January 8, 2025 • 17 mins
The episode dives into the recently announced links between alcohol and cancer, raising awareness about serious health risks often overshadowed by drinking culture. Through personal stories and statistics, we explore the implications for individuals and the industry, liken it to the tobacco industry, inspiring listeners as they reconsider their relationship with alcohol - especially during Dry January.
• Discussion of the Surgeon General's recommendation for alcohol to carry a cancer warning
• Personal experiences shared about life without alcohol
• Statistics highlighting the connection between alcohol and cancer
• Industry marketing practices and their implications
• The importance of awareness and education regarding alcohol consumption
• Reflection on the journey of quitting drinking and its benefits
We’d love to hear your thoughts—text us, email, or reach out on Instagram. Don’t forget to like, follow, and subscribe for new episodes every Wednesday. Thanks for tuning in!
More Cameo - Word up!
Sign up for The Weekly Reset Newsletter!
https://www.cameoelysebraun.com
https://www.instagram.com/cameoelysebraun
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2083952/support
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show.
I'm your host, cameo, and weare joined today by my husband
and co-host, mr Greg Braun.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
So glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
We are pumped about today's conversation and the
topic, but before we dive in,Greg likes to start us with a
dad joke.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I've got a good one today.
What do you call a wizard who'sbad at football?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I don't know.
A fumbledore bad at football, Idon't know.
A fumbledore, Fumbledore likeDumbledore.
A reference to Harry Potter forall of you.
Harry Potter heads out there.
I don't know if Harry Potterheads is like a real thing, but
if it's not, it should be.
You're welcome.
Today's topic is timely becauseit is January.
It's a new year where peopleare picking up new habits.
(00:44):
It is also considered dryJanuary, something that you see
as like a hashtag or topic onsocial media and throughout the
media, and it kind of falls inalignment with that a little bit
.
So recently, like a few daysago, the Surgeon General
recommended that alcoholicbeverages carry a cancer warning
(01:09):
.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
And this is very near and dear to our heart, because,
for those of you who are maybenew here or have maybe not heard
us speak about this before,greg and I are both alcohol-free
for the last 10 years.
Well, I'm coming up on 10 yearsand Greg is just a little over
10 years, but call it a decadefor both of us, which is a
really a pretty long time.
We don't really ever giveourselves too much credit there,
(01:33):
because it's just now who weare and part of what we do, but
prior to those 10 years, we were10 years and maybe almost 20
years of lots of alcohol in ourlife.
So we may not drink now, but weused to be pretty, pretty good
drinkers and we also both usedto smoke and Greg used to chew,
(01:53):
and so when we talk about thistopic, it's not from a space of
judgment, but more from a spaceof like wow, this is huge.
This is a really big gamechanger in the alcohol industry.
In my personal opinion.
I didn't know.
It wasn't like a driving forcefor me when we stopped drinking.
Behaviorally, drinking neededto go out of my life.
(02:15):
From a coping mechanismstandpoint, alcohol needed to be
removed from my life and from aI want to be a better person
and make better decisionsstandpoint.
Alcohol needed to be removedfrom my life, and I knew that
there would be a side effect ofbetter health and betterment
across the board when I decidedto stop drinking.
But not drinking because it wasgoing to cause cancer was not
(02:37):
something that I was aware ofliterally until probably a few
days ago, when it was brought tomy attention through this
announcement.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, kind of like cigarettes used to be right.
Yeah, you always knew when yousmoked cigarettes or, for me,
chewing that you're like this.
This is really bad for mebecause we all know it causes
lung cancer, throat cancer, lipcancer.
You know there's so manydifferent forms of cancer that
we we just kind of it was commonknowledge.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, you knew when you lit the cigarette like you
felt a little bit dirty Like Iknow.
This is terrible for me, yeah,and, and I don't know when those
warnings were added tocigarette packs, but I know that
they weren't always there.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, they weren't always there.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
I can remember when there were smoking sections in
restaurants and smoking rooms inairports and like smoking was a
more popular thing that peopleused to do when I was a teenager
and before you know, even whensmoking we could smoke in
restaurants.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I mean, like you felt dirty about it because you know
that like this, this causescancer and you're playing
roulette with that, but younever really thought when you go
to the restaurant and order abeer like that, this also causes
cancer.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I think I saw where it was like 50% of adults don't
realize the alcohol is a cancercausing, really yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Wow, that's basically the common understanding of
what this is that you see thesecommercials for all the time
during sporting events, right,and it's young people that are
very attractive, having fun at atailgate party, drinking Coors
Light or whatever you know, andit's like you don't see
cigarette commercials nowbecause of these things.
