In today's video, I'm going to tell you what no one tells you about alcohol: even if you're on the team that only drinks socially, it can do more harm than you imagine. Alcohol is so present in our lives that we often forget that it is a drug, with dangerous effects on our health. And no, I'm not just talking about liver diseases like cirrhosis.
Have you ever stopped to think about how alcohol influences your health and your routine? Try thinking about what your life would be like if you stopped drinking today. Could it be that you are already an addict and didn’t know it?
Let's find out what we can do to solve this problem that few want to see: the normalization of a legalized drug called alcohol. The most consumed drug in the world is alcohol, almost half of the world's population drinks it. And in Brazil, it's no different.
I bet you know someone who drinks every weekend, or that someone could be you. Alcohol is so common that it is easy to forget that it is a psychoactive drug. It acts on the brain, altering your mood, your perception of reality and your behavior in a very similar way to marijuana and cocaine, for example.
The difference is that alcohol is legal. It's okay that, unless someone forcibly lifts a glass to your mouth, no one drinks against their own will, right? Hmmmm; it's not quite like that.
The truth is that one of the things that most influences alcohol consumption is advertising, the heavy marketing behind drinks. It makes you unconsciously crave a cold beer. Every time you open your social network, there is someone drinking.
[some real images: drinks table; sitting around alcohol] In reality shows, there is always unlimited alcohol and the normalization of its consequences, since the drunk's disinhibition and the next day's hangover even generate funny scenes and discussions. In cinema, 87% of Hollywood films made between 1996 and 2015 had scenes involving alcohol use, with many being classified as free, that is, released for children. And that was exactly the cigarette industry's strategy.
For decades, they have been symbols of enjoyment and beauty. The industry used and abused advertisements to convince more and more people that smoking was chic. We can only get rid of this manipulation with public policies and awareness to curb smoking.
But alcohol is not following this trend. Despite so many awareness campaigns, consumption remains very high. If we could separate the alcohol in beer, caipirinha, wine and other drinks, it would be as if each Brazilian drank, on average, 8 liters of pure alcohol per year, while the world average is 6 liters per person .
But is this concern about alcohol my exaggeration and should we let people have fun in peace? I'm going to tell you what the studies say about the real danger of alcohol, in an impartial and, above all, honest way. But I need to be honest with you about another matter.
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What is the real danger of alcohol? When we think about the effects of alcohol on health, the common image is of someone passed out, with a bottle in their hand, perhaps lying in front of a bar. Or an older person who, from drinking so much, has developed cirrhosis or kidney failure.
It is easy to identify that these people already have a serious problem due to alcohol. But here's the point that few see: you don't have to go to this extreme to suffer negative consequences from alcohol. I know people who drink from Thursday to Sunday, happy and joyful at parties.
It seems like everything is under control, after all, people only drink to celebrate. But she doesn't realize that, little by little, alcohol has become a mandatory presence on all occasions. People boast that they can handle more and more doses without understanding that this is already the body adapting to frequent alcohol consumption.
What many people know as addiction or alcoholism is a clear sign of dependence. In the short term, the family begins to be affected, either because the person prioritizes the bar over family relationships or because the person's behavior is no longer the same. She has mood swings, becomes more impulsive and even aggressive.
Financial problems often arise because part of the income goes to buying drinks. But again, the person thinks everything is fine, they see beer as an ally to deal with life's problems and not as the source of the problems. Over time, this situation snowballs.
And health will take its toll. Regardless of the quantity, it is ethanol that enters your body. And it is toxic; Alcohol consumption directly affects the endocrine system, disrupting the release of several hormones.
For example, it reduces growth hormone and insulin, compromising metabolism and contributing to type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, in the immune system, it causes chronic inflammation, while weakening the body's defenses. And it doesn't stop there: the psychoactive effects of alcohol, such as relaxation, euphoria or disinhibition, arise through direct action on the brain, altering communication between neurons and interfering with emotional and movement control.
But there is another effect that comes as soon as ethanol is metabolized in the liver. The strategy is to transform ethanol into a safer molecule for the body, but before reaching this stage, it is first transformed into acetaldehyde, a reactive compound that binds to and modifies the structure of several molecules in the body, including DNA. This makes acetaldehyde a carcinogen.
With each acetaldehyde formed, it is as if you put an angry elephant in a paper cage: just the fact that it is there already indicates a risk of destruction. That's why alcoholic beverages are linked to more than 200 diseases, including heart problems, psychiatric illnesses such as anxiety and depression, and several types of cancer: liver, mouth, esophagus, pharynx; Increasingly, science shows us that common serious diseases, such as breast cancer and even colorectal cancer, are much more linked to alcohol than we imagined. But is even a person who drinks little subject to this risk?
