Alcohol and Health

Rhonda Patrick: Light-to-moderate alcohol use shows paradoxical cognitive protection despite neuroinflammatory harms

Rhonda Patrick

“Chronic alcohol consumption drives neuroinflammation through activation of immune pathways that cause sustained neuronal loss and measurable brain volume reduction, suggesting abstinence or minimal intake is ideal for brain health. Yet epidemiological evidence complicates this picture: light-to-moderate drinking (roughly 0–7.5 drinks per week) in middle-to-late adulthood is associated with up to a 26–28% reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease compared to abstinence or heavy use. This paradox highlights significant methodological variability across studies and underscores that alcohol's relationship with cognitive health is genuinely nuanced rather than straightforwardly harmful.”

Rhonda Patrick: Red wine resveratrol levels too low for pharmacological effect

Rhonda Patrick

“While resveratrol, a polyphenol found in red wine, shows neuroprotective potential in laboratory studies—including reducing inflammation, neutralizing free radicals, and aiding clearance of beta-amyloid proteins—the actual amount in a glass of red wine (0.03–1 mg) is far below the 50–500 mg doses used in pharmacological research. Achieving therapeutic resveratrol levels through red wine consumption would require drinking thousands of glasses, making it implausible that moderate red wine intake delivers meaningful resveratrol-driven brain benefits. This distinction between the compound's isolated effects and its real-world dietary delivery is critical when evaluating claims about red wine and brain health.”

Andrew Huberman: How to Overcome Addiction to Substances or Behaviors | Dr. Keith Humphreys

Andrew Huberman

“school u fewer unwanted pregnancies all that stuff. So there is that generation will probably be a drier generation than their parents were. >> Is cannabis use higher in that group? Everyone likes to just default to well cannabis is up so alcohol is down implying that you have to do something that people have to be using some sort of mindaltering substance. >> Yeah. With the legalization of cannabis um we certainly have seen a lot more use and a lot stronger products but youth use really has onl”

Peter Attia: 252 ‒ Latest insights on Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, exercise, nutrition, and f

Peter Attia

“cancer mortality so even if you take the most favorable to the Whi the Women's Health Initiative study reading the reading is that conjugated equine estrogen plus MPA increased the incidence of breast cancer by 0.1 percent in absolute risk but did not increase breast cancer mortality so here you have basically a non-event that has most people panicked senseless most women panicked senseless when confronted with taking hormones during the perimenopausal period and yet at the other end of that Spe”

Rhonda Patrick: Light-to-moderate alcohol consumption may reduce dementia risk compared to abstinence

Rhonda Patrick

“Epidemiological data suggest that abstaining from alcohol in midlife is associated with a 40% greater risk of dementia compared to light-to-moderate consumption (1–14 units/week), even after accounting for former drinkers and the 'sick quitter' bias. Beyond 14 units per week, however, each additional 7 units is associated with a 177% increase in dementia risk, indicating a J-shaped dose-response relationship. The apparent protective effect of moderate drinking appears to be mediated at least partly through cardiometabolic pathways, as abstainers show higher rates of cardiometabolic disease.”

Rhonda Patrick: light-to-moderate drinking and dementia risk — a nuanced picture

Rhonda Patrick

“Chronic alcohol consumption drives neuroinflammation through microglial activation and cytokine release, causing neuronal loss and brain volume reduction even at moderate intake levels. Yet epidemiological evidence complicates a simple abstinence recommendation: light-to-moderate alcohol consumption in middle- to-late adulthood is associated with a 26–28% reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in some studies, while heavy use clearly increases risk. The protective association appears in analyses of prospective studies at consumption levels between 0 and 7.5 drinks per week, highlighting a non-linear, dose- dependent relationship between alcohol and brain health.”

