Stop Drinking Podcast by Soberclear
The Stop Drinking Podcast by Soberclear is here to help you stop drinking alcohol and achieve the life of your dreams. We want to support people getting sober so they can get on with their life without feeling miserable. If you want to learn more about stop drinking coaching, head over to https://www.soberclear.com/
Stop Drinking Podcast by Soberclear
10 Things The Alcohol Industry Won't Tell You
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Welcome to the Stop Drinking Podcast, where we help you make stopping drinking a simple, logical and easy decision. We help you with tips, tools and strategies to start living your best life when alcohol-free. If you want to learn more about stop drinking coaching, then head over to wwwsoberclearcom. What if that casual drink in your hand has a darker secret than any street drug could ever rival, one that the alcohol industry spends fortunes keeping under wraps? Well, brace yourself, because these 10 hidden truths will shatter every illusion you've ever had about alcohol. Stick around, because once you know them, there's just no going back. A very quick introduction. My name is Leon Sylvester. I'm the founder of SoberClearcom, and we use a totally new method to help business owners and professionals get control of their drinking within as little as 48 hours.
Speaker 1:I drank alcohol myself for close to a decade. I tried stopping so many times with AA willpower, going to church. Nothing worked for me. But six years ago I changed the way I viewed alcohol and I've never looked back. If you want information on my program and how we can work with you, either go to SoberClearcom or, if you're ready to take the next step, you can click the link in the description to book a free call. You and my team will jump on a short call together and we'll see if my new method could work for you. It's a free call, so there's nothing to lose. So if you want that, click the link down below and now let's get into it.
Speaker 1:The first thing they won't tell you is that this product that you're pouring into your body can lock you into a cycle of addictive cravings no different than the most notorious illegal drugs, see. Drugs stimulate a part of the brain known as the reward center. This is a set of brain structures that nature created to process naturally rewarding stimuli like sex and food, in other words, stimuli that were beneficial to our survival and propagation. Alcohol, like other recreational drugs, hijacks this natural mechanism due to the chemical structure of its molecule. The person then receives their reward through chemical stimulation rather than through natural interactions with the physical and social world. Once you wrap your head around this, it's easy to understand that the inevitable outcome of heavy alcohol consumption is social, moral and spiritual impoverishment. See.
Speaker 1:Alcohol dependence proceeds in two broad phases, similar to other illegal drugs. In the first phases, the pleasant effects from the overstimulation of the reward system predominate. The person drinks because they enjoy it, or at least they think they do. Scientists call this positive reinforcement. But as alcohol consumption continues through the years, eventually the reward system is numbed out from the constant over-activation. The person then finds it difficult to achieve the very same buzz At this second stage. They drink mostly to avoid the negative effects of not consuming alcohol. Scientists call this second stage negative reinforcement.
Speaker 1:The drinker's body has now become accustomed to a steady influx of alcohol, and when it doesn't get this, it feels threatened and begins to complain. So you get the well-known anxiety, irritability, headache, insomnia, fatigue and so on. In more severe addiction, the withdrawal symptoms are far worse, including seizures and even death. When things reach this stage, the two remaining options are to stop drinking or, sadly, to die. But that's just the start. The second thing they keep hidden is how this everyday indulgence silently fuels one of the world's most devastating cancers.
Speaker 1:Alcohol causing cancer is one of the industry's dirtiest secrets. They lobby governments and regulators very hard in order to prevent any measure that increases public awareness of this health disaster. You see, when alcohol is metabolised in the liver, it converts into a highly toxic and carcinogenic molecule called acetaldehyde. Alcohol also increases the risk of cancer by increasing oxidative stress and inflammation, interfering with nutrient absorption and upsetting hormonal balance. It also kills the cells it comes into contact with directly, like the mouth and throat. This prompts stem cells to start making new cells, and this increased cell division increases the risk of errors in the copying process. Naturally, the body sites at the highest risk are mostly those that come into direct contact with alcohol, like the mouth, the throat, the oesophagus and colon. Heavy drinkers have up to a five-fold increased risk compared to non-drinkers. Their liver is also at a two-fold increased risk for cancer, as most of the alcohol eventually makes its way there to be metabolised, and women who drink heavily are also 60% more likely to develop breast cancer, possibly because alcohol upsets their hormonal balance. When all is said and done, about 4% of cancers worldwide are alcohol-related. Public awareness surveys, however, show that only 15-25% of the general population in most countries are even aware of the risk. The remaining 75% to 85% are blissfully unaware. Total victory for the alcohol industry Now, as if it couldn't get any worse.
