Fact: last year more older people were admitted to hospital for alcohol-related injuries and illnesses than those in the 16 to 24 age group.
Elderly people being the age group 65 to 105 or so in this country. I would posit that that is a rather larger group perhaps?
Further: we all die of something and as it happens many of the things we die of are attributed, in part, to booze. One third of a diabetes diagnosis is booze, half of a hypothermia (made up numbers but you get the idea). Not that they\’re caused by booze you understand, attributed to though.
Barbara is in her seventies and since being widowed has lived alone. She and her husband were enjoying a happy retirement in France’s expat community. But his illness and death plunged her into gloom. Come 4pm, she starts on the wine and downs a bottle a day.
Dear God, what horrors! A little old lady widow must not be allowed to have a bottle of wine a day! Think of how productive she could be without it!
Puritanical little tosspots.
And with cheap booze available round the clock in supermarkets, there is evidence that if England follows Scotland’s lead, there could be 50,000 fewer alcohol-related deaths over the next decade.
And we\’ve already dealt with that bollocks of a number, haven\’t we kiddies? It\’s going to be difficult as there seem to be only 3,500 or so deaths among the elderly caused by alcohol each year.
A bottle a day?
What an amateur!
More power to her elbow.
What is she supposed to do? Take drugs; I mean of course, tranquillizers.
Has she beaten anybody up? Knifed somebody?
It’s her pain and her life, leave her alone, you sanctimonious ‘person’.
She may be an amateur, but I reckon that’s only because she starts late. 4PM? Pah. Real alchoholics start at 4AM, after waking up in the gutter!
Most of the old soaks at the golf club take a bottle a day. Take away the drink and the companionship that goes with it and the future, for them, looks even bleaker.
“Elderly people being the age group 65 to 105 or so in this country.”
Actually, I think you’ll find that the ONS defines ‘older people’ as those who are 55+. And, sometimes, they seem to use 50+.
As for the little old lady, a bottle a day at her age will probably increase the risk of a serious fall, but otherwise it’s not going to do her much harm as long as she’s eating properly. She’d do well to discuss the matter with her GP; but her ‘plight’ is not a social issue.
Joan Bakewell is clearly pretty thick. How on earth did she get so far in television?
I’m assuming, dearieme, that that’s a rhetorical question?
Quite. Anyone who thinks that starting at 4pm and drinking a bottle of wine a day makes you an alcoholic hasn’t seen a real one in action.
I get through a bottle of wine a week. I keep expecting the GP to urge me to drink more.
This phenomenon- ‘late-onset drinking’- is well known and has been described in medical literature for well over 50 years. It is directly related to the uneven slowing of the metabolism.
I would guess that the only ‘new’ thing here is more old people? And perhaps a Government Tsar for the Old… I would make fun of you, but we are having our own Czar Problem here in the States.
Something MUST be done. It is obvious urgent legislation must be brought in requiring all staff in licensed premises – pubs, off-licences, supermarkets, Darby and Joan clubs etc – to demand anyone who gives the appearance or whom the aforesaid staff member believes to give the appearance of being of advanced years to immediately show their bus pass. Upon presentation thereof, they shall be limited to:
* ‘alf pint of mild OR
* small dry or medium sherry OR
* small port and lemon OR
* a milk stout, and less of yer flaming lip, Elsie Tanner.
I call this a really progressive programme to tackle this worrying problem.
@morpork You forgot to mention that you needed more funding in this era of “vicious tory cuts (™)”
I was drinking a bottle of wine a day but have reformed my life and now have stopped drinking during the week and now get throuh 7 bottles of wine on Friday and Saturday night plus a few beers and half a bottle of whisky.
I wonder whether my GP would think this an improvement over my previous habits?
As far as old people drinking, if they aint hurting anyone who cares. And in any event the longer they live the more it costs the healthcare system so look upon elderly alcholism as more the spirit of public service than some sort of blight on society. Good on them for making way for the next generation.
Did I say that out loud?
I saw some of the odious Panaorama programme last night. One talking head was bigging up the dangers of people drinking at home as being ‘unregulated’. FFS.
Leaving alcoholism to one side, did it never occur to Joan Bakewell that if she’s been a booze hound for much of her adult life and there are loads of oldies like her who appear to be no worse for it then the unit recommendations could be bunkum?
@Gareth: The BBC was calling for more regulation? Surely you jest.