Rhonda Patrick: Multiple mechanisms by which alcohol damages the brain

Rhonda Patrick

“Alcohol contributes to brain damage through several interconnected mechanisms: it depletes thiamine (vitamin B1), which impairs blood-brain barrier integrity and may allow excess iron to accumulate in the brain—a process associated with worse cognitive function in a UK cohort of over 20,000 people consuming more than seven units per week. Alcohol is also metabolized into acetaldehyde, a toxic compound that damages DNA and proteins in brain cells. Additionally, heavy drinking increases gut permeability, disrupting the gut-brain axis and promoting neuroinflammation.”

Rhonda Patrick: light-to-moderate drinking, dementia risk, and the sick quitter bias

Rhonda Patrick

“Light-to-moderate alcohol consumption (1–14 units per week) is associated with a lower risk of dementia compared to abstinence, with midlife abstainers showing a 40% greater dementia risk than light-to-moderate drinkers. This association persists even after accounting for the 'sick quitter' bias—the methodological problem of grouping former heavy drinkers with lifetime abstainers in the non-drinking reference group—though the effect does not extend protectively beyond 14 units per week, where heavy drinking carries its own risks.”

Rhonda Patrick: APOE4 gene dramatically amplifies alcohol's dementia risk

Rhonda Patrick

“Alcohol consumption has starkly different effects on dementia and cognitive decline risk depending on APOE4 genotype. For APOE4 carriers, even light alcohol use is associated with significantly elevated dementia risk — up to 3.6x greater Alzheimer's risk with moderate consumption — while non-carriers show a 30–74% lower risk of cognitive decline with two or more drinks per day compared to abstainers. This gene-environment interaction suggests that standard population-level alcohol risk guidelines may be insufficient for the substantial minority of individuals carrying one or more APOE4 alleles.”

Rhonda Patrick: The paradox of light-to-moderate alcohol on brain volume vs. dementia risk

Rhonda Patrick

“Light to moderate alcohol consumption presents a paradox for brain health: it may reduce dementia risk in individuals without the APOE4 genetic variant—potentially through cardiovascular benefits, improved cerebral blood flow, and reduced inflammation—while simultaneously being associated with decreased brain volume. However, reduced brain volume does not necessarily translate to diminished cognitive function, as the brain's adaptive and compensatory mechanisms may offset structural changes in this context.”

Rhonda Patrick: Light-to-moderate alcohol's contradictory effects on brain health

Rhonda Patrick

“Light to moderate alcohol consumption presents a paradox for brain health: it may reduce dementia risk in individuals without the APOE4 allele, potentially through improved cardiovascular function and reduced inflammation, yet it is simultaneously associated with decreased brain volume. This contradiction may be reconciled by the brain's adaptive capacity, as structural volume loss does not necessarily translate to diminished cognitive function, and compensatory mechanisms may offset the damage.”

Rhonda Patrick: No safe level of alcohol for cancer risk, with cigarette equivalency comparisons

Rhonda Patrick

“There is no completely safe level of alcohol consumption from a cancer prevention standpoint, with breast and colorectal cancers being particular concerns. For those who are generally healthy with no family history of these cancers, limiting intake to two to three drinks per week is a more prudent approach. Research on the 'cigarette equivalent' of alcohol harm suggests that five standard drinks per week carries roughly the same absolute lifetime cancer risk as smoking four to five cigarettes per week for men and ten cigarettes per week for women, with hazardous drinking levels equating to approximately eight cigarettes per week for men.”

Rhonda Patrick: Oxidative stress as the unifying mechanism behind alcohol-induced cardiovascular disease

Rhonda Patrick

“Alcohol metabolism generates free radicals while simultaneously impairing antioxidant defense systems, creating a state of oxidative stress that likely underlies multiple cardiovascular harms including inflammation, fibrosis, and endothelial dysfunction. Binge drinking and chronic heavy use amplify these risks, with the most severe outcome being alcoholic cardiomyopathy—a condition of an enlarged, poorly functioning heart seen in those consuming six to eight drinks daily. Reactive oxygen species from alcohol also impair mitochondrial function and energy metabolism, compounding cardiac damage.”

