Alcohol - How Are Recommended Limits Determined?

[KuriousOrange]

There's plenty of information about how much you should drink and what the dangers of excessive alcohol intake are, but how are the limits determined? And is saving up units (or "binge drinking") dangerous if you're still within the weekly limit? The U.K government changed a weekly recommended limit to a daily one because of this, but that could be viewed as politically motived due to social problems related to alcohol misuse.

Where are the facts, figures and papers for this kind of research?

[casebro]

I don't know, but I think it should be done by examining the actual driving arrests, and tightening up the limit slightly. Ya know, use a subjective number arrived by actually \obviously impaired drivers. How bad do you have to be for a cop to spot you, or be involved in some imfraction? Then tighten it up.

I guess the current standard fro driving is taken from some kind of coordination tests, though the laws are probably more political.

Health limits may be based on epidemiological studies. One of which shows that three drinks per day is the optimum, and six per day is only as bad for you as being tee-total. I'll drink to that!

But how many hangovers do you need to have before you realize that binges are counter-productive?

[MatildaGage]

The following discuss the brain effects of alcohol use during teen and preteen years.

Shults, Ruth A., Elder, Randy W., Sleet, David A., Nichols, James L., Alao, Mary O. Carande-Kulis, Vilma G., Zaza, Stephanie, Sosin, Daniel M., Thompson, Robert S., and the Task Force on Community Preventive Services. “Reviews of Evidence Regarding Interventions to Reduce Alcohol-Impaired Driving.” Am J Prev Med 2001;21(4S).

Zeigler DW, Wang CC, Yoast RA, Dickinson BD, Mccaffree MA, Robinowitz CB, et al. The Neurocognitive Effects of Alcohol on Adolescents and College Students. Prev Med 2005 Jan;40(1):23-32.

And is saving up units (or "binge drinking") dangerous if you're still within the weekly limit?
What does the source say? We have different recommendations here. If it says you can have a certain # of drinks in a day it typically would not mean you can save them all up and consume them on Friday....if a bottle of aspirin said, "Take up to 5 per day," you would not infer that meant, "Have 0 all week, then take 35 on Sunday."

Here is a list of references that might be of assistance to you.
http://www.icap.org/PolicyIssues/DrinkingGuidelines/KeyReferences/tabid/130/Default.aspx

[Resume]

Generally, they call me and divide my recommendation by six.

Seriously, I don't think this is something that can be quantified because of the variables. If you poisoned yourself, you had too much.

[KuriousOrange]

What does the source say? We have different recommendations here. If it says you can have a certain # of drinks in a day it typically would not mean you can save them all up and consume them on Friday....if a bottle of aspirin said, "Take up to 5 per day," you would not infer that meant, "Have 0 all week, then take 35 on Sunday."


That's why I'm curious as to how the limits are determined and what damage can be caused at what levels of consumption. If someone told you to take 35 apsirin at once, you'd tell them where to go, but a lot of people quite happily exceed safe limits of alcohol without thinking and are usually oblivious or nonchalant about any health issues. There is a huge portion of the U.K population (and others) that frequently ignore limits and drink to excess without any obvious damage to their health.

[ApolloGnomon]

Alcohol - How Are Recommended Limits Determined?

-- by rigorous experimentation. I'm working on verifying the commonly accepted data right now. http://planetsmilies.net/vomit-smiley-31.gif (http://planetsmilies.net)

[Wolrab]

-- by rigorous experimentation. I'm working on verifying the commonly accepted data right now. [/URL][URL]http://planetsmilies.net/vomit-smiley-31.gif (http://planetsmilies.net)
For me, I drink until I die, and have one less next time.

[ApolloGnomon]

been there, done that, then got outa the air force and sobered up enough to go to college :)

[sadhatter]

There's plenty of information about how much you should drink and what the dangers of excessive alcohol intake are, but how are the limits determined? And is saving up units (or "binge drinking") dangerous if you're still within the weekly limit? The U.K government changed a weekly recommended limit to a daily one because of this, but that could be viewed as politically motived due to social problems related to alcohol misuse.

Where are the facts, figures and papers for this kind of research?

I have always thought the following would be a good way of determining this.

First you need some music, i find the best bands for this are as follows:

AC/DC
GWAR
Insane Clown Posse

Now you need to make sure your test group is not fans of the music.

Play a continuous loop of the band they dislike.

Now once the majority of the people no longer complain about the music, and their attitude has changed to " It isn't that bad." that should be considered the level at which a person is officially drunk.

Being a fan of 2 of the three bands ( GWAR and ICP. Though the fact holds that after enough beer i love me some AC/DC, though i can't stand them sober.) , i can say this is darn near a foolproof way to judge someones sobriety.

[ApolloGnomon]

I have always thought the following would be a good way of determining this.

First you need some music, i find the best bands for this are as follows:

AC/DC
GWAR
Insane Clown Posse



this dataset includes the most likely generations of test subjects -- if they like any one of these they'll probably hate the other 2.

Now you need to make sure your test group is not fans of the music.

Play a continuous loop of the band they dislike.

Now once the majority of the people no longer complain about the music, and their attitude has changed to " It isn't that bad." that should be considered the level at which a person is officially drunk.

Being a fan of 2 of the three bands ( GWAR and ICP. Though the fact holds that after enough beer i love me some AC/DC, though i can't stand them sober.) , i can say this is darn near a foolproof way to judge someones sobriety.

I suppose this is true. I went to a GWAR concert once. Blew my knee out slipping in beer in the mosh pit. Something, probably influence by Uncle Jack (http://www.overlooknyc.com/calendar/events/uploads/jackdaniels.gif), compelled me to stay for the rest of the show before driving home, speed-shifting (http://www.crptechnology.com/forums/driving-techniques-tips/295-speed-shifting-technique.html) my VW bug for 50 miles to avoid using my left leg.

I still think GWAR sucks, but I enjoyed the concert. Guess I musta been drunk?

[sadhatter]

this dataset includes the most likely generations of test subjects -- if they like any one of these they'll probably hate the other 2.



I suppose this is true. I went to a GWAR concert once. Blew my knee out slipping in beer in the mosh pit. Something, probably influence by Uncle Jack (http://www.overlooknyc.com/calendar/events/uploads/jackdaniels.gif), compelled me to stay for the rest of the show before driving home, speed-shifting (http://www.crptechnology.com/forums/driving-techniques-tips/295-speed-shifting-technique.html) my VW bug for 50 miles to avoid using my left leg.

I still think GWAR sucks, but I enjoyed the concert. Guess I musta been drunk?

Concerts are a different story all together, i have been to some concerts that i have riffed that i still had a good time at ( Seeing " The explosion" was like pulling teeth, then i buy burnout 3 when i get back, and they are in the friggen soundtrack.). I think the variable of the other events going on at a concert , the pit, the social aspects, etc. throws off the value of the experiment.