Alcohol is getting a pretty bad rap to me the more I read about it. After reading this I was curious about ways to _increase_ hippocampal function. According to [0] it seems like exercise can increase hippocampal function. Another link I can't find again since I found it on my phone and am now on my laptop indicated things like learning languages, and an omega 3 rich diet can also help.
This is good news for me since NYC is very much a drinkers town and I enjoy partaking, but am also learning Italian, exercising more, and frequently eat with omega 3s in mind.
Here is some more reading to further persuade you - SECRET FSB LECTURE: Why Putin doesn't drink alcohol [0].
This clip has Putin back in 1999, Chechen War, raising a glass with the troops to then put the glass down and command his men to get back to work, deferring the drinking until the job is done. The supposed 'secret FSB lecture' explains how alcohol strips the outer 'oily' layer from blood vessels causing things to go wrong in the narrow capillaries of the brain. The clip ends with the former president Yeltsin dancing like an idiot and generally being out of it due to the booze.
Whether you see Putin as friend or foe matters not, when it comes to attitude towards alcohol Putin sets quite an example. He also challenges the belief that there is something innately Russian about getting sloshed on alcohol - it doesn't have to be that way.
I enjoy thinking more than drinking so drinking the work trip to the boozer is always a 'do I really have to?' thing for me, almost a chore. From this perspective of 'extremely moderate moderation' I do wonder why it is universally normal (outside of Utah and the Muslim world) for there to be a company 'tab'. An employer that doesn't do that (even xmas party) would be considered miserable and miserly. However, imagine if you had a company where cigarettes were dished out freely on a Friday afternoon and something that you could put on expenses. Any employer doing that would be considered reckless. So why is it different with alcohol?
They probably did cigarettes on the company tab back in the day. The difference is, cigarettes don't make a company event more fun and most places have laws or bans on smoking indoors.
Cigarette smoke is also very obnoxious, gets on and lingers on everything (clothes, drapes, etc), can trigger asthma attacks, etc. It stopped being cool a long time ago too.
Almost everyone would vote for alcohol at events and nobody would vote for cigarettes.
It's funny but it's probably fairly accurate. Two 12oz 5% beers per day is not exactly extreme, and evidently many people drink 'this much' without terrible consequences. Articles like this cater mostly to people who are obsessed with articles like this.
> evidently many people drink 'this much' without terrible consequences
This assumption reflects an underlying statistical bias: if most people you know exhibit this behavior, then that's what you see as normal.
It may very well be the case that the consequences are actually terrible -- they're just hard for you to perceive because they're normalized by everyone exhibiting them.
Ever thought about what would happen if you benefitted from one without getting the loss from the other.
Pure efficiency don't you think? Get more from less. Spend less time doing destructive things. Be less comatose and more alert... Or does all that hurt you!?
I can teach Italian if that helps me grow my hippocampus, I'm Italian, fond of Belgian beer and I drink at least 330ml a day - here's to hoping they cancel out :P
This is good news for me since NYC is very much a drinkers town and I enjoy partaking, but am also learning Italian, exercising more, and frequently eat with omega 3s in mind.
Here's to hoping they cancel out!
[0] - https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v472/n7344/full/nature...