Rhonda Patrick: Reassessing alcohol's cardiovascular risk using rigorous study methodology

Rhonda Patrick

“When studies properly account for the 'sick quitter' effect by removing former drinkers from the abstainer category, the cardiovascular benefits of moderate alcohol consumption appear smaller than previously thought, with the lowest risk occurring just below one standard US drink per day. Large-scale analyses of nearly 600,000 participants show a clear dose-response relationship: each additional 100 grams of alcohol per week increases risk of stroke, coronary disease, heart failure, hypertensive disease, and aortic aneurysm by 6–24%. Paradoxically, the same data show a modest ~6% reduction in myocardial infarction risk per 100 grams per week, suggesting alcohol's cardiovascular effects are disease-specific and complex.”

Rhonda Patrick: APOE4 carriers should avoid alcohol to reduce dementia risk

Rhonda Patrick

“APOE4 carriers do not experience the protective effects of light-to-moderate alcohol consumption seen in non-carriers and should ideally abstain entirely to minimize Alzheimer's and dementia risk. For non-carriers, moderate alcohol may offer some brain benefit by improving glucose tolerance through upregulation of insulin-sensitive glucose transporters and by raising HDL cholesterol, which supports cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health. These mechanisms help explain why epidemiological studies often show lower dementia risk with light-to-moderate drinking in the general population, but this protection does not extend to those with the APOE4 allele.”

Rhonda Patrick: APOE4 carriers face elevated dementia risk from alcohol, even light drinking

Rhonda Patrick

“APOE4 carriers do not benefit from the protective effects of light-to-moderate alcohol consumption seen in non-carriers and should ideally consume zero alcohol to minimally reduce Alzheimer's and dementia risk. For the general population, moderate alcohol may support brain health through improved glucose tolerance via upregulation of insulin-sensitive glucose transporters and cardiovascular benefits such as increased HDL cholesterol, which reduces arterial plaque formation.”

Rhonda Patrick: light-to-moderate alcohol consumption associated with lower dementia risk in older adults

Rhonda Patrick

“A comprehensive meta-analysis of over 15 international studies in adults over 60 found that occasional and light-to-moderate drinkers had a 22% lower risk of developing dementia compared to abstainers, while moderate-to-heavy drinkers showed an even greater 30% reduction. The study accounted for the 'sick quitter' bias by carefully separating lifelong abstainers from those who stopped drinking due to illness. However, when comparing only current drinkers against each other, the differences in dementia risk across drinking levels were no longer statistically significant, suggesting a threshold effect rather than a dose-response relationship.”

Rhonda Patrick: biphasic effects of alcohol on blood pressure and cardiovascular function

Rhonda Patrick

“Alcohol damages the microvasculature supplying the heart through vessel wall disorganization, fibrosis, endothelial degeneration, and inflammation, while also disrupting the baroreflex and activating the sympathetic nervous system. It increases oxidative stress and dysregulates the renin-angiotensin- aldosterone system, raising blood pressure. However, the relationship between alcohol and blood pressure may be biphasic: low doses can enhance nitric oxide production, improving vascular tone and offering some cardiovascular protection, while higher doses reverse these benefits and elevate cardiovascular disease risk.”

Rhonda Patrick: No safe level of alcohol for breast cancer, but context matters for low-risk cancers

Rhonda Patrick

“Any amount of alcohol increases cancer risk, with the practical significance depending heavily on baseline cancer risk. For low- lifetime-risk cancers like esophageal cancer in women (1 in 455), light drinking's added risk may be negligible, but for breast cancer (1 in 8 lifetime risk), there is likely no safe level of consumption. Combining alcohol with tobacco is particularly dangerous, multiplying cancer risk up to 30-fold because alcohol acts as a solvent that facilitates absorption of tobacco carcinogens like formaldehyde into oral and throat tissues.”