(04:13):
So that'll be interesting tosee how this changes the
marketing of alcohol.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Oh for sure, Because how do you promote something
that you know now comes with awarning label for increased
cancer risk?
The warning labels on alcoholcurrently say hey, if you're
pregnant or could be pregnant,don't drink.
Or if you're drinking, don'tdrive because you can't operate
a motor vehicle.
But nowhere is there anymention of cancer, and I don't
(04:41):
think anyone.
I mean 50% is a prettystaggering stat.
I don't think anyone associatescancer necessarily with alcohol
.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Other than, like you might think, psoriasis of the
liver Right when people drinktoo much, or whatever the case
may be like extreme cases.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
But alcohol is linked to seven types of cancer In
fact breast cancer, colon cancer, rectum cancer, esophagus
cancer, liver cancer, mouthcancer and throat cancer.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Basically your whole digestive.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Essentially yes, and one thing that I found
astonishing was that 16.4% ofwomen who have breast cancer
it's alcohol related.
If I were still a drinker andthis were new information and I
were considering not drinking, Iwould probably think
differently about it now, justlike when I quit smoking.
(05:35):
It was a little bit easier toquit smoking.
Not easy, because quittingsmoking is like the hardest
thing we've ever done.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Like the hardest Knowing that, like, smoking
causes cancer and it's righthere on the pack Every time I
like pack it up and get ready tolight one.
It's just in my face.
I know it made it a little bitdifferent and if.
I were still drinking.
I might approach drinkingdifferently, because it's not
just the people who have aproblem or an addiction, or it
(06:03):
causes them to make baddecisions in their life and they
need help.
It's not just the extreme casesof psoriasis, it's not just the
person who drinks straightliquor, it's everyone.
It's all alcohol.
Three and a half drinks per daycan double or even triple the
risk of cancers of the mouth,larynx and esophagus.
And three and a half per day ismaybe not what people drink
(06:25):
Like.
Maybe you're thinking well, Idon't drink three and a half per
day, so I'm not double ortripling anything.
But you might not drink thatmuch every day.
But if you have a few more onthe weekend, or a bottle of wine
on Saturday afternoon at brunchor even champagne for that
matter that is adding up towhere your average per day might
be, you know, accumulating upto that point where you're
(06:46):
increasing your risk of cancersubstantially.
Double or triple is a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
The third leading preventable cause of cancer in
the US is alcohol.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Wow Third.
Third Can I guess number one,yeah, is nicotine smoking.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Tobacco, tobacco.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So the number one in the US is tobacco Something
that's legal.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Still legal to go by.
Just I think you have to be 21now instead of 18.
I don't know the cigarette lawsanymore, but yes.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And then and that's.
This isn't a discussion aboutthe shoulds, and shouldn't be,
of legalization of things.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
But we don't talk about politics, and religion on
this show.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
But yeah, draw your own conclusions, make your own
decisions and and researchthings and try to get real
information on stuff, but that'scrazy.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
The number one is nicotine tobacco tobacco
products, followed by number two, which is I'm going to guess
the bad diets Obesity, obesity,okay.
So basically, bad Poornutrition, bad diet.
I'm no saint Like I sit here.
This is a coffee mug full ofsugar-free Red Bull.
(07:55):
So Red Bull could someday verysoon come with a warning label,
if it doesn't already.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I'm sure it does already.
Next week will be about redbull.
So if this is, this is newinformation, and if you're
already thinking like maybe Iwant to pause drinking or I want
to see what my life would looklike without alcohol in it, this
might be a little nudge, toreally take it serious, to
(08:22):
really give it a shot more, morethan just maybe I wanted to see
if I could lose some weight orI wanted to have a little bit
more.
You know, clarity, I meanthere's, there's so many
benefits of not drinking, aswe've discovered that aren't so
obvious, and this would be oneof them that you could add to
that list of like.
