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Lee
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3495
Registered: 10-2-2006
Location: High in the Colorado Rockies
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I vote for having quality of life. Alcoholism (and cirrhosis of the liver) is a treatable and preventable disease.
Why is it my experience that Canadians are heavier drinkers than US drinkers?
''The symptoms of cirrhosis of the liver vary with the stage of the illness. In the beginning stages, there may not be any symptoms. As the disease
worsens, symptoms may include:
Loss of appetite
Lack of energy (fatigue), which may be debilitating
Weight loss or sudden weight gain
Bruises
Yellowing of skin or the whites of eyes (jaundice)
Itchy skin
Fluid retention (edema) and swelling in the ankles, legs, and abdomen (often an early sign)
A brownish or orange tint to the urine
Light colored stools
Confusion, disorientation, personality changes
Blood in the stool
Fever''
http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/cirrhosis-liver
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Lee, about ten years ago I got an MRI for problems with my enlarged spleen. Showed my liver was almost all gone with cirrhosis. I was so traumatized I
REALLY started drinking. Since then I've tried not to exceed 5 or six drinks with gin or vodka per day. Must be working because I have yet to develop
any of the above symptoms.
Caution: don't try this at home. I'm not a doctor. I just play one at home.
I do bruise a lot but I'm told 76 year old beach bums like me have blotchy skin from all kinds of abuse = cancer for example. It's just a part of
getting old in the tropics.
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vandenberg
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5118
Registered: 6-21-2005
Location: Nopolo
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Mood: mellow
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When you think you imbibe too much. there's a remedy.
Get a bigger glass and reduce your daily intake to 5 instead of 10.
This also cut down on all that moseying
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Heather
Nomad
Posts: 370
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: National City, CA
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My 78 year old dad is going in for liver surgery tomorrow....he's not a drinker, but blames lots of his health problems on Agent Orange or something
else he picked up in Vietnam!
USMC ret. Master Gunnery Seargent who did 2 tours in Vietnam....hoping all goes well tomorrow!
He's not a Baja-lover BTW, too many stories of drunken Marines in TJ back in the 60's...
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msteve1014
Senior Nomad
Posts: 947
Registered: 12-2-2006
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I don't have a tv in Baja, I take that to mean that I can double up on the drinking.
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motoged
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6481
Registered: 7-31-2006
Location: Kamloops, BC
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Mood: Gettin' Better
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Lee
Why is it my experience that Canadians are heavier drinkers than US drinkers? |
Lee,
That's simple.....you spend more time drinking with Canadians
Mosey over to some Yank and you will soon see that they can pound as much booze as the Canuck....and they will even drink that poor man's whiskey
called boorban 
[Edited on 4-3-2013 by motoged]
[Edited on 4-3-2013 by motoged]
Don't believe everything you think....
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vandenberg
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5118
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Location: Nopolo
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Mood: mellow
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Considering the booze prices in Canada, it's surprising they drink at all.
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Lee
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3495
Registered: 10-2-2006
Location: High in the Colorado Rockies
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Osprey
Lee, about ten years ago I got an MRI for problems with my enlarged spleen. Showed my liver was almost all gone with cirrhosis. I was so traumatized I
REALLY started drinking. Since then I've tried not to exceed 5 or six drinks with gin or vodka per day. Must be working because I have yet to develop
any of the above symptoms.
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F!!! Uh, yeah, if I were in your place, I'd be imbibing every day too. Might as well make hay while the sun shines. By the way, did the Doc
give you a date you might survive to? And after 10 years post MRI, how's the enlarged spleen?
If you don't mind me asking, is your spleen/liver condition due to drinking, in your opinion? If this is getting too personal, maybe u2u?
As long as we're on the subject, I have a condition that I think about.
NOB, I have a glass of wine with dinner, max. I don't really drink.
When I've been away from The Baja for awhile, and then return, I find myself starting to drink tequila around GN -- I mean, I want to get crazy!
And then I seriously drink every night for the next several weeks. This tapers off to one marg every night at sunset (3 oz tequila). Maybe
one beer later.
I'm thinking The Baja brings it out in me but don't understand why it's different NOB.
US Marines: providing enemies of America an opportunity to die for their country since 1775.
What I say before any important decision.
F*ck it.