Rhonda Patrick: Cancer risk from alcohol persists for decades after quitting

Rhonda Patrick

“Stopping alcohol consumption does not immediately reduce cancer risk — it can take 15–20 years of abstinence for head, neck, and esophageal cancer risk to substantially decline, and 20–39 years for risk to return to levels seen in never-drinkers, depending on cancer type. For cancers like laryngeal and pharyngeal cancer, full risk normalization may require nearly four decades of abstinence. Even individuals with genetic predispositions, such as a family history of breast cancer, face compounded risks from even small amounts of alcohol.”

Rhonda Patrick: Rethinking Alcohol's Cardiovascular Benefits and Cancer Risk

Rhonda Patrick

“To minimize cancer risk, alcohol consumption should be limited to roughly two to three standard drinks per week, even for those without known risk factors. The long-held belief that moderate alcohol consumption (one to two drinks per day) protects against cardiovascular disease has been undermined by methodological bias known as the 'sick quitter effect,' which inflated apparent benefits by comparing drinkers to a reference group that included former drinkers who quit due to illness.”

Rhonda Patrick: drinking pattern and cancer risk beyond total intake

Rhonda Patrick

“While total weekly alcohol consumption is the primary driver of cancer risk, the pattern of drinking also matters for specific cancers. Women consuming more than 14 drinks per week face higher breast cancer risk if those drinks are concentrated into 1–3 days rather than spread across 4–7 days, a pattern not seen with colorectal, lung, or prostate cancers. More frequent drinking is also independently linked to higher gastrointestinal cancer risk, suggesting that both volume and temporal distribution of alcohol intake are relevant risk factors.”

Rhonda Patrick: Drinking pattern and cancer risk beyond total intake

Rhonda Patrick

“While total weekly alcohol consumption is the primary driver of cancer risk, the frequency and concentration of drinking sessions also matter for specific cancers. Women who consume more than 14 drinks per week face higher breast cancer risk if those drinks are concentrated into 1–3 days rather than spread across 4–7 days. Additionally, frequent drinking increases gastrointestinal cancer risk, and a genetic variant in alcohol dehydrogenase elevates cancer risk in men who drink regularly.”

Rhonda Patrick: Multiple mechanisms linking alcohol to cancer risk

Rhonda Patrick

“Alcohol promotes cancer risk through several distinct mechanisms: it elevates estrogen levels and amplifies estrogen receptor activity up to 15-fold, increasing risk of ER-positive breast tumors; it disrupts gut microbiome integrity leading to intestinal permeability and liver-damaging inflammation; and it impairs absorption of cancer-protective micronutrients including vitamins A, B1, C, D, folate, selenium, zinc, and magnesium. These converging pathways suggest that even moderate alcohol consumption can meaningfully undermine the body's cancer defenses.”

Rhonda Patrick: Alcohol as a dose-dependent carcinogen with no safe threshold

Rhonda Patrick

“Alcohol is epidemiologically linked to multiple cancers including oral, esophageal, liver, colorectal, and breast cancer, with risk increasing in a dose-response fashion and no apparent safe threshold. The social aspects of moderate drinking in Blue Zones — not alcohol itself — likely explain any observed longevity associations. For high-baseline-risk cancers like breast cancer (1 in 8 lifetime risk for women), even a modest alcohol-related increase in risk carries meaningful real-world consequences.”

Rhonda Patrick: Blue Zone longevity despite alcohol, not because of it

Rhonda Patrick

“Longevity observed in Blue Zone populations who consume moderate alcohol is likely explained by protective genetics—such as the FOXO3A TT genotype, which confers resilience against oxidative stress and supports DNA repair—rather than any direct benefit of alcohol itself. There is no credible evidence that any amount of alcohol positively affects life expectancy or healthspan. The social context surrounding moderate drinking, such as stress reduction and improved well-being, may provide indirect benefits, but the alcohol itself should not be credited for longevity outcomes.”