Hey, you're not going to seethis immediately, it's not
(08:43):
something you're going to notice, but it's a long-term residual
effect of not drinking.
So it might just be one morebullet for your case for maybe
not drinking, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, why are we just now being told this Like?
Why is this just now beingadded?
This is not just something theyfound out yesterday.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
This has like been known, not just something they
found out yesterday.
Yeah, this is like been known,and unless you're seeking out
this information, or unlesssomeone is brave enough and bold
enough to say I'm going tochallenge the alcohol industry,
right yeah and and bring thisresearch and this evidence to
the public yeah and suggest.
It's just suggested, it's notbeen made.
(09:22):
An actual like law or whateverhas to go through Congress or
whatever you have to do.
Don't test my governmentknowledge at this point.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And again, I don't need laws to tell me what's good
for my body or not.
And that's the other problemhere is people think they're not
doing anything wrong becauseit's legal and they're just
drinking and it's like, well,this is part of tailgating and
drinking.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Well, this legal substance is responsible for
100,000 cases of cancerpreventable cancer and 20,000
deaths annually.
So we just go along with, likewhat we've always done, what we
see, what we think, untilsomebody brings this to our
attention or until we seek outthe information ourselves.
It's the information age, wehave access to it, but you don't
(10:07):
always know where to begin andyou don't know what's real and
what's not, and it's a lot todigest.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Partner that with the fact that the alcohol industry
and big pharma are paying.
They have lobbyists that arepaid handsomely to pay
politicians, and again we're nottalking politics or religion.
They have lobbyists that arepaid handsomely to pay
politicians, and again we're nottalking politics or religion,
we stay away from that.
But they're being paid to notdisclose this information or to
keep this out of going into lawto require them to, because it
(10:36):
will impact the marketing plan,it will impact their stock
prices.
In fact, their stock prices fellafter this announcement was
made that this recommendationwas new, because people aren't
sure what's going to happen.
My personal opinion is thatwhen you don't really know this
information, there's maybe notenough conviction to make you
(10:58):
choose that it's something youwant to stop doing.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So to your point.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
It's definitely maybe a tipping point moment for some
people, which would then openup the opportunity to see some
of the other benefits longerterm that you might not
recognize initially or might notthink you're missing or might
not long for in the future, thisquest to maybe stop
implementing alcohol into yourlife.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, Because I can tell you you stop drinking for a
day, five days, two weeks amonth and you just keep going
and you start to notice adifference in the way you think
and feel and operate and yourrelationship with yourself and
with your work and with yourfamily.
(11:43):
I mean, like it just itradiates out and my life looks
totally different than it did 15years ago, because 10 years ago
I stopped drinking.
And it's literally the catalystfor 100 plus different
decisions in all these differentdirections, but it all comes
back to that one decision of tojust not drink alcohol.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah, and you would never believe it yeah but
everything you said somethingonce about you know, when you
first stopped, you thought aboutall the things you'd be missing
yeah, what?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
yeah?
Well, yeah, your mind playstricks on you and you're yeah,
oh my gosh, I'm gonna miss outon oh yeah, all the fear like
who am I and am I even gonnaable, and how?
Am.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I going to socialize and all of those things, but
what you said was like I didn'trealize how much I would be
gaining.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
And all of these years later, you're able to
recognize that yeah, and again,we didn't consider that it was
causing cancer.
It's still hard every day tochoose to not drink.
Like it gets easier and youhave good days and bad days.
But even 10 years later, thereare moments.
But this would be maybe thepiece of information.
(12:50):
Like we quit smoking and Istill sometimes want a cigarette
.
It doesn't go away, but I knowhow bad cigarettes are.
Like I just know that it willmake me have cancer, most likely
Right Like well, now, thispiece of information might
strengthen that conviction, evenfor someone like us who hasn't
drank in a long time, where youmight feel like well, maybe I
(13:11):
could, or maybe I should, ormaybe I will.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Well, this is an extra piece of that that keeps
you.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Which that never goes away.
By the way, I still have the,the urge.