Or just those who drink a bottle of whiskey every weekend? What is a safe dose of alcohol? It has been circulating on the internet for a long time that small doses of wine or other drinks would not only not hurt, but would even be beneficial.
Have you ever seen something like this? But this is nothing more than a misunderstanding that I already explained in this video here. The most recent studies show that there is no dose of alcohol that can be considered safe.
In fact, 13% of cancers linked to alcohol consumption come from what we call "light to moderate consumption", which is where those who drink a maximum of 3 cans of beer per day from Friday to Sunday come in. And the most bizarre thing is that I don't see this information gaining so much space in the news. Saying that wine is good for you should give you more buzz; What you need to know is that the risk of developing illnesses from alcohol depends on your level of consumption.
If Lucrécio drinks the equivalent of less than 7 cans of beer PER WEEK, his risk of getting cancer is 3% higher compared to someone who doesn't drink anything. Lucrécia, who drinks more than 2 beers PER DAY, has a risk 10 times greater than that of Lucrécio, 34%. The more alcohol you drink, the greater your risk.
In 2019, almost 5 percent of deaths worldwide were caused directly or indirectly by alcohol consumption. Alcohol killed 4 times more people than other drugs, such as opioids, cocaine and marijuana. To make matters worse, most of these deaths are of people between 20 and 39 years old; young people who, if it weren't for alcohol, would still have another 40, 60 years of life ahead of them to work, form relationships, develop new skills, make their dreams come true; They still had a lot to contribute to society.
Is there a solution? Is it possible to overcome the common sense that alcohol is an almost harmless social drug? What can we Brazilians do to end so many social, economic and health losses that alcohol brings?
The first step to combating the harm that alcohol brings is precisely what I'm doing here in this video: bringing honest, science-based information to people. Let's be clear: the objective here is not to ban people. It’s about offering quality information so everyone can understand what’s at stake.
And you can help me by sharing this video with your family and friends or simply leaving a like below so YouTube understands that it deserves to go further. I've even seen doctors saying that it's okay to drink on the weekend, has this ever happened to you? In other words, there are still many healthcare professionals who are out of date and spreading misinformation even unintentionally.
People need and have the right to know the risks they take when consuming an alcoholic drink, just as has happened with cigarettes over time. Nowadays no one discusses whether cigarettes are harmful or not and we only get to that point by spreading information. It is impossible to ignore that alcohol is already part of our culture as a way of celebrating and bringing well-being.
This will not change overnight. But little by little we can get there. That's what I did in 2024.
I already drank little, about once a month and it was already a problem; even one glass of wine left me either with a headache or more tired the next day. What is the need to go through this? Then, at the end of 2023, when I delved into studies about the effects of alcohol to make this video here, I started to rethink my habits.
If I go out to dinner with my wife, the focus is on the food and conversation, not the drinks. And in circles with friends, I started opting for non-alcoholic beer, which satisfies my desire to drink beer without suffering that social pressure. I see that people often drink simply because alcohol is cheap, easy to buy and socially acceptable.
Why not change that? Why don't alcoholic drinks have any disease risk warning on the label, like they do on a cigarette pack? This strategy is already used in 12 countries, including Cape Verde and South Korea.
And why not limit the sales hours of alcoholic beverages? The city of Diadema, in São Paulo, reduced homicides by more than 80 percent, partly due to a law that prohibits the operation of bars and restaurants after eleven o'clock at night, as the majority of crimes occurred in those places. .
[Insert Scenes from the short video about drinks in Australia] And in Australia, you can only buy drinks in specialized stores, there is no alcohol in supermarkets. Another possibility is to increase the tax on drinks to make them more expensive, so those who pay for the health costs of alcohol are exactly those who consume it and not everyone, as I said in this video here. There's no shortage of strategies to be inspired, all we need is for our governments to get their hands dirty.
If you have ever thought about drinking less or are looking for a healthier life, I invite you to rethink your alcohol consumption just like I did. Try it for a week or, perhaps, a month without alcohol and see if you'll miss it. Is it alcohol that's missing or is it just because you've become accustomed to seeing it as a sign of joy and well-being?
Better than drinking in moderation is drinking consciously, knowing that you don't need alcohol to enjoy leisure. Just as you don't need to be exhausted, running the risk of burnout, to be successful, as I explained here. A big hug, drink; from the source of knowledge and say Hello, Science.
