On this page I present my articles and links to debunk the myth that drinking alcohol causes significant weight gain.
My text is in black. Text copied from the Net is in maroon or, as highlighted by me, in red.
. . . The myth that drinking alcohol causes weight gain
. . . The myth that optimism overcomes illness
The myth that drinking alcohol causes weight gain
Why is it that most people believe that drinking alcohol causes weight gain?
Exercise does NOT help one lose
weight: http://ecologos.org/ex.htm MYTH:
Exercise makes one lose weight. TRUTH:
Guyton, in Textbook of Medical Physiology,
gives the Calorie expenditures of various levels of activity as: .
. . Table.
For example:
So, to "burn off" a pound of "fat", one would
have to RUN 5.3 miles/hr x 8.1 hr = 43 MILES!! Conclusion: one
CAN NOT lose weight by exercise.
AA-35: http://www.dui.com/NIH/alcoholdigestion.html National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. . . .
Although alcohol has a relatively high caloric value, 7.1 Calories per gram (as a point of reference, 1 gram of carbohydrate contains 4.5 Calories, and 1 gram of fat contains 9 Calories), alcohol consumption does not necessarily result in increased body weight. An analysis of data collected from the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I) found that although drinkers had significantly higher intakes of total calories than nondrinkers, drinkers were not more obese than nondrinkers. In fact, women drinkers had significantly lower body weight than nondrinkers. As alcohol intake among men increased, their body weight decreased (17). An analysis of data from the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II) and other large national studies found similar results for women (18), although the relationship between drinking and body weight for men is inconsistent. Although moderate doses of alcohol added to the diets of lean men and women do not seem to lead to weight gain, some studies have reported weight gain when alcohol is added to the diets of overweight persons (19,20).
When chronic heavy drinkers substitute alcohol for carbohydrates in their diets, they lose weight and weigh less than their nondrinking counterparts (21,22). Furthermore, when chronic heavy drinkers add alcohol to an otherwise normal diet, they do not gain weight (21).
The myth that optimism overcomes illness
So you are ill -- whether with the sniffles, or with cancer. Think positive thoughts or pray, many people say, some with a Ph.D. or an M.D. embellishing their names, others with the title of Reverend, Mullah, Rabbi, Guru, or Witch Doctor. Just envisage those kinds of blood cells which are to attack that cancer as being White Knights out to defeat the evil Darth Vader tumor cells, guided by Divine Providence, in some cases. Listen to ethereal music, and imagine a great future for yourself. The list goes on. There are hundreds of books and articles on the subject citing optimism and anecdotal evidence of unexpected or miraculous cures, ranging from cancer wards to Lourdes. There are not quite so many publications citing the contrary; they do not make for cheerful, optimistic reading. I shall cite a few below.
If you don't do some of these things in the 'right' way, who is to say that, instead of those White Knights attacking those Darth Vader cells, they, instead, join forces and do you harm instead? The possibility of them doing so makes as little sense as the idea that they might fight each other in a battle of Armageddon proportions. If your imagery fails to lead to a cure, is it because you did the imagery wrongly? Is it now your fault that you do not heal? Just how guilty should you feel now? Maybe it's your fault that you became ill in the first place? You just were not thinking the 'right' thoughts, in the 'right' way!
The situation becomes even more foreboding when we revert to superstition. If the four-leaf clover does not seem to work overnight, why not try praying? You will have many supporters who will claim that it will help. After all, about 85% of people in modern society believe in a god of some form. There will be some cures from what are considered to be hopeless cases. Some are quite ready to call them 'miracle cures'. That's how saints get manufactured. But, think for a moment. Some of those cases may have been diagnosed improperly, if at all. For example, that legendary case of lameness apparently cured by a Hallelujah or two, might have been, instead, a case of hysteria, 'cured' in the excitement of the moment, only to return in the cool dawn of the next day. Or it could have been a fraud. Let's look at the odds for a moment. If, in say 70% of cases, the religious patient prays for a cure, and in the 10% of cases in which the patient is an atheist or agnostic, the patient cannot lower his intellectual integrity to do so, then, in about 70% of apparently spontaneous cures, the cure could be attributed by the faithful to the power of prayer, and to the solicitude of a benevolent God. It is likely that the 'cures' of the faithful will draw more attention and reporting than the 'cures' of the atheists. Do miracles happen to atheists?