It's a mild, small urge, butsometimes it's a little bit
louder, and sometimes whenyou're walking by somewhere and
you'll smell a cigarette andyou're like, you know, and it's
funny to think that cigarettesactually smell good, but you
know what I mean.
If you know what I mean, likethere's that like moment where
(13:39):
you're like, oh, so, that justnever goes away.
I just, yeah, you're just tohave that, but it gets smaller
and quieter, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
We did an episode a while ago where we discussed our
experience with not drinkingalcohol, kind of who we were
before and who we are after.
So if you are someone who'sconsidering, you know, making
the choice to eliminate alcoholfrom your life, that's an
episode to reference.
That's more behaviorallyoriented.
And I did another episode.
It was called Death by aThousand Cups, a play on death
(14:11):
by a thousand cuts how the small, tiny choices that we're making
regarding alcohol can add up tobig health consequences.
I had some mixed emotions onthat one, because when you start
talking about alcohol prior tothis announcement and what we're
talking about today, perhapsit's a very guarded thing, it's
a very personal thing and that'sfine.
(14:32):
But people are very you're notcoming after my alcohol.
Alcohol makes my life betterjust because you couldn't handle
it and you couldn't behaveyourself and all these things,
and I totally agree.
I couldn't agree more.
I get that Like it's a verypersonal thing and everyone has
their own journey and reflectivepoints about that.
But death by a thousand cupskind of already illustrated some
(14:52):
of the health consequences thatmaybe we aren't considering,
that aren't so obvious, like youmentioned now with this
announcement just kind offurther evidence to evaluate the
space that alcohol is taking upin your life and the impacts
that it's having on you, now andlong-term, with regard to your
behavior and your health.
It'll be interesting to seewhat happens and if this goes
(15:14):
through like congressionalapproval or whatever's necessary
, and how it impacts the alcoholindustry, what kind of lobbying
goes into it with the politicalside of things, and how it
impacts maybe some of the otherindustries too, like with
medicinal, marijuana anddifferent things that have been
on the ballots in differentstates and you know lobbyists
have shut down and maybemarijuana has been shutting down
(15:37):
alcohol, who knows?
Like it's all the behind thescenes stuff.
But think for yourself,question everything, research
your information and hopefullythis will help open opportunity
for someone who might be on thefence about this piece in their
life.
Thank you so much for joining uson the Cameo Show.
We're curious about yourthoughts on this topic.
It can be a very polarizedthing to talk about, so you can
(16:01):
always text the show or drop usa line via email or on Instagram
.
As I mentioned, there are otherepisodes pertaining to this
topic.
We have new episodes everyWednesday, so if you're new here
, like, follow, subscribe so youdon't miss a beat If you're
with us every week.
We thank you as always.
Till next time.
Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show.
I'm your host, cameo, and weare joined today by my husband
and co-host, mr Greg Braun.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
So glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
We are pumped about today's conversation and the
topic, but before we dive in,Greg likes to start us with a
dad joke.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I've got a good one today.
What do you call a wizard who'sbad at football?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I don't know.
A fumbledore bad at football, Idon't know.
A fumbledore, Fumbledore likeDumbledore.
A reference to Harry Potter forall of you.
Harry Potter heads out there.
I don't know if Harry Potterheads is like a real thing, but
if it's not, it should be.
You're welcome.
Today's topic is timely becauseit is January.
It's a new year where peopleare picking up new habits.
(00:44):
It is also considered dryJanuary, something that you see
as like a hashtag or topic onsocial media and throughout the
media, and it kind of falls inalignment with that a little bit
.
So recently, like a few daysago, the Surgeon General
recommended that alcoholicbeverages carry a cancer warning
(01:09):
.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
And this is very near and dear to our heart, because,
for those of you who are maybenew here or have maybe not heard
us speak about this before,greg and I are both alcohol-free
for the last 10 years.
Well, I'm coming up on 10 yearsand Greg is just a little over
10 years, but call it a decadefor both of us, which is a
really a pretty long time.
We don't really ever giveourselves too much credit there,
(01:33):
because it's just now who weare and part of what we do, but
prior to those 10 years, we were10 years and maybe almost 20
years of lots of alcohol in ourlife.
