Yes, for your career, this is the appropriate approach for taking a social history. Ask direct questions. And follow them up:
“So how much alcohol do you drink in a day?”
“Oh 1 or 2, depends on the day.”
“Gotcha. One or two what? Fifths of vodka?”
“Well, I prefer gin, but yeah, exactly.”
And the alternative: “how much did you drink tonight?”
“Just a couple of beers” vomits
BAC comes back in the 400s…
tl;dr whatever someone says, double it.
I think this is accurate. Especially with the proliferation of high ABV tallboy IPAs. 16 oz. of 8% goodness is two standard drinks!
Great advice. I have a parent who does anesthesia and we often talk about patients reporting their allergies. He told me if there’s more than 3 allergies, he assumes they’re lying. I’m sure with experience comes the ability to weed out bullshit. Still learning!
This is off topic, but one of my dad’s patients told him they were allergic to benzene… Like…
Add me to the “recently mostly quit drinking” cohort. I wasn’t a very heavy drinker, probably 2-6 drinks a week on average, but as I’ve gotten later into my thirties I’ve noticed A. There is nothing more impactful on my wellbeing than sleep, and B. Even a single drink disrupts my sleep.
After a month (during which I had a grand total of 2 glasses of wine) I can’t say I notice a huge difference in performance on the bike, but never waking up at 2:00 am with a surprisingly intense one-IPA headache has made it more than worth it. I don’t aim to be a dogmatic non-drinker, but I definitely like being more intentional and conscientious about weighing the cost vs. the benefit when I do have a beer or two.
My surgeon step dad wouldn’t go to bed unless he had a glass of white wine and a martini. Part of his daily cadence, I suppose.
As far as alcohol free, I feel like I’m cheating… I only stopped because I started a medication that’s tough on my liver. I was a social drinker… maybe 2-3 drinks per week. No real negative effects on my performance or sleep and no tendencies towards addiction.
ER doc here. I’d agree with this, if some one says they never drink or only rarely I tend to believe them. If someone says they drink regularly and you ask them how much, the only half joking rule of thumb is 1.5-2x what they tell you
This is just anecdotal, but my ability to forgo alcohol on any given day (or stretch of days) seems to correlate with whether I have done a workout (TR or weight training). Maybe it’s the dopamine hit.
Not doing some sort of regimented exercise, or being able to, tends to lead to a general malaise.
OTOH a long outdoor ride pretty much guarantees a beer or three. Haha.