Speaker 1:The third thing that stays under the radar is the way that it spreads through your body at lightning speed, putting nearly every single organ you have at risk. See, the ethanol molecule is a small light molecule that is highly water-soluble and it has the ability to penetrate most tissues in the body, and it does it super fast. It starts being absorbed into the bloodstream through the gastrointestinal tract only seconds after ingestion, and the concentration in the blood can peak in as little as 10 minutes. Once in circulation, ethanol then penetrates more or less every tissue and organ in your body. There it will cause any mix of irritation, inflammation, oxidative stress, cell death and organ damage. As a result of this wide penetration and diverse weight of inflicting damage, the range of health complications is truly staggering. In the long run, alcohol will cause serious problems to your brain, liver, heart, pancreas, bones and gut. It will promote hypertension, compromise your immune system, wreck your mental health, upset your hormonal balance, disrupt your metabolism, compromise your fertility and increase your risk of all sorts of cancers.
Speaker 1:Very few recreational drugs, be they legal or illegal, can match alcohol in its destructiveness. Why, of all the drugs in the world, our politicians choose to legalise this particular one is anybody's guess. Now let's look at the fallout beyond personal health. The fourth disturbing truth comes with a jaw-dropping price tag that your wallet and society at large keeps paying without even knowing it. When we talk about the cost of alcohol. Here we don't refer to the purchasing price, but rather the indirect cost to the economy from the adverse health and social effects.
Speaker 1:The last comprehensive estimate that we have of its impact on the US economy was published in 2011 and analysed data from 2006. The study arrived at an estimated cost of $223 billion, which in today's money is around $347 billion. 72% of these costs are from lost productivity, mainly the cost of incarcerating otherwise healthy members of society for alcohol-related crimes. There's also the loss of productivity at the workplace through absenteeism and performance decline. Healthcare costs are a distant second, accounting for 11% of the total cost. This is followed by criminal justice at 9.4%, while the remaining 7.5% is made up of various costs like motor vehicle crashes and fires. This equates to an indirect cost of $2.65.
Speaker 1:So as a society, we basically pay for alcohol twice Once up front, with the purchasing price, where the industry banks the profit, and then once on the back end, where the industry doesn't have to pay a penny. It's sad, but they have a pretty good deal going on. If you ask me Guess who pays for all these indirect costs? Well, it turns out that the bill is split more or less down the middle. The various levels of government cover about half, and the drinkers with their families the other half. Now, of course, the government has no money aside from tax receipts, so the taxpayer ends up picking up the tab With economic ruin laid bare.
Speaker 1:The fifth concealed fact reveals how they've masterminded a slick slogan that looks helpful but actually keeps you stuck. So while you probably never heard lots of serious public disclosure about alcohol and addiction, or alcohol and cancer, I'm pretty confident you've heard of the phrase drink responsibly. Is that an accident, a coincidence? Absolutely not. This slogan has been single-handedly conceived by the alcohol industry over the last 50 or so years, and it's now become so ingrained in society that it's pervaded more or less every institution Government, the medical establishment, educational institutions, community organisations they have all assimilated this slogan. Now, of the two words in this slogan, only one is well-defined.
Speaker 1:Drink Responsibly, on the other hand, is intentionally left as clear as mud. Analysis of Drink Responsibly campaigns all come to the same conclusion they offer the consumer no concrete, actionable information about what exactly responsibly means. Their intent is not to protect the consumer, but merely to promote the product, which is why there is zero evidence that they help anyone reduce their consumption, let alone discontinue it altogether, but what it does do is it improves the corporate image of the alcohol manufacturers, as one report put it. They quote serve as a public relations distraction for alcohol corporations, fighting evidence-based, effective policies such as increasing alcohol taxes, restricting alcohol advertising and maintaining state control of alcohol sales. At this point you might think you've heard it all, but the sixth harsh reality is that while they warn you about driving drunk, they barely whisper about the countless other silent tragedies unfolding every day.
Speaker 1:See, one of the industry's favourite red herrings is drunk driving. Whenever they offer any specifics on quote responsible drinking, or whenever they warn the public about anything whatsoever regarding their toxic, addictive product, it's almost always drunk driving. Don't drink and drive, enjoy responsibly. Buzz to driving is drunk driving. We've all heard these slogans.
