<p>
</p>
<p>…and you clearly don’t know anything about the humor of an 18-24 year old…</p>
<p>I know the seasons are changing from summer to fall by the annual college drinking thread LOL. Actually I thought the beer gut thing was actually kind of funny. I wonder if kids ever stop to think about how many calories they are pouring down their throats?</p>
<p>^I agree about the seasonal threads, and about what I think impresses SOME teens. Losing Abs >>> than losing brain cells.</p>
<p>Hmmm… maybe that one about 6 packs vs 12 packs, or 6 packs vs “kegs”.</p>
<p>Bornin92- it sounds like your parents did what they are supposed to do- lead by example. They must be very proud of you.</p>
<p>The studies cited in the link below seem to debunk the conventional wisdom, sometimes reflected in comments on this board, that forbidding underage drinking at home somehow leads to binge drinking. It also questions the validity of the “European Model,” that is, allowing kids to drink at home “teaches them how to drink” and thereby leads to less binge drinking.</p>
<p>Finally, the article includes some very sobering research on the effects that alcohol can have on the still-developing teenage brain.</p>
<p>[With</a> Drinking, Parent Rules Do Affect Teens’ Choices : NPR](<a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127222042]With”>With Drinking, Parent Rules Do Affect Teens' Choices : NPR)</p>
<p>
You are absolutely right. I’ve walked out on far too many viewings of “The Hangover” to fully appreciate 18-yr old humor. But there are ad whizzes on Madison Ave who DO understand the psychology & humor of this age group who could put together a killer “moderation” campaign. BTW, it could work if an influential humorist like Seth Rogen or Judd Apatow got involved …</p>
<p>LurkerDad - EXCELLENT article! It should be required reading for all parents! Thanks for sharing! </p>
<p>“With Drinking, Parent Rules Do Affect Teens’ Choices : NPR”</p>
<p>Ok, for the parents that don’t drink at all, maybe they should…
</p>
<p>[Cheers</a>! Drinking linked to longer life - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/09/01/cheers_drinking_linked_to_longer_life/?p1=Upbox_links]Cheers”>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/09/01/cheers_drinking_linked_to_longer_life/?p1=Upbox_links)</p>
<p>Of course, in encouraging our kids not to drink we’re condemning them to decreased longevity:</p>
<p>[Heavy</a> Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers](<a href=“http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2014332,00.html"]Heavy”>http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2014332,00.html)</p>
<p>Do I take this at face value? Not necessarily, but nor do I take some of the other studies referenced here at face value. I think so often research about human behavior has an agenda, and the investigators design the study to produce the results they (or their funders) are looking for. So I think this kind of science needs to be approached very cautiously and critically. For instance, take this passage from the NPR article about rules:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There are so many issues here. First, is Tapert relying on self-reporting for the alcohol usage levels she’s reporting for her subjects? Presumably. And self-reporting when it comes to illegal behaviors is notoriously unreliable. Also, we don’t know how serious the functional declines she’s reporting really are. They could be, in practical terms, of negligible importance–an effect that shows up in the lab but doesn’t affect real-life functioning. Or they might be significant. This article doesn’t give us enough information to judge–and we can’t necessarily trust the investigator to be approaching the subject objectively.</p>
<p>nightchef - you’re clearly in denial</p>
<p>
Well, my argument is in ruins.</p>
<p>Nightchef, the sample in the study you cited were “between ages 55 and 65,” so it really doesn’t help much in determining whether it’s wise to allow persons under the age of 21 to drink. </p>
<p>I would be interested to see mortality figures for drinkers vs. abstainers, with the sample consisting of individuals aged 18 to 21. I could be wrong, but I would hazard a guess that the abstainers in that age group outlive the drinkers.</p>
<p>since the health benefits of MODERATE alcohol consumption are mainly wrt heart diseases, IIUC, and few under 21YOs get heart disease, yup.</p>
<p>As for euro models, how does northern europe compare to med europe? All of them have lower drinking ages than the US, IIUC, but in northern europe IIUC it tends toward young people using hard liquor as a pastime, whereas the model of drinking wine, with food, in a family context, is more of a mediterranean thing. </p>
<p>We have not banned DD from taking some wine with us on Friday night at sabbath dinner (on those occasions when we have wine and not grape juice) since she was 15 or so. She doesnt really like sweet type kosher wines, or dry wines. I even let her sip some white zinfandel, and she didnt care for that either. So she departed for Israel basically an abstainer - I hope that works out for the best.</p>
<p>