So we may not drink now, but weused to be pretty, pretty good
drinkers and we also both usedto smoke and Greg used to chew,
(01:53):
and so when we talk about thistopic, it's not from a space of
judgment, but more from a spaceof like wow, this is huge.
This is a really big gamechanger in the alcohol industry.
In my personal opinion.
I didn't know.
It wasn't like a driving forcefor me when we stopped drinking.
Behaviorally, drinking neededto go out of my life.
(02:15):
From a coping mechanismstandpoint, alcohol needed to be
removed from my life and from aI want to be a better person
and make better decisionsstandpoint.
Alcohol needed to be removedfrom my life, and I knew that
there would be a side effect ofbetter health and betterment
across the board when I decidedto stop drinking.
But not drinking because it wasgoing to cause cancer was not
(02:37):
something that I was aware ofliterally until probably a few
days ago, when it was brought tomy attention through this
announcement.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, kind of like cigarettes used to be right.
Yeah, you always knew when yousmoked cigarettes or, for me,
chewing that you're like this.
This is really bad for mebecause we all know it causes
lung cancer, throat cancer, lipcancer.
You know there's so manydifferent forms of cancer that
we we just kind of it was commonknowledge.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, you knew when you lit the cigarette like you
felt a little bit dirty Like Iknow.
This is terrible for me, yeah,and, and I don't know when those
warnings were added tocigarette packs, but I know that
they weren't always there.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, they weren't always there.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
I can remember when there were smoking sections in
restaurants and smoking rooms inairports and like smoking was a
more popular thing that peopleused to do when I was a teenager
and before you know, even whensmoking we could smoke in
restaurants.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I mean, like you felt dirty about it because you know
that like this, this causescancer and you're playing
roulette with that, but younever really thought when you go
to the restaurant and order abeer like that, this also causes
cancer.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I think I saw where it was like 50% of adults don't
realize the alcohol is a cancercausing, really yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Wow, that's basically the common understanding of
what this is that you see thesecommercials for all the time
during sporting events, right,and it's young people that are
very attractive, having fun at atailgate party, drinking Coors
Light or whatever you know, andit's like you don't see
cigarette commercials nowbecause of these things.
(04:13):
So that'll be interesting tosee how this changes the
marketing of alcohol.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Oh for sure, Because how do you promote something
that you know now comes with awarning label for increased
cancer risk?
The warning labels on alcoholcurrently say hey, if you're
pregnant or could be pregnant,don't drink.
Or if you're drinking, don'tdrive because you can't operate
a motor vehicle.
But nowhere is there anymention of cancer, and I don't
(04:41):
think anyone.
I mean 50% is a prettystaggering stat.
I don't think anyone associatescancer necessarily with alcohol
.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Other than, like you might think, psoriasis of the
liver Right when people drinktoo much, or whatever the case
may be like extreme cases.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
But alcohol is linked to seven types of cancer In
fact breast cancer, colon cancer, rectum cancer, esophagus
cancer, liver cancer, mouthcancer and throat cancer.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Basically your whole digestive.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Essentially yes, and one thing that I found
astonishing was that 16.4% ofwomen who have breast cancer
it's alcohol related.
If I were still a drinker andthis were new information and I
were considering not drinking, Iwould probably think
differently about it now, justlike when I quit smoking.
(05:35):
It was a little bit easier toquit smoking.
Not easy, because quittingsmoking is like the hardest
thing we've ever done.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Like the hardest Knowing that, like, smoking
causes cancer and it's righthere on the pack Every time I
like pack it up and get ready tolight one.
It's just in my face.
I know it made it a little bitdifferent and if.
I were still drinking.
I might approach drinkingdifferently, because it's not
just the people who have aproblem or an addiction, or it
(06:03):
causes them to make baddecisions in their life and they
need help.
It's not just the extreme casesof psoriasis, it's not just the
person who drinks straightliquor, it's everyone.
It's all alcohol.
Three and a half drinks per daycan double or even triple the
risk of cancers of the mouth,larynx and esophagus.
And three and a half per day ismaybe not what people drink
(06:25):
Like.
Maybe you're thinking well, Idon't drink three and a half per
day, so I'm not double ortripling anything.
But you might not drink thatmuch every day.
