CHERRY-PICKING YOUR RESEARCH

When I started writing this blog the topic was going to be about the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the survey they had conducted about drinking and driving attitudes and behaviors. Since the survey found that “20% of the public 16 and older had in the past year driven a motor vehicle within two hours of drinking alcohol,” I was going to delve into statistics on drunk driving and the number of people killed or injured because of DUI’s. I was going to quote the survey where it reported “an estimate of 17.2 million drivers having driven one or more times in the preceding 12 months when they thought they were over the legal limit for alcohol and driving.“ I was then going to make a vow that I would give up smoking if everybody else gave up drinking. That was before I became aware of another statistical story about drinking. Blog follower Deborah sent me the most ludicrous story ever from time.com (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2014332,00.html) about how alcohol abstention is harmful for one’s longevity, I have decided you drinkers are not worthy of my making any personal sacrifice. Research, polls and surveys can pretty much be orchestrated to produce the results that the conductor wants. Word a question to say, “Do you believe in killing babies by paralyzing a woman’s cervical muscle, inserting a hollow tube with a knife-like edge into the uterus and tearing the baby’s body into pieces that are then sucked out through the tube with a vacuum?” One would answer, “No.” The same answer could be expected to whether it is okay to kill babies by a doctor inserting a curette, a loop-shaped steel knife, up into the uterus, cutting the placenta and baby into pieces and then scraping them out into a basin. The respondent would probably think that these tortuous death methods were too digesting to hear about and were only committed by some barbaric culture. But ask people if they support a woman’s right to have an abortion and they, unfortunately to me, will say, “Yes.” It is all in the wording.

According to the Time.com story, “A new paper in the Journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that — for reasons that aren't entirely clear — abstaining from alcohol does actually tend to increase one's risk of dying even when you exclude former drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers' mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers.” So with this research: drinkers can now justify their habit, it makes them live longer. Alcoholics have a reason to rejoice and say, “I told you so.” The story also reports that, “even after controlling for nearly all imaginable variables — socioeconomic status, level of physical activity, number of close friends, quality of social support and so on — the researchers (a six-member team led by psychologist Charles Holahan of the University of Texas at Austin) found that over a 20-year period, mortality rates were highest for those who had never been drinkers, second-highest for heavy drinkers and lowest for moderate drinkers.” Does this mean that those of us who abstain because we find the true results of drinking lead to domestic violence, verbal abuse, automobile accidents, loss of job, cirrhosis, etc. are wrong? We should drink because supposedly we will live longer? BS!! One of the most astounding, stupid conclusions in the report was that, “One important reason is that alcohol lubricates so many social interactions, and social interactions are vital for maintaining mental and physical health.” While I agree that social interaction is important, if one has to drink to be convivial then the “front” that one is presenting while drinking is not the true person one is. Is that the way people really want to characterize themselves? As a drunk?

Alcoholics can cherry-pick their research and will refer to this study for the next 100 years to rationalize their alcoholic consumption. John Cloud, the reporter on the Time article, concluded his story with, “That said, the new study provides the strongest evidence yet that moderate drinking is not only fun but good for you. So make mine a double.” I am repulsed by his flippant words. I conclude with, “Make mine a Diet Coke because I won’t kill anybody after drinking and driving.”