'Baby Boomers' and Alcohol

With you all the way, annsixty. At seventy five, life is coming up with so many extra difficulties, that I have no intention of cutting out my reasonable drinking and making things even harder.
I know my body well enough by now to tell when a drink is a good idea, and when I have had enough.

Ditto "Teetime* except whilst on a diet. (The diets never last long)

Exactly, Lilygran. On an average week I'll stick vaguely to the recommended guideline of 14 units - maybe a bottle of wine and 4 gin and tonics. If we're away on holiday or celebrating (so quite a lot of weeks then ), all bets are off. Life's too short.

At lunchtime today, just caught the last of You And Yours on Radio 4 and it was this same subject, older people and drinking, just a sentence or two, before the News came on.The funny thing was, I was cooking lunch and having a swig now and then from a glass of white wine( and very nice it was too!)

Better not go jogging. There's more against that (apart from the danger of getting run over) than there is against any of those foods!

I enjoy a smallish glass of wine every evening at home, and I sometimes have 2 if I go out. My doctor asked me if I drank, I told her what I had, and she said, "Fine, that's good for you!"

Why is everybody are some people being so defensive?
Nobody is accusing -you individually and personally of drinking too much, but making a statistical observation presumably based on research (at Kngs College Hospital, which is also one of the principal liver transplant centre in the country)
As we age we become less able to process alcohol so can become more sensitive to its effects with an increased likelihood of impaired judgement and falls etc. there is also an increased risk of cirrhosis of the liver and of various cancers (again we run a greater risk of most if not all cancers with age) According to the research, apparently the top 5 % of drinkers aged 65 and over can consume 49 units of alcohol per week for men, and 23 units for women, equating to 3 1/2 pints of beer for men and 3 1/2 glasses of wine for women. That doesn't * sound* all that much does it?
Made me think anyway.
We can be quick to condemn binge drinking in the young and rightly so, but don't need to be complacent as some posters have already evidenced.

I don't often drink at home but have noticed if I drink a few evenings in a row by day 3 I find myself looking at the clock to decide whether it's too early to open a bottle or not. Perhaps this is the way to becoming an alcoholic?? If I haven't drank for a while I never think about it.

I think you reach a certain age and face up to the fact that we all go sooner or later. My DM passed her 100th in good physical health for someone of that age but with a sadly impaired mind. How many days, weeks, months, years would I gain by giving up butter, cheese, bread, pasta, potatoes, chocolate, wine? And even then, I might fall under a bus tomorrow.

Anyone who drinks alcohol has a problem. I drink wine.

Bags and I share a bottle of wine most evenings, and have done for 40 years. We have it with a meal, never on its own. We don't miss it if we don't have it, we don't like to feel intoxicated and we don't need it as a confidence booster.

Wine contains alcohol, but (unlike smoking) that has never actually been nailed as 'bad' - in fact, a glass of red wine a day is often cited as being good for us. Remember how eggs were good for us, then bad, now they're good again? I go for all things in moderation.

The human race has evolved to cope with alcohol. In years gone by, it was safer than the water. It isn't actually alcohol that causes the problem, it's the aldehydes etc that it changes into as it is metabolised, and those are also in fermented foods such as cheese and yogurt. They are in petrol fumes, wood smoke, cleaning products and all sorts of other things, too.

Sadly, I think that many older people turn to alcohol when they are lonely and/or depressed, perhaps after bereavement when it's hard to start a new life alone. Families are too busy to notice or help, and many people have no family anyway. Alcohol is used as a drug, to escape from reality, by people of all ages from early teens onwards - it isn't (I think) a problem that is restricted to one age group.

Daffydil what a sensible post. I love your reference to John Mortimer - I think I might start drinking a bit more .
We are too regulated, as you say. When we've lived up till now always having to do as we're told - by parents, teachers, employers and so on - it's time we just told them all to 'foxtrot oscar'

Daffydil I am with you on this, nobody's business as long as I am not in charge of a car/children. Not taking away the seriousness of alcohol abuse, but we can't start wagging the finger at those of us who drink sensibly and enjoy it.

inishowen Two bottle most nights is an awful lot. If he is trying to stop, has he been anywhere that might be able to help him ? Cellulitisis is very uncomfortable and painful and cutting down would at least help that.

Hello regular lurker compelled to comment. I work with people with substance misuse issues (alcohol and drugs) and I have to say most of my alcohol clients are older people. It surprised me at first I admit.

I have one or two glasses a night, but sometimes none at all. DH has a problem with cellulitus in his leg. It gets worse after drinking red wine. He still drinks it most nights, up to two bottles. He's trying really hard to stop.

Yes J52 we were at an 80th birthday last year and the GC of the couple were ordering bottles of wine as if they were going out of fashion.We had a drink on arrival and one glass of wine with the meal. It concerned me that the 80 year old was footing the whole bill.

Does it matter how much older people drink so long as they don't get intoxicated to the point of being a danger to themselves? The way I see it is I have brought up a family, helped with grandchildren, and paid off the mortgage. I have discharged all my responsibilities so if I want to have a glass of sherry before dinner and a glass or two of wine with that's my business. If that shortens my life so what. John Mortimer said why give up something you enjoy just to spend an extra two years in an old folks home. Anyway I am 79 now
There are too many people telling others how to run their lives.

We went to a wedding recently, with a free bar. It wasn't the over 60s who were drinking the shots, and downing as much as possible!

x

We have gin and wine and lager and cider in the house at all times and drink 2-3 bottles of wine a week ( between 2). Don't get sozzled, dont have hangovers, sometimes there are weeks between opening one bottle of wine ad the next so don't think we have a problem.

I hadnt thought about the possible need for it.

petra, I am sorry for what you experienced.

My quip about burying my mums bottles in the garden was serious.
When my sister and I were older we had many a laugh about our parents drinking. You had to laugh, it was too bloody awful to take seriously.

Soon I do really think it would confirm a drink problem. Anyone who has whisky bottles dotted around the house and possibly in the garage and garden shed as well, most definitely has a problem of some sort with alcohol. It doesn't necessarily mean they drink too much, because they might only take a sip each time, but it does indicate they have a regular and possibly frequent need for it. And that is a drink problem.

My parents used to have a really well stocked cocktail cabinet too but noone really drank apart from special occasions. It was much more normal to have a drink when out but it was usually incidental to an outing rather than going out 'for a drink'.

We don't have a cocktail cabinet as such but we have a selection of beers, lagers, wines and spirits both for drinking and for use in cooking. I have said before that the best part of my day is cooking, watching pointless, chatting to DH while he is reading the paper and having a glass or two of wine.

The worrying part is that I am 66!

The post can read as funny, but as you say it is a serious topic.
I wonder whether my uncle[and I assume it was my uncle though I am unlikely to know for sure], was taking secretive swigs when auntie was not about.
I wasnt the one who cleared out his garage or garden shed or greenhouse. If there were ones in there too, then that would probably confirm that it was him rather than her.
But again, that doesnt confirm a drink problem.

Marmight is a lovely lady and unlikely to set herself up as an arbitrator, so why ask her "permission"? Nobody "owns" the contents of a thread they start, although it can be frustrating if it is derailed especially early on.
You must admit your post of 8.44 was funny though!

Yes it is a serious topic and reading through today's paper I see that the subject is very much in the news.
Too easy to laugh it off unless one has personal experience (as the radio programme maker did) and we need to be aware of the dangers not only to health ( it is NEVER too late to be aware) but to quality of life. A glass of may make you smile and seems a long way from liver damage or obesity or solitude and poverty.