HN Explorer

Ask HN: Any alternatives to alcohol?

8 points by daralthus ↗ HN
After getting better from pancreas inflammation, I'm still likely to keep my alcohol abstinence.

However I would like to experience the effects of it sometimes, so do you know any good and hopefully (more) healthy alternatives to it?

29 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 76.9 ms ] thread
wturner
Kava.

It is not a pleasant tasting root.I have a blend of stevia, mango powder and cinnamon that I came up with that tastes good and has a strong effect. awesomekava [at] gmail if interested

pasbesoin
It's been speculated, perhaps determined, that kava can challenge the liver. (I'm recalling particularly a flurry of press, oh, 5 - 10 years ago.) If the grandparent poster is recovering from inflammation (and a possible infection?), they should exercise due caution with respect to use of kava.
noduerme
acute pancreatitis is unrelated to liver damage. It's triggered by long-term alcoholism in about 1% of the population, for unknown reasons. It's acute in the sense that it makes you very, very, sick and puts you in unbelievable pain. It goes away if you stop drinking. If untreated, it can kill you. The only way to stop it is to stop drinking, and believe me no matter how much an alcoholic you are, a single round of that shit will scare you off the booze for a long, long time. I still can't look at wisky. It's really truly that bad. But it has nothing to do with liver problems or anything else, it's an abnormal reaction of the pancreas to extended periods of alcohol abuse.
wturner
From what I've come to understand the press cases regarding liver problems came from consumers of leave-based manufactured kava pill "products" instead of direct root-based kava consumption. The botany of the leaves is different than the roots. The liver issues appear to emanate from the leaves.
pasbesoin
Thank you, that's good to know. I had one friend who relied on kava significantly to combat anxiety. They were rather conflicted when the concerns started to surface. (We've lost touch, since then -- albeit for unrelated reasons.)
daralthus
Yeah that was the first thing that come up, but I am not so sure about the side effects. But probably I will give it a try sometimes.
logjam
Running long distances and surfing are each a thousand times better than alcohol, addicting, and will change your life for the better instead of for the worse.
noduerme
ffffffffffffffffffffffffffff...

you'll be buried next to me about six months later, with a little sign that says "he tried really, really hard to live longer than -> that guy"

logjam
Uh, no. I spoke of positive spiritual and mental effects of things like running and surfing, not their well-documented health benefits.
daralthus
I appriciate the mentality. Of course I cycle a lot and it has great benefits, but I think it can only rise your overall happiness and that is different then just having a drink get relaxed and feel good at a party. I don't have social anxiety anymore since I am healthy, but still a drink can have great effects on me when I go out.
noduerme
Define spiritual, explain how it cures pancreatitis, then we can talk.
mtogo
Homeopathy has positive spiritual benefits too.
known
In 3rd world, Govt gets 30% revenue from alcohol
noduerme
oooh man. I had the pancreas thing blow up on me once. They told me to stop drinking. Which obviously...I didn't do. If you aren't into pot or anything, it's not much fun.

What I blame it on, though, was living in South American and drinking a lot of really cheap local wisky. After my Kermit the Frog - green week from hell barfing, I stopped drinking hard booze; stopped everything for about 3 weeks, then slowly started with beer again. And now, I only drink beer. It hasn't come back for the last 4 years. I try to keep it to 6-9 beers a night (4-6 for the first year afterwards). I can't guarantee the same results for you.

On a short term basis I'd recommend taking one Xanax, one Vicodin and 1-2 beers, as that won't cause another pancreatitis attack and it pretty well mimics the effect of a twelve pack. If you're one of the 19-drinks-a-night crowd though, I'd suggest treatment because nothing is going to fix it without almost killing you.

Party on, amigo.

erikpukinskis
Interesting how relative things are. 6 beers for me in one night is pretty much a bender. And I weigh 200 lbs. I often go weeks without drinking, so that's probably why.
trollhammeren
Gaming \m/ Pick up the controller or KB/M and fire away
scotty79
I think the weed numbs the brain similarly. But you have lung cancer (and few other) to look forward to and prosecution if you don't live in Netherlands.
veidr
Recent research has shown that smoking weed does not cause lung cancer[1], unlike smoking tobacco.

A separate Harvard study indicated that marijuana may be helpful in treating lung cancer, reducing tumor growth[2].

However, the effects of smoking weed seem pretty different from alcohol to me. So depending what you want out of alcohol, it may be a poor substitute. But the health risks of weed are nominal. It's one of the safest recreational drugs mankind has come up with. (Smoking anything too much can harsh out your lungs, but weed can be eaten in foods, vaporized, etc.)

[1]: http://www.webmd.com/lung-cancer/news/20060523/pot-smoking-n...

[2]: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.ht...

brudgers
In the US, four times as many deaths attributable to smoking are caused by cardiovascular disease than to cancer. Indeed the number of cancer deaths attributable to smoking is approximately the same as the number of smoking deaths attributable to non-cancer respiratory disease.

[http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5745a3.htm#tab]

daralthus
I used to but when I get these problems I really started to feel shitty, then weed only made me paranoid since then.
neologik
Having a decent cigar every once in a while isn't quite the same as alcohol, but is (arguably) equally enjoyable.
VuongN
I drink tea and water. Only when I have to (social events), that I'll have a beer or two. But yes, tea and make it into a serious thing--I have tea room at home :) Hope you feel better.

PS: I hear green tea is suppose to be good for you.

brudgers
Quaaludes (methaqualone) have a similar effect to alcohol (sans hangover) but are classified as Schedule I in the United States.

I doubt that they are particularly healthy though.

Mz
My medical condition has significant impact on the pancreas and intolerance for alcohol runs in the family. I find that alcohol per se is not the big issue all by itself, though I'm not crazy about the stuff. A lot of alcoholic beverages have all kinds of poorly tolerated additives. Beer is full of yeast, which I don't do well with. Red wine is high in sulfur, which I don't do well with. The only alcohol I find that I tolerate okay is Kahlua. (Not that I have tried all options out there, but I did make an effort to try several different options and came up with nothing else I tolerated well.)

I did a lot of reading and tried a lot of different stuff to deal with my medical condition. Inflammation is a major component of my condition. I found that changing my diet with an eye towards correcting PH balance and removing foods that are inflammatory for other reasons did me enormous good and helped me get off multiple anti-inflammatory drugs. Not saying that going back to drinking would be a great idea, just saying that occasional alcohol isn't necessarily a big problem if you can address the problem effectively through other avenues.

That's the best I can do. I react allergically to marijuana and never tried any other recreational stuff.

Best of luck.

tryl
the GABAb agonists come the closest to what you're looking for. GHB is one, which is probably illegal where you're at. baclofen is another, which might require prescription.

then there's kavakava, but that's not particularly social.

weed.

shrugs

morphine? :]

Aron
yup -- phenibut. Similar to baclofen but available without Rx.