Latest / Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson / Alcohol Cuts Healthspan

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Alcohol Cuts Healthspan · Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

• 0:03
  >> Dr. Terry Simpson: M. She came into the emergency room in full
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  cardiac arrest. Paramedics were doing CPR on her.
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  They'd already placed a tube down her throat so
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  she could breathe. They shocked her heart twice,
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  trying to bring her back. Her name was Eileen. 52
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  years old. Fit, worked out several times a week,
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  ate well, enjoyed a glass of wine now and then. No
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  medical problems. But that night at her company
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  holiday party, she laughed, she toasted, she
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  danced, and then she collapsed in the ER. Uh, her
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  blood alcohol level was 0.09. The legal limit.
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  Yes, but not unusual for a party. She smelled of
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  alcohol. A nurse muttered, another Holiday heart.
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  And someone else shrugged. Probably a closet
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  alcoholic. But she wasn't. Her cardiology workup
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  was clean. No blocked arteries, no structural
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  disease. Just a healthy woman whose heart decided
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  that night to stop. She, uh, lived, thanks to the
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  over caffeinated paramedic who refused to quit.
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  But she never drank again. Every December, ers
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  fill with people like Eileen. Healthy, active
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  people whose hearts suddenly forget how to beat
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  after a few drinks. We call it Holiday Heart
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  Syndrome. They don't always come in drunk, they
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  come in dead. And if they're lucky, sometimes we
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  bring them back. I'm going to make an appeal you
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  might not want to hear. I'd like you to stop
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  drinking. If you're serious about healthspan, not
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  just lifespan. If you want to cut your risk of
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  heart disease, cancer and dementia, stop drinking.
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  I'm a boomer. Alcohol was what you drank at every
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  party. But the data has changed and so have I.
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  Millennials are leading the way. Drinking less,
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  living longer. Maybe it's time we boomers Gen Z,
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  Gen X caught up. And while some people scold you
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  about glyphosate in their Cheerios or BPA in
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  canned beans, they'll say it while sipping their
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  second eight ounce glass of Cabernet. They'll warn
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  you about forever chemicals while doing more
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  metabolic damage with an Old Fashioned than a
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  lifetime of canned chickpeas ever could. The
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  single greatest threat to longevity you can remove
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  isn't sugar. It isn't seed oil. It isn't soda.
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  It's alcohol. I am your Chief Medical
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  Explanationist, Dr. Terry Simpson, and this is
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  Fork U Fork University, where we make sense of the
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  madness, bust a few myths, and teach you a little
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  bit about food and medicine. Every December,
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  emergency room doctor, doctors and staff brace for
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  the holiday Heart. Someone with no heart history
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  suddenly flips into atrial fibrillation after just
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  a few drinks. Alcohol irritates the electrical
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  system of the heart, shifts electrolytes inflames
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  tissues, and the heart starts drumming like a jazz
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  solo. Atrial fibrillation may sound benign, but if
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  that misfire lands on the wrong millisecond, the
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  heart doesn't flutter. It stops. And when the
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  heart stops, you die. Now, maybe someone starts
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  cpr. Maybe there's a defibrillator. But even if
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  you've come back, you've probably lost some brain
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  cells. Holiday heart isn't acute flutter. It's the
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  beat before the beat stops. Do you remember the
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  French paradox? The myth that red wine explains
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  France's low heart disease rates? That's been
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  debunked. Their advantage, Frances, comes from
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  smaller portions, fewer processed foods, and
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  walking the not Bordeaux. Alcohol is a direct
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  cardiac or heart toxin. Ethanol, the active
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  ingredient. Alcohol and acetaldehyde damage heart
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  muscles, scramble calcium signals, they impair
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  mitochondria. They trigger oxidative stress,
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  fibrosis, and metabolic collapse inside the cell
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  of the heart. And chronic exposure to alcohol
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  leads to what we call alcohol cardiomyopathy.
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  That's a dilated, weakened heart that struggles to
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  pump blood. And that can begin at just four drinks
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  a week. Women are hit harder. You know what the
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  cure is? Abstinence. Stop drinking, and the heart
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  has a chance to heal. Keep drinking. It doesn't.
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  You're not drinking for your heart, you're
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  drinking against it. Now, alcohol doesn't just
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  hurt your heart. It fuels cancer. Both ethanol and
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  its metabolite, acetaldehyde, are carcinogens.
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  They damage DNA, block DNA, repair, ignite
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  inflammation and oxidative stress. The spark and
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  the oxygen for cancer. They raise estrogen,
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  heightening breast cancer risk, and act as
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  solvents to other carcinogens, like tobacco smoke.
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  They disrupt folate and retinol metabolism. They
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  blunt the immune surveillance. They reshape the
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  gut microbiome to produce even more acetaldehyde.
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  According to a 2025 journal of the American
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  Medical association review, alcohol is causally
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  linked to seven cancers. Oral cavity, pharynx,
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  larynx, esophagus, liver, colorectum, and the
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  breast. The international association classifies
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  alcoholic beverages as Group 1 carcinogens. That's
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  the same category as asbestos, tobacco, and
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  radiation.
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  Globally, 741,000 new cancer cases in 2020 were
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  due to alcohol. 4% of all cancers in the U.S.
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  alcohol is the third largest preventable cancer.
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  5% of new cases, 4% of deaths. Even one drink a
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  day raises the risk of breast cancer by 5 to 15%.
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  Roughly 44,000 United States cases. Each year, the
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  risk starts at zero. There is no safe threshold.