Rhonda Patrick: Alcohol as a dose-dependent carcinogen with no safe threshold

Rhonda Patrick

“Alcohol consumption is causally linked to multiple cancers including oral, esophageal, liver, colorectal, and breast cancer, with risk increasing in a dose-response fashion and no apparent safe threshold. For cancers with already high baseline lifetime risk, such as breast cancer (1 in 8 women), even modest alcohol intake meaningfully elevates absolute risk. The longevity association seen in Blue Zone moderate drinkers is likely attributable to social factors rather than any direct protective effect of alcohol.”

Rhonda Patrick: Reassessing alcohol's cardiovascular 'benefits' and safe limits

Rhonda Patrick

“To minimize cancer risk, alcohol consumption should be limited to roughly two to three standard drinks per week, even for those without known risk factors. The long-held belief that moderate alcohol consumption (one to two drinks per day) protects against cardiovascular disease has been undermined by the 'sick quitter' bias, which skewed comparisons by grouping former drinkers who quit due to illness with lifetime abstainers, making moderate drinkers appear healthier by comparison.”

Rhonda Patrick: Alcohol, gut permeability, and systemic inflammation

Rhonda Patrick

“Alcohol consumption increases intestinal permeability, allowing bacterial endotoxin (LPS) to enter the bloodstream and trigger systemic inflammation via cytokines like TNF-alpha, IL-6, and MCP-1. Even a single binge drinking episode (4+ drinks) elevates circulating LPS for up to 3 hours, while chronic heavy drinking is associated with persistently higher LPS levels and gut permeability. This creates a vicious cycle where inflammation further damages the gut barrier. Importantly, these effects appear reversible with abstinence, as LPS levels begin to decline within approximately 19 days.”

Rhonda Patrick: Alcohol disrupts intestinal barrier integrity via tight junction proteins

Rhonda Patrick

“Even a single standard drink (~20g of alcohol) is sufficient to disrupt key tight junction proteins (zonula occludens-1 and occludin), compromising intestinal barrier integrity. Alcohol and its metabolites, along with reactive oxygen species produced during metabolism, damage epithelial cells and weaken the cytoskeleton, enabling bacteria and toxins to translocate from the gut into systemic circulation. This 'leaky gut' phenomenon drives both intestinal and systemic inflammation through both trans-epithelial and paracellular mechanisms.”

Rhonda Patrick: Alcohol increases gut permeability and systemic inflammation via LPS

Rhonda Patrick

“Alcohol disrupts the intestinal barrier, allowing lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to enter the bloodstream, where it triggers inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, MCP-1) and can even cross the blood-brain barrier. Even a single binge drinking episode (4+ drinks) elevates blood LPS for up to 3 hours, while chronic heavy drinking is associated with persistently elevated LPS and gut permeability. Crucially, these effects appear reversible, with LPS levels beginning to decline after just 19 days of abstinence.”

Rhonda Patrick: Mechanisms by which alcohol increases cancer risk

Rhonda Patrick

“Alcohol metabolism produces acetaldehyde, a Group 1 carcinogen that directly damages DNA by forming adducts, causing mutations, double-strand breaks, and impairing DNA repair proteins. Ethanol also induces oxidative stress by elevating reactive oxygen species through upregulation of the enzyme CYP2E1, which becomes increasingly active in heavy drinkers. Additionally, the 'sick quitter' phenomenon—where people stop drinking only after experiencing health effects—artificially inflates abstainer risk in epidemiological studies, potentially obscuring the true harm of alcohol consumption.”

Rhonda Patrick: Mechanisms by which alcohol increases cancer risk

Rhonda Patrick

“Alcohol metabolism produces acetaldehyde, a Group 1 carcinogen that directly damages DNA by forming adducts, causing mutations, double-strand breaks, and chromosomal changes, while also impairing DNA repair proteins. Ethanol additionally induces oxidative stress by elevating reactive oxygen species through upregulation of CYP2E1, particularly in heavy drinkers, compounding genomic damage. The apparent protective effect of abstinence seen in some studies may be a statistical artifact of the 'sick quitter' phenomenon, where people only stop drinking after developing health problems.”