But if you have a few more onthe weekend, or a bottle of wine
on Saturday afternoon at brunchor even champagne for that
matter that is adding up towhere your average per day might
be, you know, accumulating upto that point where you're
(06:46):
increasing your risk of cancersubstantially.
Double or triple is a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
The third leading preventable cause of cancer in
the US is alcohol.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Wow Third.
Third Can I guess number one,yeah, is nicotine smoking.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Tobacco, tobacco.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So the number one in the US is tobacco Something
that's legal.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Still legal to go by.
Just I think you have to be 21now instead of 18.
I don't know the cigarette lawsanymore, but yes.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And then and that's.
This isn't a discussion aboutthe shoulds, and shouldn't be,
of legalization of things.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
But we don't talk about politics, and religion on
this show.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
But yeah, draw your own conclusions, make your own
decisions and and researchthings and try to get real
information on stuff, but that'scrazy.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
The number one is nicotine tobacco tobacco
products, followed by number two, which is I'm going to guess
the bad diets Obesity, obesity,okay.
So basically, bad Poornutrition, bad diet.
I'm no saint Like I sit here.
This is a coffee mug full ofsugar-free Red Bull.
(07:55):
So Red Bull could someday verysoon come with a warning label,
if it doesn't already.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I'm sure it does already.
Next week will be about redbull.
So if this is, this is newinformation, and if you're
already thinking like maybe Iwant to pause drinking or I want
to see what my life would looklike without alcohol in it, this
might be a little nudge, toreally take it serious, to
(08:22):
really give it a shot more, morethan just maybe I wanted to see
if I could lose some weight orI wanted to have a little bit
more.
You know, clarity, I meanthere's, there's so many
benefits of not drinking, aswe've discovered that aren't so
obvious, and this would be oneof them that you could add to
that list of like.
Hey, you're not going to seethis immediately, it's not
(08:43):
something you're going to notice, but it's a long-term residual
effect of not drinking.
So it might just be one morebullet for your case for maybe
not drinking, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, why are we just now being told this Like?
Why is this just now beingadded?
This is not just something theyfound out yesterday.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
This has like been known, not just something they
found out yesterday.
Yeah, this is like been known,and unless you're seeking out
this information, or unlesssomeone is brave enough and bold
enough to say I'm going tochallenge the alcohol industry,
right yeah and and bring thisresearch and this evidence to
the public yeah and suggest.
It's just suggested, it's notbeen made.
(09:22):
An actual like law or whateverhas to go through Congress or
whatever you have to do.
Don't test my governmentknowledge at this point.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And again, I don't need laws to tell me what's good
for my body or not.
And that's the other problemhere is people think they're not
doing anything wrong becauseit's legal and they're just
drinking and it's like, well,this is part of tailgating and
drinking.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Well, this legal substance is responsible for
100,000 cases of cancerpreventable cancer and 20,000
deaths annually.
So we just go along with, likewhat we've always done, what we
see, what we think, untilsomebody brings this to our
attention or until we seek outthe information ourselves.
It's the information age, wehave access to it, but you don't
(10:07):
always know where to begin andyou don't know what's real and
what's not, and it's a lot todigest.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Partner that with the fact that the alcohol industry
and big pharma are paying.
They have lobbyists that arepaid handsomely to pay
politicians, and again we're nottalking politics or religion.
They have lobbyists that arepaid handsomely to pay
politicians, and again we're nottalking politics or religion,
we stay away from that.
But they're being paid to notdisclose this information or to
keep this out of going into lawto require them to, because it
(10:36):
will impact the marketing plan,it will impact their stock
prices.
In fact, their stock prices fellafter this announcement was
made that this recommendationwas new, because people aren't
sure what's going to happen.
My personal opinion is thatwhen you don't really know this
information, there's maybe notenough conviction to make you
(10:58):
choose that it's something youwant to stop doing.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So to your point.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
It's definitely maybe a tipping point moment for some
people, which would then openup the opportunity to see some
of the other benefits longerterm that you might not
recognize initially or might notthink you're missing or might
not long for in the future, thisquest to maybe stop
implementing alcohol into yourlife.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, Because I can tell you you stop drinking for a
day, five days, two weeks amonth and you just keep going
and you start to notice adifference in the way you think
and feel and operate and yourrelationship with yourself and
with your work and with yourfamily.
