Comments on: The Magic Formula

By: K

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 16:43:52 +0000

La Wade, damn you! you just made me laugh while drinking tea! :)

By: La Wade

La Wade — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:45:08 +0000

Arlene, sure, many other factors play into your lifespan. But this study was large enough (more than 25,000 people) that they could feel reasonably confident that they had a similar distribution of health risks in each group (except for the ones they were looking at, of course). This study was interesting because it seemed to show that the benefits of these health behaviors existed independent of other things that tend to shorten your lifespan, like obesity and low socioeconomic status. They didn’t look specifically at heroin and cheesecake addiction here, and I’m not sure that that particular affliction is widespread enough for that particular demographic to be reflected in the study results, but it may well be that cheesecake-heroin addicts who exercise, eat fruits and vegetables, etc. may live longer than those who don’t, though both likely have a shortened lifespan compared to non-junkies.

By: wriggles

wriggles — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:30:46 +0000

Add 14 years to what?

By: Arlene

Arlene — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 09:43:17 +0000

Hmm. this seems way oversimplified to me. What about limiting saturated fats, refined carbs, and cholesterol rich foods? I mean, if you do all of that stuff, but then you also have, like, a cheesecake for dinner every night followed by a shot of heroin, I’d think something like that would negate the extra 14 years.

By: Stella

Stella — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:54:01 +0000

“A unit of alcohol (approximately 8 g) was defined as a half pint of beer, cider, or lager; a glass of wine; a single unit of spirits (whisky, gin, brandy, or vodka); or a glass of sherry, port, vermouth, or liqueurs. Total alcohol consumption was estimated as the total units of drinks consumed in a week. For these analyses, a moderate drinker was defined as someone who drank one or more units a week (that is, not a nondrinker), but not more than 14 units a week.”

My mistake–it’s 1/2 a PINT of beer or one glass of wine they refer to as one unit. I consider myself a light or moderate drinker, but 14 glasses of wine a week just sounds like a LOT to me!

By: Stella

Stella — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:50:35 +0000

I believe the article said that one unit was about 1/2 a glass of wine, so that 14 units was 7 glasses of wine.

By: K

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:02:34 +0000

Yeah, I sent Mo the article with a certain degree of smugness, because I feel all saintly reading that article. And am evidently going to live to be an old, old lady.

If you have one or two glasses of wine with dinner, that could easily be 14 alcohol units a week… doesn’t sound like a lot to me, even though I don’t drink that much myself (probably average about two units a week).

The official line in the UK at the moment seems to be that never drinking may be slightly worse for you than drinking moderately. But did you know that if you’re a woman, don’t drink all week and then have three pints on Saturday… that’s binge drinking? It’s not so much the total quantity you drank that’s a health risk: it’s suddenly hitting your system with quantities of alcohol that it’s not accustomed to.

By: susan

susan — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:26:22 +0000

Wa hoo — I exercise daily, never drink, have never smoked, and eat lots of fruits and veggies! Hmmm…I wonder if breathing in my parents’ second hand smoke for 18 years counts against me?

By: mccn

mccn — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:24:01 +0000

Great googlie mooglie – I think I passed over the relevant numbers yesterday. But 1-14 drinks a week sounds like a ton to me! Jeepers!

By: Moe

Moe — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:37:47 +0000

I’m good all around. Well, ok, so I don’t exercise EVERY day. But I move. Moving is good. :)