Andrew Huberman
7 HN recommenders · recommended in 6 months, 2022–2023
2:01:02 · 8.1M views · Aug 22, 2022
A two-hour Huberman Lab podcast episode on the physiological effects of alcohol on the brain and body at different levels of consumption. It covers genetic predisposition to alcoholism, alcohol metabolism, and how it causes cellular stress and changes thinking and behavior.
HN commenters say it convinced them to quit or cut down on drinking, and point to it as a more comprehensive treatment than most articles.
8 comments from Hacker News
Related: Andrew Huberman's 2-hour blog post on the negative effects of alcohol[1] convinced me to stop drinking. Once you stop drinking, it becomes so easy to see just how much alcohol pervades popular culture. People drink constantly on TV. People pressure you to drink in social situations, too. Unfortunately, it often feels like you need a 'good reason' to stop drinking or alternatively admit you were an alcoholic. It's really unfortunate and ... silly? Reddit's "stopdrinking" subreddit is also really good[2] if you are struggling with this. [1] this video [2] [LINK]
Listening to the huberman podcast about alcohol really hit home. I knew it was bad for me, just not as bad as he explains. It's a horrific drug that most people don't even see as a drug. I am a weekend drinker and I thought that was ok. It's not. I've decided to quit completely. Last drink was 12 days ago. Fuck alcohol. (I also used to take other drugs but that was many years ago). this video Oh and I just finished the book: alcohol explained, utterly fantastic.
It's Aug 2022 so a bit out of range for the OP, but his alcohol episode convinced me to really cut down on drinking, from about 2 beers (low variance/rarely drunk, just a homebrewer with a craft beer obsession) a day to a day to maximum 2 beers a week. I sleep better and lost 35 pounds in the last year. this video
The pandemic has triggered / accelarated a lot of trends One trend I wonder about is cutting back on drinking. From a health perspective, I see more and more health officials loudly saying no healthy amount of alcohol[1]. It's simply poison. Not that I'm aggressively for any kind of prohibition, and don't very rarely drink, but I wonder if we'll see increased awareness and more people just deciding not to drink as much anymore. With this awareness, and the "modest amount of alcohol are actually healthy" claims debunked[2], maybe the hipster / wealthy / yuppy crowd will turn more and more away from the many many microbreweries / wineries that have cropped up in the last few decades. 1 - [LINK] Huberman has a great episode too - this video 2 - [LINK] [LINK]
It doesn't specify the actual ingredients. The "grapes" bit makes me think perhaps resveratrol? Dihydromyricetin is touted as being protective before and after drinking. It appears to have other benefits as well. I've now become a big fan and follower of Andrew Huberman and a recent podcast has helped sway me to effectively give up alcohol (I was already trending in that direction): this video My one remaining active vice is Kratom and I'm pretty comfortable with my relationship with it, considering the value it gives in managing chronic pain. Obviously different strokes for different folks.