08/10/2021
After listening to Edward Slingerland’s audiobook, Drunk, and reviewing that a couple weeks ago, I was curious to learn more about the latest research on alcohol and health. David Nutt is on a mission to explain the most significant alcohol-related research findings from the last 50 years. What I enjoyed most about his pragmatic approach is that he explains the impact of ANY amount of alcohol consumption. This is about making informed decisions, not moral judgements. He clarifies the differences that various levels of alcohol consumption have on our mental health, sleep, hormones, fertility, and propensity toward addiction.
Although drinking in the United Kingdom has gone down slightly since 2010, overall consumption is double that of the 1960s, and Britons get drunk an average of 50 times a year. Nutt illustrates how alcohol costs the UK health service, police forces, and economy at least £30 to £50 billion due to alcohol related health conditions, drunk driving (or drink driving as they say in the UK), violence, property damage, various mishaps, and lost productivity. At the same time, mixed messages about alcohol have left many believing that moderate drinking offers us health benefits. Yet one estimate Nutt shares is that if everyone were to drink within recommended guidelines, the drinks industry in the UK would lose £13 billion.
Nutt reiterates in several ways how safe drinking guidelines are not a reason to drink, and he’s campaigned for years for governments to update their policies regarding alcohol pricing and recommendations to reduce its many harms. In the last 10 years Nutt has become famous for his quest to invent a synthetic compound called Alcarelle, a non-harmful alternative to alcohol that supposedly gives you the positive effects, like feeling chatty, relaxed and sociable – without the negatives, like becoming argumentative, forgetful and hungover. Alcarelle is still in development, but in the meantime, he’s developed a non-alcoholic botanical spirit called Sentia, which is available in the UK.
Nutt repeatedly emphasizes that the cultural social default is to drink too much, so you need to understand your motivations to drink if you want to cut back on your drinking. Understanding the type of drinker you are is essential to creating a strategy to cut back. Categories include those who drink to feel social and celebrate, or to fit in with other drinkers, or to enhance an experience, or drinking to forget worries and cope with stress. Personal health strategies he explores start with understanding how much you drink by measuring accurately, followed by a long list of habits to help manage your intake.
An extended podcast review of this audiobook is available on Audiobook Reviews in Five Minutes on Apple, Anchor, Breaker, Google, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, and Spotify: https://podcast.jannastam.com/episode/review-of-drink-the-new-science-of-alcohol-and-your-health-written-and-read-by-professor-david-nutt
