# How long can someone abuse alcohol without serious consequences? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 22, 2018, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016 "2018-03-22T09:13:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/21 "2018-03-23T15:37:50Z")
> [@Andy](#): > > LWIBR: That’s exactly how I read it too, and thought your remark was perfectly understandable. There clearly _is_ the possibility of escape. > Exactly why the word ‘fucking’ was used by hajario, I have no idea. Thanks Andy. Not sure why he got so aggressive. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/22 "2018-03-23T15:38:54Z")
> [@Doyle](#): > > I have been an abuser of alcohol for 40 years. A doctor friend (now totally sober) of mine told me that if you’re not having hangovers or any other problems, your liver is processing the alcohol well. I see my doctor twice a year to see the numbers for my liver and kidneys. To date, they’ve always been fine, Kind of half way wish that they’ll show some bad numbers that will give me a reason to shut it down, but I seem to have been blessed a hearty system. Father and both grandfathers were alcoholics and non died from anything alcohol related. Doyle, just curious, how much do you drink in an average day? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/23 "2018-03-23T15:54:06Z")
We don’t have a very good understanding of why some people can (for a long time, anyway) get away with abuse of alcohol or tobacco that would kill or make seriously ill most others. In the vast majority of cases, heavily excessive drinking or smoking will cause impairment of variable severity. With booze, you can wind up with fatty liver that may not impair liver function, but increase your chance of sudden death (thought to be due to associated cardiac arrhythmias). “Being blessed with a hearty system” reminds me of people who claim to have a superior immune system (and so do not need flu shots or other preventative interventions). This stuff has a way of coming back to bite you. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/24 "2018-03-23T18:55:05Z")
I have an old friend who drinks like a fish and smokes like a stack and has done so for 35 years+ He looks great, far younger than any of us in our group. He’s never had a hangover in his entire life nor been in legal trouble, so there isn’t really a driving reason for him to stop. He’s 50 now, we’ll see what the future brings for him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he lives to be a very health 105. Another friend is 68 and looks to be in her mid- to late-80s. She’s a heavy drinker and smoker and started having real issues five years ago; she looks like the walking dead and is starting to miss a lot of work. It sounds as if she has emphysema, but has become very withdrawn and won’t talk about her health. I look better than most of my high school buddies, most of whom are still partying like it’s 1984. The most pronounced difference (IMHO) is that, on the whole, they don’t have degrees and stable jobs – there’s nothing wrong with honest labor, but I truly think that a few of them could have had easier lives if they had grown out of partying. My stepfather is 83 and is drunk probably 5 of 7 nights a week, but you’d never know it from his behavior or appearance. He became diabetic a few years ago (could be drinking and/or genetics). He’s retired but is up and around doing physical and creative work all day long. My mother was an alcoholic but cut down drastically some time ago; she’s a very healthy and good-looking 72. A few of my siblings are alcoholic or borderline. Two of them have had legal trouble (DUIs, etc) but legal problems haven’t changed their drinking behavior. My sister is looking a bit ragged around the edges of late. I believe that my saving grace is that I get violently ill if I have more than two or so drinks. I did some binge-drinking in my teens and early 20s, but lying in bed and barfing for two days after a night out got tiresome and stupid. All to say: the physical and mental costs of alcoholism are very diverse and probably come down to a collage of genetics, situationality, and whatever else. We all know two-fisted, smoking drinkers who will make it to 100; and we know folks whose habits have significantly shortened their lives. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/25 "2018-03-25T15:23:38Z")
> [@HelenGawn](#): > > Fired for accidentally showing up mostly sober after twenty years of responsible work? That’s amazing - an would probably be a lawsuit today. It depends on the type of job. A coworker (chronic alcoholic) got busted the same way (warehouse work, did OK, showed up sober, got tested the next day, fired) just last year. Because of the possible danger to others the company rule is pretty strict and has held up in court from what I’m told. ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/26 "2018-03-25T15:31:52Z")
> [@Doyle](#): > > I have been an abuser of alcohol for 40 years. A doctor friend (now totally sober) of mine told me that if you’re not having hangovers or any other problems, your liver is processing the alcohol well. I see my doctor twice a year to see the numbers for my liver and kidneys. To date, they’ve always been fine, Kind of half way wish that they’ll show some bad numbers that will give me a reason to shut it down, but I seem to have been blessed a hearty system. Father and both grandfathers were alcoholics and non died from anything alcohol related. My ex-husband never got sick or had hangovers. It took him 24 years of drinking to die (age 16-40). He remained high functioning for all of those years except his last one, when all of his systems/organs cascaded and crashed. ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/27 "2018-03-25T17:40:11Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Doyle, just curious, how much do you drink in an average day? On average, half a fifth of vodka a weekday. Weekends, fifth a day. ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/28 "2018-03-25T17:42:33Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > My ex-husband never got sick or had hangovers. It took him 24 years of drinking to die (age 16-40). He remained high functioning for all of those years except his last one, when all of his systems/organs cascaded and crashed. Thanks for the downer. Just kidding. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/29 "2018-03-25T18:00:26Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > My ex-husband never got sick or had hangovers. It took him 24 years of drinking to die (age 16-40). He remained high functioning for all of those years except his last one, when all of his systems/organs cascaded and crashed. The serious drinkers amongst my friends and family rarely suffer hangovers. I wonder if this is a commonality among alcoholics? I love the drunk euphoric feeling and if I didn’t pay the price of multi-day hideous hangovers I could see me having a drinking problem. That and the fact I hate the taste of liquor unless mixers conceal most of the taste. Wine is also bilious. Friends often tell me that I’d like the expensive wines they drink and don’t believe I can’t taste the difference between Boones Farm and Chateaux de Whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/30 "2018-03-25T20:20:39Z")
In addition to genes, it seems that diet plays a significant role in determining whether or not an alcoholic will develop liver disease: > **[Alcoholic Liver Disease: Update on the Role of Dietary Fat](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808795/)** > > Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) spans a spectrum of liver pathology, including fatty liver, alcoholic steatohepatitis, and cirrhosis. Accumulating evidence suggests that dietary factors, including dietary fat, as well as alcohol, play critical roles in... > [@](#): > > Accumulating evidence suggests that dietary factors, including dietary fat, along with heavy alcohol consumption, play critical roles in ALD pathogenesis. Indeed, **the beneficial effects of dietary saturated fat (SF) and damaging effects of dietary unsaturated fat (USF, primarily corn oil/linoleic acid (LA) enriched) on alcohol-induced liver injury have been documented in experimental animal models of ALD [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Moreover, comparison of dietary fat intake in various countries with similar per capita alcohol consumption has demonstrated that dietary intake of SF was associated with lower mortality rates, whereas dietary intake of USF was associated with a higher mortality from alcoholic cirrhosis [11]**. However, the underlying mechanism(s) by which different types of dietary fat potentiate or attenuate ALD are not completely determined. Understanding of how dietary lipids contribute to ALD pathogenesis will enhance our knowledge regarding the molecular mechanisms of ALD development and progression, and may help to identify novel dietary intervention strategies for ALD prevention/treatment as well as to explain why only some people who drink heavily develop clinically-relevant ALD. The present review summarizes the current knowledge and recent advances regarding the impact of dietary lipids on ALD pathogenesis, including the effects of different types of dietary fat on alcohol-mediated hepatic steatosis, injury, as well as intestinal permeability, endotoxemia, and gut microbiota changes. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/31 "2018-03-25T21:51:44Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Keep in mind that by modern standards, most of Europe was drunk most of time for centuries. Right. In the book he edited, _19th-Century British Minor Poets_, W.H. Auden quotes Sydney Smith what life was like at the beginning of the 19th century, and one of the comments was, “…even in the best society, one third of the gentlemen at least were always drunk.” Some people used to drink truly an inordinate amount of alcohol, and it was socially acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/32 "2018-03-26T02:48:56Z")
My Great-Grandfather died in his early eighties and though, I only have a few memories of him, I was told by my grandfather that he drunk copious amounts and when he was younger was a nasty drunk. He died in Greenwich hospital, but one of the last things he did was to escape from the hospital in his dressing gown and hop on the bus to Woolwich where they found him in a pub drinking a pint that he’d got somebody to but him. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/33 "2018-03-26T03:03:06Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > In addition to genes, it seems that diet plays a significant role in determining whether or not an alcoholic will develop liver disease: > > [Alcoholic Liver Disease: Update on the Role of Dietary Fat - PMC](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808795/) Order the steak and hold the fries when boozing? ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016/34 "2018-03-26T09:30:25Z")
If one is lucky to avoid a fatal accident such as an automobile crash or a nasty fall, then alcohol probably doesn’t take that many years off your life span. But bear in mind, it’s not just a matter of when you die, but how. Cirrhosis, kidney failure, congestive heart disease, and in more extreme cases, dementia…those are not fun ways to go. They’re long, painful, and costly. They certainly can’t be fun for the people responsible for taking care of them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-someone-abuse-alcohol-without-serious-consequences/811016.md?page=1)