Well, of course. The point of the study was not that drinkers are less likely to die than non-drinkers at all points in their life, just that, on average, they’re likely to live longer. This is significant for college students only to the extent that the drinking habits they form now may persist in later life (which, ironically, is one of the arguments often brought out against lenient approaches to college drinking).</p>
<p>As I said before, I take media reports of research on these kinds of public health/lifestyle issues with a grain of salt. Even when the research isn’t compromised by the agenda of the funders, the reports themselves often gloss over complexities in the interests of making the story sell better. So I remain unconvinced that moderate drinking will shrivel our college-aged sons’ and daughters’ hippocampi to microscopic size and turn them into demented hoboes. Nor do I think we should send them fifths of Captain Morgan in our care packages to make sure they’ll live to be 100.</p>
<p>But I do think people who puke and don’t clean up after themselves are rude and should be confronted. ;)</p>
<p>The European model is complicated because the northern europeans tend to have a lower tolerance to alcohol in general, thought to be because alcohol was introduced to these cultures later in their development.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Some have the genetic predisposition to avoid alcohol:</p>
<p>The quest for genes that influence alcohol abuse follows two paths. One goal is to locate genes that predispose a person to alcoholism. The other is to identify genes that help to prevent this from happening. Li and his coworkers have made important advances in this latter category. “We have identified two genes that protect against heavy drinking, and these are particularly prevalent among Asians,” Li says. "We have shown that Native Americans, who have a high rate of alcoholism, do not have these protective genes. The one that is particularly effective is a mutation of the gene for the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase, which plays a major role in metabolizing alcohol. The mutation is found very frequently in Chinese and Japanese populations but is less common among other Asian groups, including Koreans, the Malayo-Polynesian group, and others native to the Pacific Rim. “We’ve also looked at Euro-Americans, Native Americans, and Eskimos, and they don’t have that gene mutation,” says Li. Thus, incidentally, the study of genetic mutations and alcoholism links native North-American populations to central Asian ancestors, not to those from China and Japan.</p>
<p>Alcohol is metabolized principally in the liver, where it is converted first to acetaldehyde by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase. Acetaldehyde is then converted to acetate by the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase. Acetaldehyde produces unpleasant physiological reactions even at low concentration, so the presence or absence of the gene mutation affecting aldehyde dehydrogenase in turn affects drinking behaviors. When acetaldehyde is not rapidly converted to acetate the results are dramatic: a rapid increase in blood flow to the skin of the face, neck, and chest, rapid heartbeat, headache, nausea, and extreme drowsiness occur. “As expected, this aversive reaction affects drinking behavior,” Li says, "and the mutant gene therefore serves as a protection against heavy drinking and alcoholism. " Li’s current research is investigating the occurrence of mutations involving alcohol dehydrogenase. Variant forms of alcohol dehydrogenase can provide some protection against heavy drinking, though not as effectively as the specific aldehyde dehydrogenase mutation identified thus far.</p>
<p>[Genetic</a> Influences on Alcohol Drinking and Alcoholism](<a href=“http://www.indiana.edu/~rcapub/v17n3/p18.html]Genetic”>http://www.indiana.edu/~rcapub/v17n3/p18.html)</p>
<p>I do not tolerate alcohol very well and generally avoid it. My wife has the same problem but she drinks red wine for the reported health benefits. My son has had a few beers after turning 21. He absolutely refused alcohol before then. Daughter has never had any and has no interest in it at this point.</p>
<p>It would be interesting to see the mortality rates broken down by whether participants were genetically predisposed against drinking alcohol. The Japanese are known for their longevity and perhaps the gene that controls drinking plays some part in that.</p>
<p>I found a study that suggests that the gene mutation doesn’t affect the benefits of moderate alcohol intake.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/NR/rdonlyres/87033E59-822F-4491-B0B5-F08C7C955588/0/NIAAA_Brain_Fact_Sheet_508.pdf[/url]”>http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/NR/rdonlyres/87033E59-822F-4491-B0B5-F08C7C955588/0/NIAAA_Brain_Fact_Sheet_508.pdf</a></p>
<p>"The Japanese are known for their longevity and perhaps the gene that controls drinking plays some part in that. "</p>
<p>Whew. They may not have high rates of alcoholism (I don’t know), but they sure do have a lot of wretched excess when it comes to drinking. Stumbling around, acting stupid, & puking are pretty much par for the course when it comes to the boys’ night out after work.</p>
<p>It’s 5:00 pm somewhere - I say we start our own study right now!</p>