Alcohol Health Risks: Study claims heavy drinking in youth aids success: What the research gets wrong and how alcohol ruins health

If someone hands you a glossy new study and says, “Drink up, it might help your career,” the right response is somewhere between a raised eyebrow and a small, bitter laugh. You’d think by now we’ve established that alcohol is terrible for the body, but every so often, someone steps forward to play devil’s advocate. Take Edward Slingerland’s 2021 book Drunk, which makes the daring claim that our taste for chemical intoxication is no evolutionary accident, that getting hazy once helped spark cooperation, creativity, and even the rise of cities. Now fold in Norwegian sociologist Willy Pedersen’s newer, gentler spin: that booze acts as a social lubricant, softening the awkward edges of youth and, apparently, nudging some drinkers toward higher incomes and degrees. It’s an intoxicating