Booze makes you clever, having none makes you stupid Drinking wine makes you brainier, according to the latest research - and going on the wagon makes you stupider, at least in the case of women. The news comes in a new study carried out by boffins in Scandinavia. Some 5,033 Norwegians were followed over some seven years in which both their alcohol consumption and cognitive …
I'm pretty sure they're not condoning vodka on you're cornflakes but moderate consumption of wine (especially red) has long been associated with positive health benefits.
Of course if you like pounding said liver with Pan-Galactic Gargleblasters then the cranial benefits may indeed be outweighed by an acute alcohol-induced death!
< Beer: To grease my brain boss...honest!
Did you even read the article? The word "moderate" is used four times and there's plenty of other evidence that *moderate* wine intake is more beneficial than damaging. Having a glass of wine in the evening is not going to cause your liver to fail.
Going out three times a week and drinking 1/2 bottle of Tequila on the other hand (speaking from experience) will likely have a bad effect on you.
Funny, I didn't see anywhere in that article that it's been proven that 1/2 bottle of Tequila 3 times a week will have a bad effect.
Then again, I didn't read anywhere in the article that they had a control group that was drinking grape juice instead of wine or total abstinence from grape fortified beverages, so it seems a bit premature to me to conclude one way or the other about the alcohol in the beverage.
It's a known fact that Alcohol kills brain cells, but it's safe to assume that, as is common in nature, it will kill off the weak, slowest ones first.
Lions kill the slow feeble wildebeest, Alcohol kills the slow feeble brain cells.
Ergo Alcohol actually makes you more clever.
Romford on a saturday night should therefore be the centre of our academic universe as coupled with this article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7951363/Contraceptive-pill-increases-brain-size-and-function.html which implies anyone "going equipped" for a quickie is additionally smart, we should be leading the world.
"Presumably that's authoritative enough for anyone, and the present swingeing taxes on booze in the UK - with their devastating effects on the nation's health, intelligence, economic viability etc - will now cease"
Ah Lewis, perhaps you need to imbibe a little more, for that is not how the UK makes policy on psychoactive substances. For the record, here is the policy making process in it's entirety :
while(1) {
Read_Daily_Mail(); *
Formulate_Policy(); *
}
If it were otherwise, how is it that we keep hearing policy makers banging on about how Britain's town centres have become "no go areas" at weekends due to alcohol ? I mean, I've been into my town centre on a weekend, and it appears that quite literally thousands of people do in fact go there and that this is actually _because_ of alcohol, without which there would be no one there at all, because all the pubs would be shut.
* Sharp eyed observers will note that the same trivial bits of NLP and Markov chaining encapsulated here can replace not only the entire policy making infrastructure but also the Daily Mail itself. Sharp eyed observers with tin foil hats may already suspect that several Daily Mail columnists have been coded thus for some time now.
Presumably they didn't select people at random, and somehow force them to drink (or not drink) varying quantities of different alcoholic beverages?
That's why it is an association, not a causal link. Could well be that more intelligent people prefer wine to beer. Or that being a bit thick helps you cope with lfe's pressures without hitting the bottle. Doesn't mean the alcohol made them more or less intelligent.
In any case, it is only an association between what these people SAY they drink and their intelligence. Saying you drink the odd glass of wine sounds better that saying you abstain (anti-social wierdo), or saying that you swill down pints of white cider with a takeaway every night.
***"Drinking wine makes you brainier, according to the latest research - and going on the wagon makes you stupider, at least in the case of women."***
Does wine make you brainy, or are brainy people more likely to drink wine?
I imagine that a similar study of White Lightning would reveal that it turns people into chavs....
"Now the middle class alcoholics have another excuse to sink some wine and neglect their kids. Besides, they haven't got a problem because they're *middle class*."
Wow, how heavily do you stoop with that chip on your shoulder? Do you even understand the concept of alcoholism? You do realise that functioning alcoholics hold down jobs but still need to balance their drinking with their family life in pretty much all cases neglecting their children. Alcoholics are usually pretty selfish about things like other people, so where exactly does class come into it? Are you saying that working class alcoholics don't neglect their children? Or perhaps that the alcoholic aristocracy treat their families right? What a load of twaddle, no wonder you won't post your name.
Interesting the study was carried out using Norwegians - they have one of the highest levels of taxation on all alcohol, so they can probably only afford to drink modestly anyway, plus they are probably better off folk as well. Last time I was there a bottle of wine cost over £40 in a modest hotel.
I've been saying this for years, it’s down to simple deduction.
Everyone knows drinking kills brain cells, everyone also knows that in nature its down to survival of the fittest, so effectively drinking is killing off the weak brain cells making room for the new brain cells that have the potential to be much harder working than the previous occupant of the area of brain matter.
Simples!
PS can i forward the motion of a meerkat icon?
For the effects of pregnancy?
Not meaning to be a sexist here, but several women I know who have had children, by their own admission, feel ditzier after their pregnancy. probably something do to with the unborn child drawing nutrition from the mother's body.
At the same time, pregnant women are advised to not drink alcohol, so it doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination to suggest that at least some of those women in the study who gave up alcohol did so because of pregnancy.
If they didn't correct for this effect, it could also account for the gender bias in the results. I doubt the basic neurochemistry of men and women differs that much, if at all.
Glad to see that all your "Moderate Wine Drinking" has helped you to identify my facetious comment.
My remark was mainly due the very un-scientific assumptions and conclusions presented by the researches, which several posters have pointed out.
The reference to me being a politician is about as close as anyone came to "getting" my joke ;)
In a nation of binge drinkers, let them kill themselves off. We will live in a democracy if they want ot drink themselves to death go for it we live in exciting times, Where pedo files can roam the street, criminals can menace law abiding citizens with no fear of justice. We have a great welfare system that promotes and payfor these types of life styles! why get a job when you can stay ont he dole, get pissed have kids(a result of drunken fornication) and get a free house.
Alcohol, best invention ever?
"Moderate wine consumption was independently associated with better performance on all cognitive tests in both men and women. [...] Alcohol abstention was associated with lower cognitive performance in women."
So drinking wine makes men and women smarter, but abstention only makes women thicker?
This does not compute.
Give that researcher a nice glass of beaujolais.
Then I realize that I am a bit drunk and well.
No really, drink a lot of Coffee a whole f*ck load of coffee.
I cannot tell you how much coffee is important to you if you drink.
So why do you drink.
Different reasons, sometimes all you have to watch on TV is the history channel (all Hitler all the damn time) or your wife wants the litter pan changed.
(Litter pan, three drink rule, trust me on this one.)
You have to get up to go to work.
Worse, you are at work.
Worse still you have to go home.
(litter pan, three drink rule.)
Why do we drink?
Wrong question.
How do you not?
amanfrommars? Is that you? Do you have a new (slightly more intoxicated) alter ego?
If not I must demand that someone goes to mars and asks him what he thinks he is doing! I miss the old fella, it's been ages since I've read his mad droolings.
Anyway, of course alcohol makes you smarter, just nobody understands you due to the way it affects your vocal chords. Then you've forgotten all the clever junk you came up by morning due to the hangover that makes you stupid again.
The one with the label saying "Made in Mars" and the bottle of Scotch in the pocket, please good sir.
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