“120ml of Alchohol for 2900 days = Liver Sclerosis “, read the billboard sponsored by NIMS heart foundation. This sign board is the part of a newly launched awareness campaign by NIMS. “2900 days. Someone starting today as a regular drinker has 8 years before he gets the disease”, I thought.
You name it; alcohol has a bad effect on that organ. The harmful effects of the usage of alcohol have remained largely of a qualitative nature among the public; like alcohol damage kidneys, it creates addiction and hallucination, results in loss of control and coordination etc. A quantitative statement like the one displayed on the hoarding might be the result of a new finding in the psychology of advertising.Alcohol-pleasure quotient dependence might not have been of much academic interest, however users contend that there is a strong dependence and it has even palliative, antiseptic and even medicinal effects. Well, we have an elixir in that case! The medicinal values of alcohol are not widely known but as the old joke says - “Worms when put in a glass of alcohol were killed (drowned - if you don’t mind) in no time!” - alcohol has a remote possibility of killing worms.
Days later after seeing the hoarding, I happened to overhear a conversation between two people who shared my table in a hotel. The duo, it seemed, after trying out Dosa first, settled on Poori as they couldn’t resist the taste of the Poori served by the hotel. Orders were being made when I reached the table. After having his first round of poori, the man in his late 40s noted “The poori is soft and delicious. I am going to order two more. You want more anna (elder brother)”. The wise old man cautioned “Cholestrol !! It’s bad for you.” “What cholesterol ? Two pegs of rum would melt all this mess”, said the younger one. Turning to the waiter he told “Two more”. “Whoa! Alchohol melts cholesterol. Medicinal value for alchohol?”, I thought with my head down in my dish. Before the novel idea sank in, I heard the old man ordering two more for him. I wondered whether it was the love for food or drink that made him order more.
With so many “thattu kadas” (roadside makeshift shops selling food) mushrooming in the urban areas, the repeated use of oil is becoming a serious health hazard. Cooking oil like the rest of oils has a smoke point beyond which it loses its nutritional properties and flavour. Oils break down beyond the smoke point. The formation of by-products and food residues further reduces the smoke point of cooking oils. On degradation, oils release polymers and polar compounds which are harmful to health. Olive oil has the maximum resistance to breakdown by repeated use, as reported in a study report published on http://preventdisease.com/news/articles/reusing_cooking_oil_ups_bp.shtml
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Considering, the health aspects, I was trying to make it a habit to avoid fried foods from hotels. The duo made me curious rather craving to try out the special Poori. I stuck around with the Dosa till the table was all to myself. “One Poori”, I told the waiter. I savoured the Poori in the same perspective as Humorist Tom Wilson saw failure “About the only time losing is more fun than winning is when you’re fighting temptation”.
Regarding the medicinal effects of alcohol, the man was partly right, if we go according to the information available in a site. Although, it does not ‘melt’ the bad cholesterol or LDL, it increases the good cholesterol or HDL. HDL helps in removing the extra cholesterol from the body. So in one way alcohol reduces the bad cholesterol. Foe’s foe is a friend? Before we draw a conclusion: the other side of the coin as per the site is
“For moderate drinkers, this is a nice benefit to that glass of wine after work, or that beer while watching the game. However, this is not a case of “more is better”. Excessive alcohol intake (which is anything over the moderate level) negates the health benefits of moderate intake by causing other, more ominous effects: high blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmia, stroke, enlargement of the heart, and even sudden cardiac death.
Although there are definite benefits of moderate drinking, the American Heart Association recommends that non-drinkers do not start drinking just to reap the health benefits
of alcohol. There are many other ways to naturally increase HDL cholesterol levels, including moderate exercise, weight loss, and a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet.”
Summing up, . After all we set out to enquire if alcohol has any medicinal value.
Courtesy :-
1) Wiki
2)http://preventdisease.com/news/articles/reusing_cooking_oil_ups_bp.shtml
3)http://www.essortment.com/family/cholesterolalco_saro.htm
4) Duo at the hotel
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