 James Swannick here. What did the studies say about alcohol? Well, research affirms that one serving of alcohol is all it takes to compromise your sleep quality, energy levels, and cognitive function, which of course impacts your mental clarity, focus, and decision making. So there was a 25-year-long global burden of disease study which calculated levels of alcohol use and its effects on people's health across 195 countries. And in 2016, it concluded this, the safest level of drinking is none. I'll say that again. There was a 25-year-long study, global burden of disease study concluded in 2016. It calculated levels of alcohol use and its effect on people's health across 195 countries. And its conclusion was that the safest level of drinking is none. The study explained that this is quote, in conflict with most health guidelines, which espouse health benefits associated with consuming up to two drinks per day, end quote. So of course, what it's referring to are all these studies that came out in the early and mid-90s saying that a glass of wine a day is good for your health and all this kind of nonsense. So those studies have been debunked multiple times now, but they continue to be promoted by obviously the organizations behind those studies, which is the liquor industry and the wine industry. Their interests are obviously to push their attractively packaged poison onto a mostly unsuspecting public. I'm going to click this on my screen as I'm talking to you here, global burden of disease. So it's called alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990 through 2016, a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2016. And I would encourage you just Google it online, do your own research. But it says here globally alcohol use was the seventh leading risk factor for both deaths and DALYS. I don't know what that is, accounting for 2.2% of age standardized. Actually, this is all getting very technical jargon now, so I won't read all that part. But basically it says alcohol use is a leading risk factor for global disease burden and causes substantial health loss. We found that the risk of all cause mortality and of cancers specifically rises with increasing levels of consumption and the level of consumption that minimizes health loss is zero. These results suggest that alcohol control policies might need to be revised worldwide, refocusing on efforts to lower overall population level consumption. Pretty fascinating stuff. Let's keep going, we've got some more studies here. There was a 2018 study from researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, which discovered daily consumption, even just one drink increased a person's risk of cancer. The study revealed those who consumed one drink at least four times a week had a 20% higher risk of premature death than those who drank one drink three times or less. So let me click on this study here. As I'm recording this and speaking this to you, I've got my computer open and I'm just, I'm looking at the actual study here online. Let's have a look here. The background is there is evidence that low level alcohol use drinking one to two drinks on occasion is protective for cardiovascular disease. So that speaks to those studies that came out in the early 90s, but increases the risk of cancer. Synthesizing the overall impact of low level alcohol use on health is therefore complex. The objective of this paper was to examine the association between frequency of low level drinking and mortality. They analyzed 340,000 people. So that's about, what's that, 10 football stadiums at 35,000 each. That's how many people they analyzed here. Conclusion was that those who consumed one drink at least four times a week. So let's just, I'll just repeat that. So if you're drinking one drink four times a week, you have a 20% higher risk of premature death than those who drink one drink three times or less. So if you drink one drink on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then shut it off, 20% less risk of premature death. If you drink Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then you add Thursday to it, 20% higher risk. That's so fascinating, isn't it? Okay, let's keep going here. Well, actually, let's just expand on that particular study first. It revealed that incremental declines in our physical and cognitive functions can add up to significant losses over time. Of course, that's not what we've been taught about drinking. Our cultural conditioning has led us to believe that moderate drinking is harmless and that one drink a day might even be good for us. Do you often hear that this common justification? Excuse me, it sounds like this. Oh, you know, there's that study that found that a daily glass of wine is good for your heart. What's the harm in a couple cocktails after work each day? That's another. People say that's fine. But my question to you is, is it really fine? Or are our socially acceptable drinking habits slowly and methodically sapping our physical, mental, financial, and spiritual potential? Is drinking alcohol really supporting our social life, supporting our businesses, supporting our enjoyment or experience of life? Or is it merely a well marketed toxin that's gradually draining our inner and outer resources? Because here's the thing, right? Our culture has programmed us to regularly consume alcohol as part of our lifestyle without even questioning how it might be making us feel. And I can tell you, as an Australian, the drinking culture here in Australia where I am currently, I mean, the conditioning is something that I had to work extra hard to undo. Thankfully, that's starting to change in a big way because as people become increasingly health conscious and wellness oriented, many are now questioning whether alcohol really deserves a place in their daily lives. Like I said before, that 2018 global burden of diseases study, which analyzed the levels of alcohol use, it says no amount of alcohol is good for your health. And actually, in late 2020, scientists recommended that the dietary guidelines for Americans be updated to take a tougher stance on alcohol, which was a huge breakthrough in terms of people's perception on alcohol. If the dietary guidelines for Americans is being updated and encouraging people to drink less, then what does that say about the guidelines that have been in place for all these years? We've got to really question that, right? Like it's clear that we now have to really question that seemingly innocent or that harmless one drink a day, because as the study seemed to suggest, one drink a day, at least four times a week increases the risk of cancer. I believe we're witnessing the beginnings of a cultural sea change in our attitudes towards alcohol and norms around drinking behavior. I used to watch a TV series called Mad Men. It was on AMC. It was an excellent show. But that Mad Men era of the two martini lunch, which was featured so predominantly in the show, and all the characters, Don Draper was the main character. They all had scotch and whiskey in their offices, and they would drink it when a new prospect or client would come in or a colleague and they'd say, you want to drink. And they say, sure, pour a drink and have a drink. That era is gone. That's increasingly becoming a thing of the past and bragging about your drinking, whether it's a hangover or late night of drinking, it doesn't land the same way that it used to. So there is indeed a movement gathering speed right now as millions of Americans question the role of alcohol in their lives and increasingly choose an alcohol free lifestyle as a strategy for success and happiness. I'm looking at some statistics here from the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. According to statistics from that, 30% of American adults don't consume alcohol at all. It's very interesting. 