by the article?

Full article here.

"hospitals have a lot of sick people, therefore I should stay away from hospitals because they will make me sick!"

That's not necessarily as silly as your offhand treatment seems to suggest; it's precisely one of the explanations proposed for some of the RAND health insurance experiment's results. (One of the conclusions the RAND study suggested was that, for people who aren't both poor and chronically ill, reduction in healthcare services (resulting from increased use fees) might not have a significant impact on health. It wasn't designed to test this relationship, however, and I'm unaware of any subsequent studies which were.)

Your reply applies (at least) equally well to the following argument: all plants have green leaves; roses have green leaves; therefore roses are plants. In both cases your reply would defend an obviously silly inference pattern by pointing to one instance in which it leads to a true conclusion. (Although in your case the inference actually predicts that hospital-provided medical care has a negative marginal effect on health, not a neutral one.)

3IlyaShpitser14y

Yes, I of course agree that hospitals are cauldrons of disease, and can make you sicker (especially if recovering from surgery). Medical errors by staff is a big issue as well.

34shokwave14y

My go-to reductio is "Olympic sprinters have lots of gold medals; I should wear lots of gold medals to run faster!"