Rhonda Patrick: No safe level of alcohol for cancer risk, with cigarette equivalents quantified

Rhonda Patrick

“There is no completely safe level of alcohol consumption from a cancer prevention standpoint, with breast and colorectal cancers being particularly significant risks. For those seeking harm reduction, limiting intake to two to three drinks per week is more prudent than daily moderate drinking. Research comparing alcohol to cigarette smoking found that five standard drinks per week carries roughly the same absolute lifetime cancer risk as smoking four to five cigarettes per week for men and ten for women, with hazardous drinking equivalent to smoking eight cigarettes per week.”

Rhonda Patrick: Even moderate drinking dramatically raises cancer risk

Rhonda Patrick

“Moderate alcohol consumption—defined as one to three drinks per day—significantly increases the risk of several cancers, with relative risk increases ranging from 12% to over 400% depending on cancer type and sex. Even a single drink per day falls within this moderate category and carries substantial risk, particularly for breast cancer (risk rising from 1 in 8 to 1 in 4) and colorectal cancer (risk rising from 1 in 23 to 1 in 10 in men). Heavy drinking (more than three drinks per day) amplifies these risks further, with some cancers like esophageal, pharyngeal, and oral showing risk increases of 300–400%. These data underscore that no level of alcohol consumption should be considered universally safe.”

Rhonda Patrick: APOE4 carriers face amplified dementia risk from alcohol

Rhonda Patrick

“Carriers of the APOE4 allele face significantly elevated dementia risk even with minimal alcohol consumption — drinking less than once a month still confers a 2.3-fold greater dementia risk compared to APOE4 carriers who never drink. This suggests that the relationship between alcohol and dementia risk is genetically modulated, with APOE4 status being a critical modifier. People can determine their APOE4 status through consumer genetic testing services.”

Rhonda Patrick: Optimal alcohol intake is zero, but damage control strategies exist for those who drink

Rhonda Patrick

“The optimal number of alcoholic drinks per week for health is zero, and while low-to-moderate consumption may fall within a relatively safe range, no evidence supports a non-drinker starting to drink for health benefits. For those who do drink, the lowest-risk threshold from a cancer-risk standpoint is approximately one to two drinks per week. Individual baseline health and cancer predisposition should inform personal decisions about alcohol consumption.”

Rhonda Patrick: Confounders undermine alcohol's apparent health benefits

Rhonda Patrick

“The apparent cardiovascular benefits of moderate alcohol consumption are largely explained by confounding variables: non- drinkers tend to have more behavioral and social risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and when studies adequately control for these, most or all protective effects disappear. Additionally, self-reported alcohol intake is unreliable due to social desirability bias, further weakening observational evidence. The upshot is that moderate drinkers appear healthier despite their drinking, not because of it, and the epidemiological evidence for alcohol's health benefits is far from conclusive.”

Rhonda Patrick: No safe level of alcohol for high-baseline-risk cancers like breast cancer

Rhonda Patrick

“Any amount of alcohol increases cancer risk, with the practical significance depending heavily on the baseline lifetime risk of the specific cancer. For low-baseline-risk cancers like esophageal cancer in women (~1 in 455), light drinking's added risk may be negligible, but for breast cancer (~1 in 8 lifetime risk), there is likely no safe level of consumption. Combining alcohol with tobacco compounds cancer risk up to 30-fold compared to either substance alone, partly because alcohol acts as a solvent that facilitates absorption of tobacco carcinogens like formaldehyde into oral and throat tissues.”