30% of American adults do not consume alcohol at all. And it's rising here in Australia. So Australia's long considered one of the heaviest drinking nations. And they did a 2020 study just gone. The Institute of Health and Welfare showed that non-drinkers had risen from 28% in 2016 to 31% in 2019. So it's jumped 3% in three years. There are other studies I know. I don't have them close to hand at the moment that show that millennials are drinking less than ever before. And then of course, the attractively packaged poison companies like Budweiser, for example, beer and liquor companies like Budweiser, they're now making alcohol free versions of their most popular drinks. I spent the Christmas holiday period in 2020 over on Stradbroke Island off the east coast of Australia with friends and family, mostly family. And I had a couple of my cousins who were drinking this Heineken 0.0 beer. I was like, wow, things are really changing here. 0.0 Heineken. So there's no question that we're on the cusp of a complete overhaul of our thinking about alcohol. There's more data, Nielsen data that says that nearly half of Americans are actively attempting to cut back on drinking. That's pretty amazing. Nearly half of all Americans are attempting to cut back on drinking. Millennials apparently, according to this demographic study are driving the mindful drinking movement. 66% of millennials are saying they're making efforts this year to reduce their alcohol consumption, which is well above the average 47% among all US consumers, 21 and older. So younger folks, millennials, 66% two thirds of them are making efforts to reduce their alcohol compared to only 47% among US consumers who are 21 and older. So yeah, I mean, and then anecdotally, some of the world's most successful people are increasingly making the conscious choice to embrace the alcohol-free lifestyle, including billionaires like Warren Buffett, Michael Dell from Dell Computers, Larry Ellison, business leaders like Ariana Huffington, Tom Shoes, founder Blake McCoskey, thought leaders like Tony Robbins and Brene Brown. Brene Brown actually calls her alcohol-free lifestyle her quote unquote superpower. And then of course, you've got Hollywood actors and musicians and celebrities like Bradley Cooper, Natalie Portman, Pharrell Williams, Jennifer Lopez. There's another study, 2017 study published in the British Medical Journal found that as little as one to two drinks a day was linked with shrinkage in brain regions involved in learning and cognition. So 2017 study, it's called, so you can do your own research, moderate alcohol consumption as risk factor for adverse brain outcomes and cognitive decline, longitudinal cohort study published in BMJ. I'm not sure what that actually stands for or means, but it says BMJ, if you type in BMJ, moderate alcohol consumption, I'm sure that study will come up. And the conclusion was, I'm just going straight to the conclusion that alcohol consumption even at moderate levels is associated with adverse brain outcomes, including hippocampal atrophy. These results support the recent reduction in alcohol guidance in the UK and question the current limits recommended in the US. So there you go again. It's kind of insane when you look at it like that. How long we've had our heads buried in the sands here? When we start to really dig in, we go, wow, this is crazy. I've done a heck of a lot of research for my book. I have a book proposal that is out at the moment, looking for an active publisher with the view that I'm going to write this book in 2021 and should be published in 2022. And in all the research that I did for it, I was astounded at some of the surveys and studies that I found around this topic, just how bad alcohol is for us. And I think the time of just like, I'll be fine. It's just a drink here or there. I think that time is over. Or at least I invite you to consider that that time is over. I invite you to change your relationship to alcohol. I know it's easy to say, I want you to, you know, I invite you to change your relationship with alcohol. But that would imply that you have a relationship or that the norm is that you have a relationship with alcohol. But play around with the, with the language of shifting your relationship to alcohol. Because maybe you don't have to have a relationship with it at all. Maybe it's just a relationship to it. With it, it means that, you know, you're actively courting alcohol. It's in your life. You're consuming it on occasion or a lot. That's your relationship with alcohol. But relationship to alcohol, to me anyway, implies that it's now separate from you. You're now observing alcohol as a thing. You don't have an ongoing relationship with it. You're just, you know, I mean, I guess it's a relationship, but it's a relationship to it as opposed to with it. So there were some interesting studies. There are many more, but I think that might be enough for now. Let's have another look. I'll just do a quick, quick look. Because I've got some here saved. Let's have a look at this one just before we finish this episode. Here we go. Here's an Oxford academic study published in March of 2000. So this was 20 years ago, it seems. Alcohol impairs speed of information processing and simple and choice reaction time and different, differentially impairs higher order cognitive abilities. Interesting. So that supports the most recent study that I mentioned, which was only last year. This is from 20 years ago. There were studies shown, at least in this one in Oxford academic, that alcohol impairs speed of information processing and simple and choice reaction time. What else we got? Here we go. How much people spend on alcohol? This is interesting. Excuse me. I might leave this to the next episode, actually. I'll do an episode on its own on how much people spend on alcohol and we'll talk about the financial cost. So this might be a good opportunity to just wrap this episode up. 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