Gazza: Heart stopped three times

[winterbadger]

One of football's most legendary living reprobates discussed his self-destructive (one hopes former) lifestyle with Sky News recently. It's pretty awful stuff, and it makes me feel sorry for the guy at least so far as he was clearly unprepared (as many young athletes are) for success and didn't develop coping mechanisms before his impulses destroyed his career and nearly his life.

But at one point it's remarked that "Gascoigne has had a well-publicised battle with alcohol, and admits that only four months ago he was drinking 30 cans of Special Brew (strong lager) per day."

I have, on more than one occasion, had far more to drink than was sensible, and have cut back to the point that if I have 3-4 drinks more than once a week, I feel guilty of going on a bender. Thirty cans of high-octane beer A DAY? I simply can't understand how he's not dead.

Comments

[wolfette]

to be honest, the "pervasive culture" of young males in Northern England (and Scotland) would find no problem with drinking a lot more than 3-4 cans of that lager daily. Every day. Even at that, thirty in a day would be considered excessive, but I had a colleague who literally couldn't function without 10 or more per day - and anything else he could get his hands on. And he'd barely show any symptoms of inebriation.

[winterbadger]

but I had a colleague who literally couldn't function without 10 or more per day - and anything else he could get his hands on. And he'd barely show any symptoms of inebriation.

I suppose it's just an issue of developing an immunity to a mild toxin, but I just can't imagine being able to survive drinking that much on a daily basis.

OTOH, I guess it makes me feel better about the pursed lips and shaken head I get whenever an MD questions me and I admit to an (average) of 1-2 drinks a day.

[wolfette]

I suppose it depends on what you count as a "drink" - 1 -2 "units" of alcohol a day should be within the acceptable limits for a man.

And there are those who say that saving them up to binge at a weekend is actually worse for you than having a glass of wine or whisky every day.

[winterbadger]

I think it's one of those places where unrealistic expectation gets in the way of practical commonsense.

Years ago, when I was in line for a career in the Foreign Service, part of the qualification process was getting a physical at a US government facility, either the Department of State in Washington or another USG medical center. I was living with my parents (it was right after uni) and I didn't feel like driving the three hours up to DC, so I went to the local Army base hospital. Big mistake. I can go into the whole story sometime, but among the silliness that I had to go through was a lecture from an Army doctor who couldn't quite grasp I wasn't having an Army recruitment physical, that I was going for a job in the Foreign Service. She gave me a long lecture on how smoking and drinking were VERY bad for you, and since I was going to be going overseas (she got that part at least), I should stop drinking and smoking right away, because I would never survive otherwise.

Now, I can't but agree that smoking is bad for anyone and people should get that message from their physician (at least once: if someoen is bound and determined to smoke, constantly harassing them about it is not very productive IMO). But a drink or two now and then isn't going to kill anyone. And to tell someone who is going to work in the *diplomatic* community that they should NEVER drink or smoke is like telling someone who is going to work on fishing boats that they must take care never to get wet, because they might get pneumonia.

But the lecture was part and parcel of the experience, and any time I feel particularly bad about having never gone into the service, I remember that process and thank my lucky stars I only had that one time I had to deal with the Army as anything other than a guest.

EDIT: And the more I think about it, the more foolish the whole thing seems. If that was the same lecture she gave young men and women joining the Army, what was the effect of having that advice proffered to them by the first medical officer they ever met? Would that nonsensical sort of harangue (yeah, the uniformed services are noted for being teetotal) be more proof, if it were needed, that anything you were told by an officer should be disbelieved as a matter of course, and the best thing to do is smile, nod, and ignore whatever you heard?