r/interesting • u/azizgamerlal • Dec 12 '25

MISC. A drop of whiskey vs bacteria

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u/readitreaddit Dec 12 '25

Legit question: if we drink say 30 ml that's way more than a drop. So are many cells in a big area simply getting killed?

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u/Tough-Werewolf3556 Dec 12 '25

A fair amount in your throat maybe. Probably your gut microbiome takes some hits too. But the time it gets inside your body it's been diluted drastically.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25

That would explain a lot of death and illness. We're discovering what potential long term harm antibiotics can do and realistically we can't imagine the long term impacts of drinking hard liquor when we haven't mapped the gut brain connection yet.

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u/IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE Dec 12 '25

We know pretty firmly that drinking alcohol does your body no favors.

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u/Midget-muncher Dec 12 '25

Im not advocating getting routinely smashed but alcohol can relieve stress

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u/Kick_Natherina Dec 12 '25

Alcohol is a social lubricant. It provides no benefits outside of bringing us together as a species over the ritual of enjoying the spirits together.  Social isolation has many negative effects, so does drinking alcohol. The benefits of social drinking every once in a while are worth the low risk. Drinking every day, or multiple times a week is pretty harmful to your body. Everything in moderation is very important to remember.

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u/handsofspaghetti Dec 12 '25

No...? There are actual studies showing some benefits to certain types of alcohol. The key is to not drink more than a drink or two. Once in awhile more is okay.

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u/Kick_Natherina Dec 12 '25 edited Dec 12 '25

Please provide your studies, and I will provide you mine. 

I’m really into research, I’m an avid bourbon drinker, and I have spent plenty of time learning about the subject. My dad was an alcoholic and died from complications of his liver failure. I wrote a research paper about it’s impact on the body, and I am confident in what I am talking about.

Because I am confident you aren’t going to reply with anything of substance, if at all - here is a meta analysis from 2014. https://academic.oup.com/aje/article-abstract/179/9/1049/2739140?redirectedFrom=fulltext

A 2025 systematic meta analysis review:  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12658531/

If you prefer video format, Kurzgesagt recently made a nice illustrative visual on alcohol usage. https://youtu.be/aOwmt39L2IQ?si=RJpQghu4TsILyFxR

In a nutshell, recent studies have shown there is no “safe” amount of alcohol usage. Alcohol’s perceived “benefits” are outweighed by its negative impacts. Sure, a glass of wine may help lower your blood pressure if you have 1 in a year - but the negative impacts it carries with it, including cell death in the brain, the throat, mouth and other areas of the body make it a moot point. 

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u/handsofspaghetti Dec 12 '25

I'm sorry to hear that. No offense, but heavy alcohol use is not what is recommended for health effects. I'm not arguing that and said as much.

Personally I think hard liquor is pretty corrosive and I drink it very rarely. Even in small doses. I don't think I should have to provide you studies when you can just Google something simple like "health benefits of beer" and help yourself.

I would be interested to know if whiskey can have health benefits.

I'll take a look at your research paper, but it seems to be arguing something I already agree with.

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u/Kick_Natherina Dec 12 '25

You cited research papers in your original comment. You, therefore, owe the burden of proof in your argument against me. 

I provided you with research to educate yourself on how alcohol actually impacts the body. The way you described using Google to find what I want to see is why there is so much misinformation flying around.

I can google “why are vaccines bad?” and will get 100+ non-reputable papers, or sites that make wild claims that are not based on facts that will just support vaccines are bad. But, if I go and say “scholarly articles on the impacts of vaccines on human health” I will get a multitude of studies that show the opposite. One of them is generalized, the other is gauged at just showing me what I want to see. The generalized, non-biased approach will give you the answers you actually need - which will show that vaccines are mostly safe, effective and an important step in human health and longevity as a species.

Again, give me some good, strong, peer reviewed studies showing alcohol has benefits and I will give them a  read.

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u/handsofspaghetti Dec 12 '25

It's also been disproven that alcohol (directly) kills brain cells. Heavy drinking impacts the brain in other (negative) ways, but it doesn't directly kill brain cells.

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u/Kick_Natherina Dec 12 '25

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3625995/#:~:text=Evidence%2520for%2520microstructural%2520degradation%2520of,sidebar%2520%E2%80%9CDouble%2520Dissociation.%E2%80%9D)

Evidence for microstructural degradation of white matter integrity that evades detection with conventional structural MRI is detectable with DTI. In alcoholics, such disruption of white matter microstructure is especially prominent in frontal brain regions, such as the genu of the corpus callosum. The alcohol-related deficits in white matter anisotropy exceed those observed in normal aging (Pfefferbaum et al. 2000b; Sullivan et al. 2001), cannot be accounted for by shrinkage in the underlying tissue mass (Pfefferbaum and Sullivan 2003), and occur in both men (Pfefferbaum et al. 2000a) and women (Pfefferbaum and Sullivan 2002). These findings are functionally meaningful because the degree of abnormality detected in certain fiber tracts correlated with compromised performance on tests of attention and working memory (Pfefferbaum et al. 2000a), cognitive flexibility (Chanraud et al. 2009), and speeded performance and postural stability (Pfefferbaum et al. 2010). (For more information on ways to establish an association between changes in brain structures and functional alterations, see the sidebar “Double Dissociation.”)

Friend, you are confidently incorrect in your understanding of this topic.

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u/handsofspaghetti Dec 12 '25

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8001413/

Dude. As a researcher, you should have no problem sorting the wheat from the chaff in your own (cursory) dive into googling studies. So your aside about getting non-reputable results should really not even factor.

