More Americans drinking (alcohol)

www.cnn.com...

-- More adults in the U.S. appear to be drinking alcohol, according to a new study of the nation's drinking habits.

And the trend seems to be consistent across ethnic groups and genders. Between 1992 and 2002, the percentage of men and women who drank alcohol increased, as did the percentage of whites, blacks, and Hispanics, the study found.

Americans don't seem to be drinking more, however, as the average number of drinks consumed per month remained steady.

"More people are drinking, but they seem to not be drinking heavily as frequently," says Rhonda Jones-Webb, an epidemiologist and alcohol expert at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, in Minneapolis. (Jones-Webb was not involved in the research.)

Yet the study revealed an important exception to that trend: an uptick in the number of people who binge drink at least once a month. Binge drinking is defined as consuming five or more drinks in one day.

Self medicating or purely social drinking? I'm not surprised that more people are drinking; trying to take the rough edges off the increasingly chaotic and unfriendly environment we currently find ourselves in.

While the information is interesting, how can this be called a new study?

The lastest data is from 2002, making this "new," study, 8 years old. It must be a slow news day! How can the data be even remotely accurate to 2010? The trend might be worse, or perhaps it's improved along with the economy, and jobless figures!

Don't forget to mention increased pharmaceutical use, and meth, and coke, and heroine, and pesticides, and preservatives, less sleep, more microwave radiation, etc, etc.. Yet people are trying to convince me this is the best time in human history Mass insanity, everywhere !!

Self medicating or purely social drinking? I'm not surprised that more people are drinking; trying to take the rough edges off the increasingly chaotic and unfriendly environment we currently find ourselves in.

I'll drink to that...








[edit on 21-7-2010 by WhiteMagicWoman]

[edit on 21-7-2010 by WhiteMagicWoman]

umm? i work for No.2 largest brewery in the world... Budweiser is No.1....and our volumes have been decreasing since 2008, but we are still making profit!! Alcohol is recession resistant not recession proof.

All of these "studies" are nothing more than welfare science being conducted by welfare scientists. They survive on federal grants, and so have to produce these clownish reports showing this or that.

It has little to do with science and much to do with scamming the taxpayer. Honestly, an "alcohol expert?" Do we need a an army of federally funded welfare scientists telling us alcohol is good one day and bad the next?

Welfare is not science.

[edit on 21-7-2010 by mike_trivisonno]

[edit on 21-7-2010 by mike_trivisonno]

You're just catching up to the UK then.

Soon you will have quadruple vodka and red bulls for $6 at every club in town. Fights on the street every night, and drunk girls falling over in ridiculously high heels, whilst their friends flash passing cars and urinate in an alley way. Swearing like paratroopers to any strangers they meet.
Just a regular Saturday night here in the UK.

I'll tell you what is an eye opener go for a night out and don't drink the whole time, it's enough to put you off booze for life. I think people are self medicating because they can't deal with reality of how mundane and pointless their lives have become. Either that or they really just love to PARTAY!!!!!

Hmm.. the differences in alcohol cultures is interesting, in Sweden 'binge drinking' is pretty much the norm for young people, once or twice a week every weekend.
The prices are bad though, if I lived in the US I would probably drink a lot more.. cheap 40's, we don't get those around here.

Gees, I wonder why, with the world gone to hell in hand-basket.

Gotta cushion to blow somehow.

Nothing helps with stress and money issues quite like blowing lots of cash on toxic consumables and making an ass of yourself in front of others.

Not me, man! I quit drinking in '97 and never looked back. I just couldn't find a positive aspect to it and just quit. Besides, I still have a pretty chronic cigarette habit to piss me off.

A study to gauge drinking levels. Oh I'm glad I pay my taxes for that...

Cuhail

this makes perfect sense.

as a child my mom would rub alcohol on my wound.

as an adult I use alcohol to kill the pain of walking though this god forsaken place.

if it weren't for alcohol, people might actually stand up against the tyranny we are seeing in recent years.

I don't think the drinkers are drinking less, I think the information is wrong. There are tons of microbreweries and brewpubs that have sprung up. Not only that, home brewing is on the rise.

From what I've seen of American drinking habits, it's very much the same as over here in the UK. There are the drinkers who go out after work and have 2-3 pints, then go home, the kind that go out on a weekend and get hammered and the kind that are just alcoholics and are constantly off their faces!

These types of polls are pointless anyway. You either drink or you don't. I can't see many non drinkers suddenly deciding that they're going to start.

Personally I like a nice whiskey before I go to bed and a few pints with my mates over the weekend. I've been like that for years and can't see that changing, although I'll admit I drink less now I'm older. Finally managed to kick the smoking over a year ago though

I drink to get to sleep at night. If I don't do it, then I don't sleep, but instead horrible "snore" sounds or even "burp" sounds that feel very painful start coming out of me.
But then, once I get to sleep, for the past year whatever is causing the problem where I can't get to sleep, it now does this "sleepwalk" thing when I get to sleep, so I wake up in the kitchen with all the lights in the apartment on, even though I had turned all the lights off before I went to bed.
To solve that problem, I have to tie my feet together a certain way. I have to use a gazillion knots or it will untie it and do the "sleepwalk" thing. So, problem partially solved for now, but I still can't get to sleep without a certain amount of liquor. That has been the case since... mid 2007.
The thing that causes all these problems... I don't want to say it but... "aliens" (hey, I mean, really, who else can do a "sleepwalk" where you untie a double knot and turn on all the lights in the apartment??).. has been driving me nuts since, let's see.. beginning of 2005.

So, as you can see, people are going to drink more and more liquor, whether it's the economy, the war, or even.. well, the aliens. Life on the planet earth is really crappy, and liquor is that ancient drug that makes it all better. Not only that, but for some people, like me, it is the only thing that keeps them alive.

reply to post by Big Raging Loner


Hahaha sounds like a good old college night right there to me buddy! Nothing better...

As for this study, here's my question: why gives a damn? These studies are ludicrous as it is. More than 5 drinks is binge drinking? Well geez I binge drink pretty constantly then I suppose. Anyone over the age of 22 and weighing more than 175 lbs knows that it takes a good 5 or 6 beers to get a buzz on.

reply to post by Stewie


Another interesting study about the American drinking habits.

www.udetc.org...

The irony is....

People are drinking to escape their problems and drinking itself can actually exacerbate the problems.

I knew alcohol abuse was on the rise, but I never realized it had gotten to this point.


Link to story





The first Great Depression couldn't stop it, and I doubt this one will either

[edit on 21-7-2010 by BlackOps719]