Speaker 1:Why does the industry talk about drunk driving? Well, there's several reasons. For starters, they want to improve their public image, and drunk driving is a very high profile issue. A deadly drunk driving incident will typically get some local media attention, unlike something like an alcohol-related cancer or liver failure, which are actually far more common. It's also external to the product. It involves something other than the booze, the car. So by focusing on the car, you divert attention from the booze itself.
Speaker 1:Drunk driving also offers the potential for very real success. You can drink as much as you want, but if you don't get behind the wheel afterwards, you've won for the night. This gives the drinker a false sense of success, masking the sad reality that every single drink is a losing proposition. Every single drink taxes your liver, your brain, your cardiovascular system and raises your risk of cancer, and whether you get behind the wheel or not, this list will not change in the slightest. When all is said and done, drink driving is quite minor in terms of alcohol-related mortality. In the US, it accounts for roughly 10% of alcohol-related deaths, and most of these are relatively quick and painless, unlike the countless chronic diseases that kill slowly and painfully.
Speaker 1:And listen if you're still not shaken. The 7th Buried Secret shows how alcohol gnaws away at your mental health, unravelling your mood and happiness until you barely recognise yourself. See, one of the main themes of alcohol advertisement is joy. A happy couple sipping away, someone cheering their favourite team with a bottle in hand, a group of young friends. Sad, reality is the exact opposite. If we could quantify the various sources of unhappiness and psychological pain in the world, there is no doubt that alcohol would be extremely high up in the list.
Speaker 1:There are actually few more effective, guaranteed ways to develop long-term mental health issues than alcohol addiction. Two out of three heavy drinkers will meet the criteria for a psychiatric condition during their lifetime. Often this will be an anxiety disorder like panic attacks, social phobia or generalized anxiety. And then there's depression, with heavy drinkers having roughly double the risk compared to non-drinkers. And the fact that alcohol wrecks a person's mood and psychological welfare is no surprise. We already saw how it numbs out the brain's natural reward system. This robs the drinker of the opportunity to genuinely enjoy the pleasures of life like non-drinkers do. Alcohol also has a widespread effect on our mental health by upsetting the natural balance of our brain's neurotransmitters. These are the messenger molecules like GABA, glutamate, dopamine, which our brain cells use to communicate with each other. Alcohol artificially stimulates the activity of some of these neurotransmitters while suppressing that of others. The end result is their long-term, persistent dysregulation. And because our mood and psychological welfare are inextricably tied to these neurotransmitter systems, when they are thrown off balance, our mental health will inevitably suffer. Next, get ready for a plot twist.
Speaker 1:The eighth baffling misconception is the false promise of the so-called health benefits, a carefully spun fairy tale that crumbles under real scrutiny. See, one of the alcohol industry's favourite ways of gaslighting the public is a massive disinformation campaign regarding the so-called health benefits of low-level alcohol consumption. According to this narrative, while drinking too much is harmful, the opposite is true for lower levels of consumption, namely one or two drinks a day. Here, alcohol is supposedly healthy, primarily by protecting the heart and cardiovascular system in general. Some researchers even claim that this so-called cardioprotective effect is so strong that light drinkers have lower all-cause mortality compared to non-drinkers. On the face of it, this appears very implausible. How can a toxic industrial chemical like ethanol have these almost magical cardioprotective properties? And listen, do you think it's a coincidence that these magical properties only apply to the one toxic industrial chemical that is directly sold for human consumption? Of course there's no coincidence here.
Speaker 1:The alcohol industry is massively involved in the funding of scientific research, including research on the health effects of alcohol, and it's this massive influx of funds that's largely responsible for sustaining these myths. And listen, another factor is that people who drink the public themselves. They are eager to buy up any such story, so the media happily promote this. The cold hard truth is this you will not benefit your heart or longevity one bit by consuming alcohol. Regardless of the quantity, I can assure you that you will only damage your heart, along with most of the organs, and not to scare you, but this damage can start from the very first sip of your very first drink.