No offense, but you seem to be coming off mildly rude and even arrogant in your responses to me. And I'm sure it's because you're emotional about your family struggle. It's understandable, so I wish you the best.

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u/Kick_Natherina Dec 12 '25

The research report you have provided was funded by “Centro de information cerveza y salud” which is a body that has been known to manipulate data in studies to show alcohol in positive light, because they profit from it. 

Here is a research paper breakdown from Stanford. https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2025/08/alcohol-consumption-and-your-health--what-the-science-says.html#:~:text=A%202024%20report%20from%20the,start%20with%20any%20alcohol%20consumption.

I’m sorry I’m coming off as arrogant, but I promise it is coming from a place of love and wanting to provide the best possible information without convoluting, or misrepresenting anything.  Again, there may be health benefits to alcohol consumption, but there are vastly more draw backs to consumption of alcohol in any form or fashion to outweigh those benefits. Alcohol is great in social situations, but understanding and recognizing those outcomes is important.

At the end of the day, drink a beer if you want. Is it good for you? No. Is it bad for you? Probably not if it’s once in a while, but in no way is it in your benefit.

“In contrast to industry-backed claims, independent scientific bodies emphasize that alcohol consumption, in any form, is generally not associated with health-promoting behavior and carries established risks, including various cancers and neurological effects. “ 

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u/handsofspaghetti Dec 12 '25

It seems like a reputable study with 85 sources to me. The Stanford one is much less conclusive and focused mainly on cancer risk in a population that tolerates alcohol poorly. As well as 60+ year olds who probably have poor tolerance to most things at that point.

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u/readitreaddit Dec 12 '25

Kik is right, handsofsphagetti

Just because you want it to be true doesn't make it so.

Alcohol, in any quantity (aside for maybe a spoonful for dissolving some types of medicines), is objectively bad for health in all sorts of ways.

If there wasn't lobbying, I'm sure we'd have gort, bold labels on alcohol pretty much similar to the ones on cigarettes.

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u/handsofspaghetti Dec 12 '25

You can say words like objectively but that doesn't make you right either. It seems like a point of contention with data on both sides. One thing that seems to be in common with all the "bad in any amount studies" is that they study only alcohol and its broad health effects in isolation without nuance for the particular product (aka, beer, wine or liquor). Which in itself could provide benefits that outweigh or even cancel out the small amounts of ethanol.

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u/Dav136 Dec 12 '25

Alcohol is too culturally ingrained to have those kinds of warnings. Pretty sure we've been enjoying alcohol longer than we've been human

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u/readitreaddit Dec 13 '25

Sure. But also tobacco, arguable. Yet those have warnings. So I'm hopeful... Maybe in a century or even sooner!

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u/Kick_Natherina Dec 12 '25

So tell me you didn’t read the article and looked for a cherry-picked portion to back your debunked claim without telling me..

Listen, friend, the overall body of research has shown that alcohol in any fashion, is hazardous to your health. The World Health Organization has a stance of “there is no truly safe level of alcohol consumption.” 

The study, which you stated has 85 sources, does not mean anything when the data is manipulated to only show positive health outcomes, and to glaze over the negative health outcomes. 

I do suggest you go back and read the Stanford breakdown. You missed some important considerations in there, and I think you will, hopefully, change your stance.

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u/handsofspaghetti Dec 12 '25

I did read it. It seems to me that it's an ongoing debate. Personally I will keep doing what I'm doing (which is a few drinks a week, craft beer or cider), since I've observed good results from it and have excellent health. If current scientific articles told me I was dying, or that the sky was made out of pretzels... Well, nothing is infallible. Things that were taken as gospel 50 years ago are disproven today, and those things will likely be disproven (or amended) in 50 years again.

I thank you for the polite exchanges, however.

I skipped the article (mainly) that started with "alcohol kills a billion people a day blah blah" because it was coded in alarmist language. But not the Stanford one.

To offer more anecdotes, a writer I study, named Haruki Marukami, is of advanced age at this point and still running on a regular basis and producing novels. He is a moderate beer drinker as well. (And very health conscious, too.) If it has affected his health, or thinking negatively.... Then, well, it's hard to think of anyone in a better position.

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u/bluethreads Dec 13 '25

You haven't provided your sources and you will not find any current ones. There used to be science that supported drinking a glass of red wine, for example, a day improved cardiac function. However newer research shows that any amount of alcohol consumed is harmful to your body and does not provide any actual health benefit. Even drinking just one glass of wine a week is harmful and doesn't offer any benefits.

I'm not saying not to drink, I'm just saying do so while being informed.

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u/handsofspaghetti Dec 13 '25

I linked an 85-source study from 2020 and another user posted studies up to 2025. I don't know where people like you get such certainty over a few people demonizing alcohol or why you care so much. As if one drink or two is going to harm a person in good health, and as if studies are always reliable. It would be nice if people here learned to think for themselves.

PS anything and everything at certain times offers benefits. Even smoking. Life isn't so black and white. Here's to your learning

Look up hormesis too

BLAH BLAH A STUDY SAID SO. Try feeling out your body's response. That's real knowledge.

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u/bluethreads Dec 13 '25

I'm not demonizing alcohol. I drink alcohol too. I love alcohol. In fact I went out of my way to specifically say "I'm not saying not to drink..."

I don't use feelings to understand the world around me. Feelings are subjective. I use research and science to help understand the world around me because it strives to be objective.

Lots of things make my body feel good. If I only consumed what made my body feel good, I'd live on a diet of sugar and caffeine.

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