Still Smarter

Imagine only suffering a hang-over once, early in your 60+ year life?
You start to drink more and your tolerance level just keeps rising.
Overtime , you start making your own booze, all of it; beer, wine and spirits.
Cost is no longer a concern and it is good stuff.
You ensure that you never drive drunk, by owning two breathalysers, which cost you £60 per year to have checked and recalibrated.
You remain in good health, continue to be an active blood donor, almost 80 armful's.
Then, having pushed your weekly intake to between 150 and 200 units, possibly a little more, each and every week, - you develop what we might term 'a medical condition'.
Which a roomful of G.P.s, speaking "off the record", say needs a neurologist referal.
(Don't ask how that happened.)
So, you ban yourself from motorway driving, invest in a blood pressure monitor, and discover your BP is through the roof.
You read every sensible piece of advice available.
You realise that possibly the only contributing factor to high blood pressure that applies to yourself is alcohol consumption.
What a pisser, you have to cut back.

Currently cut down to 15 units a day.
Slowly,slowly. And it will be, cutting out booze in home environs, for me, is like quitting smoking.
Blood pressure falling fast.
Which may sort my 'medical condition'.
It does remain a pisser, - I will have to cut back further. but will never get to a recommended less than 14 a week.

The only point of this post is to alert others of something that they may be able to avoid.
And to say that if I disappear, you know what happened.
On that cheery note, I wish you all good health!
And I'll meet the failures on the other side.

Robert.

Keep grinning.

My only wish is that I am safely upstairs 30 minutes before the devil knows I am dead.

I take some truly amazing medications for high blood pressure. Given my medical history I have excellent blood pressure ( Also a Defibrillator/pacemaker and a prescription list that would cost an American $10,000 / month)

Surely a pill or two would assist the balance?

I am with you Moss. All is well with me apart from weight.
If I count myself as 2 then spot on.
Because of all the pills I take, I don't need breakfast, I just
rattle on till Lunch, but all is well.
Pills are good for you ED.

whereas some of us have chosen caution for a specific reason i.e. work.....

I basically have 1 drink a day, when I know I won't be driving anymore for the day.

Sure, it may be, say, a rum and coke, but it'll be a pint, so about 100mls a.k.a.. about 4 single measures topped up with the mixer.

Loss of license/job would cost me dearly, so while it'd be nice to be a complete piss head, I can only ever (occasionally) indulge at weekends.....

I know that I may have sounded woosy, I know of users here far more fecked up than Myself through excess.
No names, PM's exist for a reason.
I just thought my liver and kidneys would see me through, never thought about the heart and arteries.
Hate abandoning the Rock and Roll excess though.
Being basically an honest person, when the doc. says how much do you drink?, before prescribing, and then says cut down first, I know that I should have done.
And it does work, hard as it may seem.
Halving my alcohol consumption to 7 times the recommended allowance has already taken my BP from high to normal.
The intrigue of what happens when I cut back more has become the driving force.

Robert.

There is an ominous tone to your post Robert.

I truly hope your ailments improve. It's a slippery slope. I too have made wine for years, and have to keep tabs on the unlimited supplies.

Michael.

Blood pressure tablets are a fantastic invention. For many, many years I suffered with huge migraines, coming home from a hard night in the restaurant kitchen virtually paralysed because of the pain. Several years went by after trying every medication possible until a trainee nurse sitting in with a doctor suggested a blood pressure check.

It was a good job she was there that day. She checked it three times thinking the reading was wrong. Turned out I had stroke level blood pressure. Now at least ten years later I have the blood pressure of an eighteen year old. The weight doesn't help but that is in hand. A stone lost in the month just before Christmas and back on a diet to loose another as from this morning.

Alcohol ??. It must be the tablets that have suppressed my appetite for it. Used to love a good drink, but not really any more. Once in a while I will have a good session but that's maybe once or twice a year. Just counted up what I've drunk since New Years Eve. A grand total of about four large vodkas in one evening last week, nothing else.

Got a shelf full of bottles but they will still be there when I need them.

I'm actually OK.
I have an intermittent problem that may need exploring.
Until I have my blood pressure under control, which means seriously reducing my alcohol, the road is closed.
BP is taken 4 times a day, and halving my consumption has made a huge difference, really quickly.
I have a tame Bio statistician in charge of the numbers.
The hard part is stretching a drink out, instead of having another.
I have even started drinking tea again, haven't touched it for many years!
I am to some extent in charge of my own destiny.

Robert.

Making a change now might give you 10+ more years, just sayin...

It's a real shame the NHS doesn't have a sturdy rehab plan for boozers, rather try and fail to repair those that have gone to far, I bet they would save money in the long run.

I'm trying to look on the brightside.
If I drink half as much, I only need to make half as much.

Robert.

Is it worth using your expertise to pioneer low alcohol drinks? 2 % beer? 10% gin both still packed with flavour.??

Mash wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 6:07 am Is it worth using your expertise to pioneer low alcohol drinks? 2 % beer? 10% gin both still packed with flavour.??

That could be really interesting research Mash! I reckon we could make a cracking low alcohol gin

Sure I appreciate the luxury of having something "on tap", but as an aside, many don't understand how much of our behaviour is peer influenced, especially early peer pressure (like stuff from parents, other relatives or school mates - the kind we forget about because it was that long ago)...........

Mash wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 6:07 am Is it worth using your expertise to pioneer low alcohol drinks? 2 % beer? 10% gin both still packed with flavour.??

Tonic water and a few drops of Angostura bitters is an ideal low alcohol substitute for full fat g&t.

phantom makes a very good point there, subliminal behaviour is hard/impossible to detect.

Mash also makes a good point.
My 12% Belgian Tripel and 7% Stout taste amazing, but I can no longer drink as many.
Until now I have never seen the point in low alcohol drinks.
Food for thought!

Robert.

I have thought an airstill "should" be able to make punchy cordials. Adding the sugar post stilling.

Elderflower cordial makes a good spoof G&T but is only a good start. Loads of opportunities.

Elderflower?
Yucky Poo!
I'll seek other 'opportunities'.

Robert.

I,m with you there,my father used to make elderflower wine,it looked and smelt like cats p

It is worse than the Marmite question.
I'm sure more people love Marmite.

Robert.

Very sorry to read of your plight mate. It is easy to go a bit over the top if you have plenty of top quality product taking up shelf space. I'm going to cut back too to keep you company. I'm getting way too fat now I'm retired and have more brewing/drinking/eating time on my hands. It's going to hard for me but I'll just have to keep my chin(s) up. Hope you kick BP into touch Easyd

I have had this sword over my head for the last 10 years ED.
There is a good answer.
1. Loads of exercise ie walking.(I fail here)
2. have days off the booze, say mon, tues and thurs.
3. pick when you are going to give it stick and take a two or three day break.

Sorry mate got called for din-dins. and that is very important, to give yourself
a treat ie hot smoked salmon or!!!???

For any beer brewers, if you like the brewdog type beers I've got the recipe for their 0.5% beer*. It's quite good to be fair.

*well actually every beer they have ever brewed but that's because they publish them all

Thanks to all for messages of support.
3 weeks now of halved alcohol consumption, (Still very high, but little by little, and attainable goals).
My BP is lower, and the reason for monitoring it has not reoccurred.
Execise I get aplenty, 3 to 5 miles walking a day.
BMI of 22.4.
AFD? When on anti-biotics only.
I am reading my way through the brewdog list, will find the low alc. beer soon!

Robert.