Oh dear!

“Death: 'THERE ARE BETTER THINGS IN THE WORLD THAN ALCOHOL, ALBERT.' Albert: 'Oh, yes, sir. But alcohol sort of compensates for not getting them.'" Terry Pratchett

Alas it seems that Terry Pratchett's Death who always speaks in capital letters, is right. Indeed it is appropriate that the words are spoken by death, because, according to yesterday's Age we are all very likely to die of drink. Sort of.

The Age, is not, just saying this of course - it is reporting on various recent researches into the effect of alcohol - much more prevalent than drugs of course. Apparently we do seem to be aware of this and are drinking less, but actually, after reading the article I came to the conclusion that the medical fraternity thinks that we really shouldn't be drinking alcohol at all.

"Alcohol is closely related to around 60 different diagnoses, and for almost all there is a close dose-response relationship, so the more you drink, the higher your risk of disease. Less is better." The World Health Organisation.

"What many people don't realise is that alcohol affects virtually every organ system in your body." Associate Professor Yvonne Bonomo

Yes unlike turmeric which cures just about everything - well that's what it's admirers say - alcohol actually causes just about everything - more or less all types of cancer, but particularly in the mouth, throat and oesophagus, and the breast in women, and the liver in all. Now it seems it also is a cause of prostate and pancreatic cancer and melanoma. What else is left one wonders? Well dementia, heart arrhythmia, high blood pressure and brain injury apparently. The list seems to go on and on, and it's not just actual alcoholics who are likely to be affected. Then, of course, there are all the bad things that can happen when someone is drunk, from accidents to violence of all kinds.

My daughter-in-law - a good person - has just finished Dry July - no alcohol for the entire month. It was in aid of cancer research which it now seems is very appropriate. And I have a feeling that October is another month that is set aside for a similar project. Obviously it's a worthy thing to do, if only for the money that is raised for a charitable cause. But whether it has any effect on the amount of alcohol that the participants normally drink, or whether it draws enough attention to the dangers of alcohol is a moot point. I do know that my daughter-in-law is back to drinking the occasional glass of wine.

People have been drinking alcohol for literally forever. Indeed for a while it was considered much healthier to drink alcohol then water.

"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria."

Benjamin Franklin

"Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages." Louis Pasteur

So true - bad water led to various outbreaks of cholera and other water-borne diseases in London for example - and everywhere else. Now however, in the western world anyway, we have clean water, and so there is no real excuse to drink alcohol. But over the centuries - when it was perhaps wise to drink alcohol, those who produced the alcohol worked to refine the drinks they made, be it wine, whiskey or beer or indeed any of the other thousands of alcoholic drinks we consume around the world. Until now, not only has it been a pleasure to drink alcohol because of its effect on the libido, but also because it tastes so good. And along with the taste has come the whole mystique and culture surrounding the drinks themselves, not to mention the industry that has grown up around them and which extends from the growing and the making to the larger tourist and hospitality industry. It's massive. Big alcohol, like big tobacco.

We all know that tobacco is evil and will definitely lead to cancer - and so smoking is a much less apparent thing these days - and still declining one would think. You only have to look at an old film to see the difference. In old films just about everyone was smoking. But alcohol has not declined to the same extent. Indeed it may well have increased for a while with the increase in interest in wine, and now craft beers and cocktails, but there doesn't seem to be the same fear. Yes I think we are much more aware of the dangers of excessive alcohol and alcoholism, but 'moderate' drinking - not so much.

When I was a young student at university I probably drank too much. I was very shy, lacked confidence and probably had drinks pressed upon me, as well as peer group pressure generally. Prior to university I really had not drunk alcohol at all. Even in France - I just didn't like wine, and so I drank mineral water instead. At university I drank beer - it was cheaper than wine and besides everybody drank it. And being new to alcohol I had no idea when I had drunk too much. Once you have passed that moment of having drunk too much, you just carry on drinking because the mind is not thinking at all by then. Not in a sensible way anyway. And so you are sick and you do stupid things. I was lucky I now realise that I didn't engage in more risky behaviour than I actually did.

"Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." Ernest Hemingway

And besides for the males there is that old adage of Shakespeare's from Macbeth:

“it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance”

As I grew older I began to recognise the moment at which I had had enough, and so am never actually drunk these days. But still I probably drink a little too much sometimes - maybe three or four glasses instead of one or two. So the two of us try to limit our consumption by not drinking during the week. Alas if a social occasion crops up then the vow of abstention is broken. But mostly we stick to it. What I should do with the leftovers at the end of the weekend is cook with them rather than drink them, which is what I do now. Yes that's a vow I could keep.

I guess I was also lucky that I didn't have genes that might have leant me towards alcoholism. My husband comes from a family with some history of alcoholism and so he is particularly wary of drinking too much - and has always been so - at least as long as I have known him. I remember him saying that he got 'drunk on company', not actual alcohol. Which I always thought was a bit of a pompous thing to say. And we do tend to think of people who do not drink as pompous don't we? Which is unkind and unfair. And we probably think that because of a feeling of guilt over our own indulgences.

I also feel guilt at having drunk alcohol all through my two pregnancies, although I'm pretty sure that my mother would have drunk - and smoked - all the way through her pregnancies too. Have I shortened my two sons' lives by doing so? They seem Ok - as do I - although I did develop breast cancer - but was that through drinking alcohol, bad genes (my mother and aunt both had breast cancer), or something else entirely?

Don't you feel that the more knowledge we get about the food we eat and the drinks we eat, and just about everything we do, is just making us feel guilty if we indulge in those forbidden things, or resentful if we don't? Yes you can cut out all those unhealthy foods, drinks and habits, but if they give you pleasure and you end up with no pleasure at all, then surely life, even if it is longer, is not worth living. So I shall continue to drink moderately - up to nine standard drinks a week apparently is moderate - and eat moderately too - with total abstinence here and there being my best way of coping with overindulgence.

Tonight we are going to my granddaughter's twelfth birthday party. I shall be drinking a glass or two of delicious Australian and/or New Zealand wine, maybe even three or four. But no more. I shall enjoy the party, but I shall not be sick and I shall not have a hangover. Next week we go to Port Douglas for a week of luxury and laziness. I shall not be giving up either eating or drinking whilst there. I shall probably put on some weight which will need a bit more fasting than usual when I get back, but I think the holiday would be much less enjoyable if I carried on as normal. It's a holiday.

“That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.” ― Charles Bukowski, Women

No I don't do the last one - or the first one either. I don't think I have ever done that. In the past it was just to lose my inhibitions a bit - I never lost them all even when very drunk, they were so deeply ingrained. Now it's because I actually enjoy the taste.