Speaker 1:Having said that, it is a fact that many research studies, often those funded by the alcohol industry, do indeed find that light drinkers have slightly better cardiovascular health than non-drinkers. So how can we actually explain this? Well, it all has to do with who you compare light drinkers to. Most people in society drink, at least socially, and comparing them to people who don't drink at all is not a fair test, because many in these latter group are often unable to drink precisely on account of underlying health conditions. In other words, their doctor will have forbidden them from drinking due to one or more pre-existing medical conditions. The group of complete abstainers also contains many former heavy drinkers who now don't drink precisely because alcohol has already wrecked their health. So when you adjust for these so-called abstainer biases, the cardioprotective benefits of alcohol disappear completely. This has been shown in the medical literature time and time again, and most recently in 2023. That's when we got the results of a massive meta-analysis that pooled data from over 100 separate studies. Collectively, these studies involved a whopping 4.8 million participants. After correcting for abstainer bias and various other sources of error, the researchers were able to unequivocally establish that light alcohol consumption offers no longevity benefits whatsoever.
Speaker 1:Next, ladies and gentlemen, brace yourself, because the ninth dangerous ploy is aimed straight at the youngest among us. Products designed to look, taste and feel like innocent treats, and it's fueling a grim pipeline of underage addiction. See the industry's latest invention. So-called flavoured alcoholic beverages are Frankenstein creations that blur the traditional distinction between the various malted and distilled beverages. While these drinks are legally classed as beer products in the US, most of the alcohol content is actually derived from distilled additives that are added to a stripped down beer base. If you can't wrap your head around that, don't worry. That's exactly what the industry wants. These drinks started hitting the North American and European markets in the 1980s and 90s, starting with the wine coolers in the US and Alka-Pops in Great Britain. Their legal status as beer products allows them to be widely sold, for example, in convenience stores and gas stations, where you wouldn't be allowed to sell distilled spirits. These products are loaded with artificial flavourings and colours that mask alcohol and make them palatable to first-time drinkers. They're also sold in packaging very similar to non-alcoholic drinks.
Speaker 1:Predictably, these products have led to an explosion of drinking among underage drinkers, all while the industry claims with a straight face that it's doing everything possible to prevent this. And listen, this is just straight hypocrisy. At the same time as they're running PR campaigns warning the public about underage drinking, they've developed an entire class of products that look like soda pop, taste like soda pop, they're priced like soda pop and they're often sold in the exact same places as soda, on the same shelves. Sadly, this campaign to hook underage drinkers has been widely successful. For example, recent research out of George Mason University found that nearly 50% of all calls to US poison control centres involve underage drinkers being poisoned from these kinds of drinks. The average age at which Americans have their first drink dropped from 17.6 in the 1960s to 15.9 by the end of the century. Around 40% of 17 and 18 year olds report having drank in the last month, even though the legal drinking age is 21. Again, none of this is an accident, but the result of a well-calculated and ultimately wildly successful campaign on the part of the alcohol industry.
Speaker 1:By now you see the pattern, but the 10th and final, shocking truth is that alcohol silently fans the flames of violence, from everyday altercations to the most chilling of crimes. Another outcome that they'll never want you to connect with their product Sialkor increases the propensity to violence through a combination of various psychological mechanisms. It suppresses inhibitions, making people more likely to act out on violent thoughts or fantasies. It clouds the judgment, making the person unable to think through the long-term consequences of their actions. It also directly impairs social intelligence, for example, the ability to interpret non-verbal cues like body language. This can lead to through the long-term consequences of their actions. It also directly impairs social intelligence, for example, the ability to interpret non-verbal cues like body language. This can lead to misunderstandings that would otherwise be easily avoidable. Then there are cultural factors, namely places and subcultures where alcohol consumption is associated with risky and often violent acts. Think teenagers. See, all these factors combined have led to an epidemic of alcohol-related violence whose scale most members of the public can't even fathom.
Speaker 1:Some of the statistics are truly mind-boggling. According to the Department of Justice's own statistics, 36% of all convicted offenders have been drinking when they committed their crime. Let me repeat that, according to the Department of Justice's own statistics, 36% of all convicted offenders have been drinking when they committed their crime. Alcohol use is reported to be a factor for 4 out of 10 convicted murderers. 3 out of 10 rapists and violent sex offenders also have used alcohol. Around 45% of those convicted for violent assault had been drinking. For violence against a spouse it's 75%. Thanks for checking out the Stop Drinking podcast by Sober Clear. If you want to learn more about how we work with people to help them stop drinking effortlessly, then make sure to visit wwwsoberclearcom.
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