Rhonda Patrick: Methodological biases distort alcohol health research

Rhonda Patrick

“Observational studies on alcohol often falsely suggest moderate drinking is healthier than abstaining due to two key biases: the 'sick quitter effect,' where former heavy drinkers who quit due to illness classify themselves as non-drinkers, and the 'healthy user bias,' where healthier individuals self-select into moderate drinking categories. These misclassifications inflate disease risk in the non-drinker group and deflate it in the moderate drinker group, making moderate alcohol consumption appear more protective than it actually is. Failing to control for these confounders fundamentally undermines the validity of conclusions drawn from such studies.”

Rhonda Patrick: Confounding factors undermine the 'healthy moderate drinker' narrative

Rhonda Patrick

“Observational studies suggesting moderate alcohol consumption protects against cardiovascular disease are heavily confounded by behavioral and social factors more prevalent in abstainers. When these confounders are adequately controlled, most or all of the apparent protective effects disappear, indicating moderate drinkers are healthier despite their drinking, not because of it. Further complicating the picture, self-reported alcohol intake is systematically underestimated due to social desirability bias, limiting the reliability of epidemiological conclusions.”

Rhonda Patrick: Alcohol disrupts sleep architecture through rebound activation

Rhonda Patrick

“Alcohol initially accelerates sleep onset and deepens early- night sleep, but because it is metabolized relatively quickly, its clearance from the system triggers a rebound activation that causes mid-night awakenings and fragmented sleep. This makes alcohol one of the most commonly misused sleep aids despite its net negative effect on sleep quality.”

The Truth About Alcohol: Risks, Benefits, and Everything In-Between

Rhonda Patrick

“…erent drinking categories then I'll discuss biochemistry of alcohol and how it's metabolized in the body with a particular emphasis on the effects on the gut and liver then we'll take a deep look into the literature regarding alcohol and several chronic diseas”

How to Improve & Protect Your Skin Health & Appearance | Dr. Teo Soleymani

Andrew Huberman

“least to my understanding that zero alcohol is healthier than any and that up to two drinks per week is probably okay as long as you're an adult of drinking age and not an alcoholic you don't have issues with alcohol use disorder as it's now called probably ok”

321 – Dopamine and addiction: navigating pleasure, pain, and the path to recovery

Peter Attia

“…concerning let me just say that the really nice thing about alcohol is that these questions are based on epidemiologic studies showing that for an adult male who drinks more than 14 standard drinks per week or more than four on any given day or an adult female”

How to Overcome Addiction to Substances or Behaviors | Dr. Keith Humphreys

Andrew Huberman

“…read of the data, and we covered this in a long episode on alcohol a few years ago, was that zero is better than any. And that two per week, two drinks per week, and that's getting very specific about ounces for, you know, spirits versus two per week is sort”

257 ‒ Cognitive decline, neurodegeneration, and head injuries: mitigation and prevention strategies

Peter Attia

“…generate NAD which is sort of at the rate limiting step for alcohol detoxification so yes if you stress the liver with alcohol it will upregulate its function in order to have a greater capacity when the next um you know the the next drinking session occurs so”

302 - Confronting a metabolic epidemic: how to prevent, diagnose, & manage liver disease

Peter Attia

“…it doesn't seem to have an effect on me does that mean that alcohol is less toxic to me I'll I'll I'll give you my biases because a lot of people think that toxicity is only occurring at the level of the liver um and we see in our especially post transplant po”

321 – Dopamine and addiction: navigating pleasure, pain, and the path to recovery

Peter Attia

“…and often um when we try to quantify that specifically with alcohol we we bring it down to what we call the standard drink a standard drink is one 12 oz bottle of beer a 5 oz glass of wine or 1 to 1 and a half ounces of hard liquor so that's one standard drink”

The Chemistry of Food & Taste | Dr. Harold McGee

Andrew Huberman

“…So, um it's certainly not essential to the flavor of uh of alcohols. And a lot of, for example, um whiskies may may be marketed as having been aged in used cherry casks. So you don't get the the toasting that you get if you're making fresh perils. So I think”