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  Beer Wine, liquor doesn't matter. Ethanol is the
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  common denominator. And for heavy drinkers, five
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  fold higher risk for head and neck cancers than
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  esophageal cancers. Sharply higher for liver and
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  colorectal. Roughly one third of East Asians carry
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  the ALDH2 gene variant that slows acetaldehyde
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  breakdown, dramatically increasing esophageal
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  cancer risk, even with light drinking. And tobacco
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  magnifies alcohol's carcinogenicity. So when
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  someone says they're drinking for their health,
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  remember, every sip raises a cancer risk. The
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  safest amount is zero. And the French, yeah, they
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  don't die of heart disease. A lot of them die of
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  carcinoma. Now, we've all heard the story. People
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  in Icara or Sardinia drink wine every night and
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  live to 100. What's missing? Well, first of all,
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  they drink about three to four ounces. That's not
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  a glass, that's not a pour. That's what we in the
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  United States call a, uh, tasting. And their
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  rustic wines that most of them make run 9 to 11%
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  alcohol, not the 15 to 16% of the Sonoma Zinfandel
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  or Cabernet. And a 3 ounce pour barely reaches a
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  quarter of a cabernet glass. The same pour you get
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  in a tasting or a wine flight, the one that you
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  swirl and sniff and pretend your palate isn't
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  exhausted. The longevity in Sardinia isn't from
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  the wine. It's from everything around it. Walking
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  miles a day, gardening, hills, naps, beans,
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  belonging. The wine is cultural, not clinical. If
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  you want their health, copy their food, copy their
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  movement, copy their sleep, copy their purpose,
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  not their nightly pour. Now, do you want to lose
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  weight? Stop drinking? Forget detox teas or keto
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  cleanses. Nothing sabotages the metabolism faster
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  than alcohol. Two martinis you think are 200
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  calories. After all, an ounce of liquor is 100
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  calories. Have you seen the size of the martini
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  glasses these days? The average martinis that are
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  found in a bar, about 500 calories. So those two
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  martinis, that's about 1,000 calories a day. Keep
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  drinking, the belly will grow, the liver will
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  fatten, the scale will climb in years. As a weight
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  loss surgeon, I saw patients undo their results of
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  surgery with alcohol. Alcohol hijacks the liver,
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  halts fat metabolism, and wrecks every diet plan.
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  Want to wreck your diet drink? Do you want to save
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  it? Stop. What about holiday seasons and choices?
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  Well, I know this is going to be a gradual thing
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  for some people, so let's start the night not with
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  a cocktail, but with sparkling water, hold it like
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  a martini and own the room. And better yet, be the
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  designated driver. Now, if someone offers you a
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  $3,000 glass of screaming eagle, fine. Take a sip
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  for science. Everything else, treat it like pruno
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  brewed in a prison toilet. The same one you prayed
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  to in college. And what about these mocktails?
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  Have you ever noticed their mocktails? More and
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  more showing up. And that's because people aren't
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  drinking as much. But most of those mocktails are
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  overpriced soda and elderberry syrup. Instead, try
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  iced tea soda with cranberry juice. Or get an
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  espresso martini without the vodka. Uh, you don't
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  need alcohol to mark a moment. You need presents.
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  And maybe a good garnish. So the next time someone
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  lectures you about toxins, look at what's in their
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  hand. The vegan warning you about red meat while
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  sipping on a gin and tonic? The guy biohacking his
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  coffee, getting hair plugs, buying a Porsche, and
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  bragging about his longevity hack with that scotch
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  collection that could stock a pub in Edinburgh.
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  They're not hacking their biology, they're
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  pickling it. Because the real anti longevity
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  compound isn't your steak or your cheerios. The
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  anti longevity compound is alcohol. But here's the
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  good. The body wants to heal. Within days of
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  quitting alcohol, blood pressure will drop. Within
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  weeks, inflammation quit, sleep returns, rhythms
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  steadies within months, the heart recovers within
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  a year, cancer risk declines within a decade, and
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  it's almost as if you never drank at all. All you
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  have to do is let your body do its job. Alcohol is
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  woven into celebration, grief, and awkward office
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  parties. But biology? It's a poor partner for
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  aging. Alcohol as a social lubricant doesn't make
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  you socially any better. You're still that awkward
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  person that hasn't dealt with the things you need
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  to deal with in therapy. All it's doing is giving
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  you a fake maladaption to the reality you're in.
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  So as you raise your glass or don't remember, your
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  cells don't take holidays. I'm Dr. Terry Simpson,
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  your chief medical explanationist. This has been
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  forku, where we make sense of longevity, bust
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  myths, and teach you a little bit about food and
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  medicine.
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  Audio and editing by simpler media and the pod God
• 10:37
  himself, Mr. Evo Chara. For references and show
• 10:40
  notes, see our blog at YourDoctorsOrders.com or
• 10:43
  fork you. Com and our substack@drsimpson.com and
• 10:47
  by the way, we're assembling our Mediterranean
• 10:49
  longevity cruise for the summer. Of 2026 with
• 10:51
  world class scientists, physicians and a food
• 10:53
  network chef. Real longevity without the woo. The
• 10:57
  conversation that some people will pay 150,000 to
• 11:00
  visit these longevity centers for, you're going to
• 11:02
  get for the price of a cruise. Sailing the
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  Mediterranean, eating incredible food, and
• 11:06
  actually enjoying life. Details coming soon. Have
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  a good week, everybody, and happy holidays. Let's
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  see you next year. Keep the alcohol out. Be the
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  hero. Be the designated driver. Hey, Evo. You
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  know, when I stopped drinking, my biologic age was
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  in the 70s. It's been climbing down ever since.
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  Meanwhile, my real age is creeping up. Damn. I
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  feel attacked. Simpson attacked. I say.