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monoloco
Elite Nomad
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Registered: 7-13-2009
Location: Pescadero BCS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by vandenberg
Considering the booze prices in Canada, it's surprising they drink at all. |
That's why they are like kids in a candy store when they come to Mexico.
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Iflyfish
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3747
Registered: 10-17-2006
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I appreciate the concerns for the health and well being of those in their twilight years with exaggerated tastes for sex, drugs and rock and roll.
As a "Children of the 60's" Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll were of course mothers milk and integral to social and emotional development. Scotch and
Soda, Rum and Coke, Bloody Mary's and Seven Sevens were the drug of choice for the previous generation. Is it any wonder that these are major
preoccupations in the waning years?
As an apologist for decadence I must admit that there is indeed virtue in keeping these oldsters off the streets and you sure don't want them catching
your wave, stealing your air, or getting in your way on the zip line! Slow, clumsy, quirky and cantankerous you sure don't want me in front of you in
the fast lane. If you think they are nasty now, just consider how they would be without their soporifics?
Longevity, an argument for moderation, is over rated, visited a "Nursing Home" lately?, not much nursing there if you get my drift.
We all at some point return to the cosmic dust, you too. How you get there is up to you, mostly, unless some old fart, who aught to be at home living
better through chemistry, falls asleep at the wheel or crosses the center line on Hwy 1.
Which brings me to the issue of judging others. Human beings are addictive organisms and it seems that the issue is what poison you choose. Some seem
to choose the poison of criticism and judgement and poison themselves and others with that particular toxin.
It is clear that Alcoholism is a very significant disease and can be devastating for friends and family of those who are engaged with them. The same
can be said for addictions of any form be they compulsive exercise, gambling, serial relationships, sex etc. When addictions cause problems for others
is where I set my bar. I have a problem with addicts of any stripe damaging their spouses and children. However as related to retired old people who
don't have the responsibility of supporting a family, parenting etc. I think that they well deserve the right to live out their lives in any way they
choose.
What is often overlooked is that there are indeed FUNCTIONAL Alcoholics who live out their days in a pickled state, not unlike most medicated
Americans, and do no one any harm.
Salud!
Iflyfish
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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You're right again pal. I should have said a few words about the warehouses for old people. Hard to live like you want even in those plush ones like
Seizures Palace in my old home town of Las Vegas. You really put a fine period on my little post. Kurt Vonnegut said "I'll tell you the difference
between a comma and a period. A comma for Hemingway might have been the end of a rich but troubled life. A period was the bullet he ate."
If I'm lucky, after all this drinking, I'll get to die like dad did, in my sleep. Don't wanna go like those other screaming people in the back seat of
his car.
Lee, the docs don't know what caused my spleen to blow up to the size (and appearance) of a nice country smoked ham. A couple said it could have been
the Dengue Fever I caught down here not long before I retired.
Baja can get you though. Two pals, recovered alcoholics, only drink on trips to Baja. On a memorable trip via air they were headed for San Jose del
Cabo and landed in San Jose, California. They argued with the ticket agent about what SJC really means and why they deserved a refund.
I think we would all know about it if somewhere, sometime authorities were giving out tickets for Drunk Surfing so I think you're in the clear no
matter what you do in, on or near Mexican waters.
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sancho
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2524
Registered: 10-6-2004
Location: OC So Cal
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Lee
Why is it my experience that Canadians are heavier drinkers than US drinkers?
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Having met what seems a large # of Canadians
in Baja, considering the distance they have to drive,
I'm not sure I share your experience, I would say it
is a toss up, Canadians do seem to be a lot more
adventureous, than us US Gringos. Alcohol does seem
to fuel a lot of folks. The older I get, there is no way
I could drink in any form of excess, I value my sanity
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durrelllrobert
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7393
Registered: 11-22-2007
Location: Punta Banda BC
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Mood: thriving in Baja
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| Quote: | Originally posted by motoged
| Quote: | Originally posted by Lee
Why is it my experience that Canadians are heavier drinkers than US drinkers? |
Lee,
That's simple.....you spend more time drinking with Canadians
Mosey over to some Yank and you will soon see that they can pound as much booze as the Canuck....and they will even drink that poor man's whiskey
called boorban
[Edited on 4-3-2013 by motoged]
[Edited on 4-3-2013 by motoged] |
All of my wife's Canadian relatives only drink rye wiskey. Yuk!
