STUDY:

Alcohol consumption, age Both sexes    Male  Female

                                            2000         2000   2000

Percent current drinkers

18-34years ........................  69.0         76.0   62.0

35-44 years ........................ 59.7         66.5   52.8

45-54 years ........................ 56.3         63.5   49.5

55-64 years ........................ 46.9         53.5   40.0

65-75 years ........................ 42.9         50.0   35.7

75+ years   ........................  28.1         35.1   21.1

Fact: Alcohol takes off an average of 8-11 years off a light drinker, 12-14 years off a moderate drinker and 15+ years off a heavy drinker.  These stats do not lie.  That means every drink takes off a little more than 1 and ½ days of your life on average, which means 4 drinks takes off one week of your life and most people do that in one sitting.  So if you drink on a fri and sat night, 4 drinks, for just two weekends, you lose a month off your life if not more.  But nothing beats the fact and statistic that at age 25, 30% of the population at that age has been a lifetime abstainer from and 70% have drank, but by the age group of 75 and older, 69% of the population doesn’t drink and only 8% of the these people had quit between the ages of 25 and 75, so that means 61% of the population now are lifetime abstainers.  The percentage of the population of lifetime abstainers of alcohol within age groups 25-44 then to 45-54, 55-64, 65-74 and 75 and older increase rapidly because drinkers die off so much more quickly than non-drinkers.   So at age 25, 6 out of 20 people have never drank in their life and 14 out of 20 have.  At age 75, only one of these 6 lifetime abstainers will have died and 11 out of the 14 drinkers will have died because that would make 5 lifetime abstainers and 3 drinkers, which would give rise to the 64% lifetime abstainers and 36% drinkers of the population 75 and older.  In other words you have a 5 out of 6 chance, 83.3%, of living to 75 if you don’t drink compared to only a 3 out of 14, 21.4%, if you drink at any point during your life.  If everyone died at the same rate, the percentages throughout every age group would never change.  So you have A FOUR TIMES greater chance if you don’t drink compared to if you drink!  Statistics don’t lie.  Lifetimes abstainers at age 75 and older would still be at 30% but why is it at 60%???  Just think how long 10-15 years is and how much more of your life that you could enjoy if you don’t do ONE stupid thing along with not smoking.  Take one day, multiply that by 365, multiply that by 10 to 15, and you have 3,650 to 5,475 days more that you can live on average just by not drinking, that is a lot of days.

The stats don’t lie!  If Abstainers and Drinkers died at the same rate the percentage of lifetime abstainers with age groups would never change moving from age group to age group because everyone would die at the same rate.   But because alcohol is a poison and the most lethal drug, it kills every part of your body with every sip and again will lead to an early death of at the least of 8 years.  Is it worth it? The damage done to your body is a great enough loss, let alone all the damage done to others and society of all the innocent lives that are taken by drunk driving and homicides and all the rapes, vandalism by people under the influence.  Not including the 100’s of billions of unnecessary dollars it cost taxpayers per year for the damage caused by these same people.   The same money that could be used to feed, clothe, and shelter the poor or find a cure for illnesses and cancers.

As a last note found:  A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that male, vegetarian Seventh-Day-Adventists in California lived nearly ten years longer than other Californians. Even non-vegetarian male members of the religion, which stresses exercise and avoidance of alcohol and tobacco, lived on average more than seven years longer than other Californians.
{"10 Reasons Men Die Sooner," Women's Health Condition newsletter, Jan 21, 2002, My.WebMD.com}

Researchers estimate that if people today practiced optimal health habits, the average life span of 77 years would soar by at least a decade and possibly two. Furthermore, the extra years are likely to be good ones. Studies show that people who engage in healthy habits stay mentally sharper and experience significantly less disease, disability, and emotional instability in their latter years. {“How to banish a bad habit,” Consumer Reports on Health, March 2003}