Some people might find comfort in the idea that God pays attention to individual prayers, and that a consequent cure arises now and then. However, do they ever question why a cure -- much less a prayer -- is needed in the first place? Why would a benevolent god allow a child to suffer through months of cancer, only to cure her at the last minute? Why not 'just' prevent the cancer from occurring in the first place? Maybe it is that lack of faith on the part of the child or her family that brought on the cancer to begin with? How guilty should they all feel about it? Not enough faith, I suppose! For that matter, why the Holocaust? Did the victims have the wrong faith, or not enough of it? Religions, especially Christianity, are full of admonitions about how worthless people are, and about how little of the 'right' kind of faith people are supposed to have. They keep fighting each others in wars about it, and not just in the Thirty Years War, but in the acts of devoted religious terrorists of today, including that of 9/11, and the idea that Paradise awaits! One could range far afield in theology here, but I desist. The downside of such belief systems -- apart from the fact that they are of no benefit in healing -- is that they place a burden of guilt on the patient. It is now, at least in part, the fault of the patient for not only being ill, but from not healing. Oh ye sinners of little faith! Now the patient is not only physically ill, but is burdened with the guilt of being a wretched sinner! How bizarre!
Links about optimism and healing
Good attitude doesn't help fight cancer:
http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=208cbfe8-4d33-474e-8e6f-c5068e0d61db
Brad Evenson, National Post, November 08, 2002
Cancer patients who have a positive attitude don't survive any longer than patients who feel angry, helpless or depressed, a new study of 5,000 patients says.
"There's nothing wrong with being bloody miserable, and surely, cancer patients sometimes have a right to be," said study co-author Mark Petticrew, a professor of public health sciences at the University of Glasgow, Scotland.
"Cancer patients sometimes feel a sort of moral pressure to adopt a positive mental attitude on the grounds that if they don't, it's going to affect their survival rates. Some patients have talked about that constituting a form of oppression."
The researchers stress that cancer patients with a positive attitude have a better quality of life. They just don't live any longer.
Research has shown, for example, that hormones produced by negative feelings of stress can suppress the immune system. But whether this influences survival in cancer has never been clear.
In a study published today in the British Medical Journal, Dr. Petticrew and his colleagues examined 26 studies -- looking at about 5,000 patients . . . to see whether a "fighting spirit" helped patients live longer. . . .
Overall, Dr. Petticrew said, no psychological coping style had an influence on survival.
"We're not saying don't have a positive mental attitude," he said.
"It's just that there's no good, consistent evidence that it will impact significantly on survival from cancer or recurrences of cancer."
The researchers acknowledge their findings are not what society wants to hear.
"Somehow we think a more positive outlook is going to help us deal with, really, any kind of problem," said co-author Duncan Hunter, an assistant professor of community health and epidemiology at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. . . .
Dr. Hunter said medical journals have published studies that show a survival benefit from a positive attitude, but these were small studies.
Researchers tend to submit only positive findings for publication, while negative studies go unpublished. This is known as publication bias.
"What if those pessimistic coping styles are actually more beneficial?" Dr. Hunter mused. . . .
psychiatrist Alastair Cunningham, a senior scientist at the Ontario Cancer Institute. . . .
A cancer survivor himself, Dr. Cunningham said he has conducted detailed studies in small patient groups that show a clear benefit in spiritual healing. . . .
bevenson@nationalpost.com
© Copyright 2002 National Post
Quackwatch Home Page: http://www.quackwatch.org/ Your Guide to Health Fraud, Quackery, and Intelligent Decisions. Operated by Stephen Barrett, M.D. One of many entries is the following: . . .
. . . Faith Healing: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/faith.html Some Thoughts about Faith Healing
. . . Thus, as far as I am concerned, there is no reason to believe that faith healing has ever cured anyone of an organic disease. . . .
Recommendations
Can anything be done about faith healing? Believers don't see it as a problem, while most nonbelievers don't see it as a priority issue and have little sympathy for its victims. But a few things might help lower faith healing's toll on our society:
Go Home. Go up to Page contents. Go back to several modern myths.
You can e-mail me at waynerp@sympatico.ca