I don't often do this

stickywicket
stickywicket Member Posts: 27,697
edited 16. Jan 2016, 07:25 in Community Chit-chat archive
But this is destined to be a major rant.

I'm cross. I've been cross ever since the proposed new government guidelines came out that said former alcohol guidelines were wrong and we should now only have a couple of drinks twice a week but recommends "abstinent days, abstinent months, and if you actually don't miss the stuff, abstinent years."

Years :shock: I'm almost 70! I don't have many years left. I'm lucky still to be here after shovelling RA meds down me for 55 years and surviving breast cancer contracted in the years when I virtually didn't drink at all.

I eat healthily. I have very little processed food, fats or sugars. I don't eat sweets. I hardly ever eat chocolate (Thanks to the three people who gave me boxes at Christmas but they're still unopened.) I have a couple of plain biscuits with my pills going to bed and a small chocolate one on Sundays after church. I sometimes have a couple of handfuls (My hands are small) of crisps on a Friday when a friend comes round. Puddings and desserts are a very rare treat. I gave up salt when diagnosed with osteoporosis.

I wouldn't care but I don't drink much. I can't drink much. Methotrexate and a stomach wrecked by NSAIDS have seen to that. I have a glass of wine with my evening meal. One bottle lasts Mr SW and I two days. I hardly ever have it on my methotrexate day. My ALT levels (Liver function test – should be 'less than 40') only rarely get into double figures.

BUT, when out at a restaurant (less than once a month) I will have a large glass of wine. When the friend comes round on Fridays I have two smaller ones. In summer I like to sit outside on warm afternoons with Mr SW and a bottle of cider. No, I don't go on to have wine with my meal on those days but, unfortunately, the cider I like has is about 7% proof so one bottle is probably more than I should have on any one day. And, as we never know when the next warm sunny day will come in this country, I will take advantage of all that do. And one of the ciders I like is on draught (so probably even higher in alcohol) at the pub where we lunch on our visits to our son in Scotland and, yes, I probably will go on to have a glass of wine with my evening meal then. And some evenings, when up there, I'll join him in a wee dram before bedtime. And I love it.

But the shine has now been taken off it. My knuckles have been rapped. Take a discipline mark, Mirs SW. Apparently, I am more likely to die of cancer (well, I didn't before) or a heart attack (sounds a reasonable way to go). And, if I don't, what? Would they like me to stay alive for several more boring, degenerative, NHS-finances-consuming years of Alzheimers? Oh come on!

I promise I will not go binge drinking on Saturday nights. I have never so much as graced the GP's surgery due to alcohol let alone A&E. I don't mix alcohol and pain meds as I have never taken many of the latter. Wine is more sociable. I will not have unprotected - or indeed any other kind of - sex as a result of being out of my head on my solitary glass of Chenin Blanc. I am as unlikely a candidate for date rape as you'll ever meet. I may well die sooner than I would otherwise have done but, as my ambition, when my boys were young, was to get them to adults (and now both are parents), I'm satisfied with my life's achievements.

Now back off and let me sup my daily glass in peace :x
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Steven Wright

Comments

  • judijudi
    judijudi Member Posts: 8
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Well, I for one toast you, SW! "They" are constantly coming up with one thing or another that is going to kill us in horrible ways, and then they change a year later.

    Have your wine and I'll join you. Don't let them try to take away our pleasures as we get older and ache more every day.

    Cheers,

    Judi
    xx
  • daffy2
    daffy2 Member Posts: 1,636
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hear Hear Sticky. I've been having a bit of a discussion about this on another forum, along the lines of they're now choosing cancer as the bogeyman because people are more likely to take notice of cancer risks than heart attack risks. But if you start delving into the detail it doesn't necessarily look so impressive(as is often the way with stats used to forcibly get a message across)
    This latest edict will do absolutely nothing to deal with the problem alcohol use(binge drinking etc) and simply worries or annoys a great many folks to no good end. As to why the same 14 units for men and women - oh perleez - as they say. Am I really going to believe that as an 8 stone female the levels are the same for me as for my 16 st male neighbour? Even if you discount the differences in the way alcohol is dealt with by male and female bodies that doesn't make sense.
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Eloquent as ever, my dear Sticky, you know how to put your point across succinctly and with a touch of humour. I ignore guidelines in the same was that I ignore side-effects leaflets, household untidiness, weeds in the garden etc etc etc. My life is already despoiled and needs no further limitations. DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • dachshund
    dachshund Member Posts: 8,899
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hello Sticky
    I have a small drop of baileys in my coffee after I've been for a walk when i'm cold.
    I think you pay the money for what you want you have it.
    they will be telling us next when to go to the toilet.
    you have been through a lot in your 70 years and you deserve to have what you want.
    i'm 75 this year
    joan xx
    take care
    joan xx
  • theresak
    theresak Member Posts: 1,998
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Oh well said, Sticky, very well said. It's not five minutes since we were being told red wine was good for us. It's another example of the nanny state trying to throw a blanket over everyone in an attempt to educate the few.

    I'm not about to give up the glass of wine with which I complement my dinner three or four times a week, and on lovely warm-enough-to-sit-outside days in summer a nice G&T is rather good.

    I will shuffle off my mortal coil when Him Upstairs decides it's time, and until then I shall continue to eat & drink in moderation, as I normally do. The last time I looked at the Ten Commandments there wasn't one which said 'Thou shall not enjoy a drink.'

    At my age I'm old enough and wise enough to know my limits.Cheers!!
  • stickywicket
    stickywicket Member Posts: 27,697
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Thank you all for your supportive comments - and your 'drinking sins' :wink:

    To me it's just overkill. Around new year something was said about having two alcohol-free days per week and both Mr SW and I agreed that that was probably a good plan. We've done so since then. But the rest that came out later just seems so unreasonable it brings out the truculent adolescent that still lurks within me.

    I await, with interest, the report that says there is no safe level of sugar....or salt...or oregano....or visiting people who are ill...or kissing.

    Life is a dangerous business. Best not scare everyone into a premature death.
    If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
    Steven Wright
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Life has an inevitable outcome which rolls up regardless of what we might or might not do whilst living. Death is not an optional extra (nor an option) but in this age of revering youth it's unacceptable. The process of death begins from the moment of birth, it always has and always will.

    I will happily carry on doing what I do to make my present day more tolerable - the grave is indeed a fine, private (and pain-free) place. DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • daffy2
    daffy2 Member Posts: 1,636
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    At the beginning of the week when I did a shop at my local co-op, where I know the staff quite well now, I joked that I was taking notice of the latest guidelines - and that's why there were 2 bottles of beer and 2 of those little bottles of wine in my basket. The general response was not the one that HM government might have wished...
    And that major purchase will likely last me several weeks by the by, my tolerance of alcohol is not that good these days and indulgence takes some planning sadly.
  • mig
    mig Member Posts: 7,154
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I consider myself too old now for guides to offer me much help whether it be food or drink NOW If they had told me when I was in my teens would I have taken notice would I heck. Mig
  • Boomer13
    Boomer13 Member Posts: 1,931
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Sticky, it sounds like you do so many good things for yourself that you needn't worry about your alcohol consumption. Your liver values would tell you if you were over doing things. Gosh, I think you are benefitting yourself more with enjoyment of life. Life is too short to waste it worrying and not enjoying yourself.
  • barbara12
    barbara12 Member Posts: 21,280
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Brilliant SW..I would join you in a toast if i could..my stomach isn't happy with it thanks to antiinflam I was on a few years ago...do I miss it yes I do...you go girl...life is for enjoying.. :D
    Love
    Barbara