[Edited on 4-3-2013 by durrelllrobert]
Bob Durrell
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vgabndo
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3461
Registered: 12-8-2003
Location: Mt. Shasta, CA
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Mood: Checking-off my bucket list.
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Alcoholic loved ones have been part of almost all my life. Like many, I came close to killing myself with the stuff. (Not accident...overdoses!) Once
I discovered some of the options, it was never again my drug of choice. My personal chemistry just doesn't need depressants!
Rick is spot on about humans being naturally fond of getting high. As I work my way through my 70th. year, surviving stage 3 kidney failure, booze is
'off the table'.
Both my wife and I had nothing to drink at any of the many social gatherings we enjoyed on our recent mosey through the Bajas. Some of our friends
gladly drank our share. In all honesty when the noise level reaches the need to shout to talk, and the person you are talking to is blithering
gibberish, it is sometimes difficult to see the appeal. Most of these folks are much more interesting sober. I don't think I noticed those things
when I was drinking.
That said, the only thing that makes me want a drink more than being told I can never have another...is going to Baja.
Of the other vice, I killed the TV two years ago. Lovin' that!
Undoubtedly, there are people who cannot afford to give the anchor of sanity even the slightest tug. Sam Harris
"The situation is far too dire for pessimism."
Bill Kauth
Carl Sagan said, "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
PEACE, LOVE AND FISH TACOS
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windgrrl
Super Nomad
Posts: 1329
Registered: 9-2-2006
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Alcohol consumption and consequences by country
http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcoh...
In the big picture, Canadians and Americans don't appear to be different, but some other countries are very different from Canadians and Americans in
alcohol consumption and health consequences.
Everything in moderation, eh?
[Edited on 4-3-2013 by windgrrl]
When the way comes to an end, then change. Having changed, you pass through.
~ I-Ching
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windgrrl
Super Nomad
Posts: 1329
Registered: 9-2-2006
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...and Oscar Casare's book "Amigoland" is a wonderful book about an old, frail retiree who escapes from a nursing home to live out his dream of
spending his last days in Mexico without others telling him what to do.
[Edited on 4-3-2013 by windgrrl]
When the way comes to an end, then change. Having changed, you pass through.
~ I-Ching
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motoged
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6481
Registered: 7-31-2006
Location: Kamloops, BC
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Mood: Gettin' Better
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While this thread pretty much identifies alcohol as the primary intoxicant of choice, there is some acknowledgement that there are other forms of
"mood management".
Killing the TV is a good reason to own a firearm.....
For those of us considering this last chapter or two of our unwritten novel, we seek some comfort and solace in various ways....
We seek to avoid suffering in our lives....and sometimes choose short-term solutions that turn in to long-term problems....no easy answers here.....
eh?!
Don't believe everything you think....
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tripledigitken
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4848
Registered: 9-27-2006
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| Quote: | Originally posted by mulegemichael
jorge....just finished mary roach's book "gulp" today...really something!....she talks indepth about the practice of imbibing through ones
butt....stuff i've never imagined, actually, and i've imagined a lot. |
That's where I draw the line!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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mulegemichael
Super Nomad
Posts: 2310
Registered: 12-24-2007
Location: sequim,wa. and mulege
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Mood: up on step
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i draw the line there too, ken but boy, is it a good book!!...a "must read" by everyone1
dyslexia is never having to say you\'re yrros.
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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"GULP"........the book:
“America’s funniest science writer” (Washington Post) takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour. The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach
terrain: the questions explored in Gulp are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the universe of zero gravity
explored in Packing for Mars. Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find words for flavors and smells? Why doesn’t the stomach digest
itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? Can constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis? In Gulp we meet scientists who tackle the
questions no one else thinks of—or has the courage to ask. We go on location to a pet-food taste-test lab, a fecal transplant, and into a live stomach
to observe the fate of a meal. With Roach at our side, we travel the world, meeting murderers and mad scientists, Eskimos and exorcists (who have
occasionally administered holy water rectally), rabbis and terrorists—who, it turns out, for practical reasons do not conceal bombs in their digestive
tracts.
Like all of Roach’s books, Gulp is as much about human beings as it is about human bodies.
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