(11:43):
I mean, like it just itradiates out and my life looks
totally different than it did 15years ago, because 10 years ago
I stopped drinking.
And it's literally the catalystfor 100 plus different
decisions in all these differentdirections, but it all comes
back to that one decision of tojust not drink alcohol.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah, and you would never believe it yeah but
everything you said somethingonce about you know, when you
first stopped, you thought aboutall the things you'd be missing
yeah, what?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
yeah?
Well, yeah, your mind playstricks on you and you're yeah,
oh my gosh, I'm gonna miss outon oh yeah, all the fear like
who am I and am I even gonnaable, and how?
Am.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I going to socialize and all of those things, but
what you said was like I didn'trealize how much I would be
gaining.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
And all of these years later, you're able to
recognize that yeah, and again,we didn't consider that it was
causing cancer.
It's still hard every day tochoose to not drink.
Like it gets easier and youhave good days and bad days.
But even 10 years later, thereare moments.
But this would be maybe thepiece of information.
(12:50):
Like we quit smoking and Istill sometimes want a cigarette
.
It doesn't go away, but I knowhow bad cigarettes are.
Like I just know that it willmake me have cancer, most likely
Right Like well, now, thispiece of information might
strengthen that conviction, evenfor someone like us who hasn't
drank in a long time, where youmight feel like well, maybe I
(13:11):
could, or maybe I should, ormaybe I will.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Well, this is an extra piece of that that keeps
you.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Which that never goes away.
By the way, I still have the,the urge.
It's a mild, small urge, butsometimes it's a little bit
louder, and sometimes whenyou're walking by somewhere and
you'll smell a cigarette andyou're like, you know, and it's
funny to think that cigarettesactually smell good, but you
know what I mean.
If you know what I mean, likethere's that like moment where
(13:39):
you're like, oh, so, that justnever goes away.
I just, yeah, you're just tohave that, but it gets smaller
and quieter, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
We did an episode a while ago where we discussed our
experience with not drinkingalcohol, kind of who we were
before and who we are after.
So if you are someone who'sconsidering, you know, making
the choice to eliminate alcoholfrom your life, that's an
episode to reference.
That's more behaviorallyoriented.
And I did another episode.
It was called Death by aThousand Cups, a play on death
(14:11):
by a thousand cuts how the small, tiny choices that we're making
regarding alcohol can add up tobig health consequences.
I had some mixed emotions onthat one, because when you start
talking about alcohol prior tothis announcement and what we're
talking about today, perhapsit's a very guarded thing, it's
a very personal thing and that'sfine.
(14:32):
But people are very you're notcoming after my alcohol.
Alcohol makes my life betterjust because you couldn't handle
it and you couldn't behaveyourself and all these things,
and I totally agree.
I couldn't agree more.
I get that Like it's a verypersonal thing and everyone has
their own journey and reflectivepoints about that.
But death by a thousand cupskind of already illustrated some
(14:52):
of the health consequences thatmaybe we aren't considering,
that aren't so obvious, like youmentioned now with this
announcement just kind offurther evidence to evaluate the
space that alcohol is taking upin your life and the impacts
that it's having on you, now andlong-term, with regard to your
behavior and your health.
It'll be interesting to seewhat happens and if this goes
(15:14):
through like congressionalapproval or whatever's necessary
, and how it impacts the alcoholindustry, what kind of lobbying
goes into it with the politicalside of things, and how it
impacts maybe some of the otherindustries too, like with
medicinal, marijuana anddifferent things that have been
on the ballots in differentstates and you know lobbyists
have shut down and maybemarijuana has been shutting down
(15:37):
alcohol, who knows?
Like it's all the behind thescenes stuff.
But think for yourself,question everything, research
your information and hopefullythis will help open opportunity
for someone who might be on thefence about this piece in their
life.
Thank you so much for joining uson the Cameo Show.
We're curious about yourthoughts on this topic.
It can be a very polarizedthing to talk about, so you can
(16:01):
always text the show or drop usa line via email or on Instagram
.
As I mentioned, there are otherepisodes pertaining to this
topic.
We have new episodes everyWednesday, so if you're new here
, like, follow, subscribe so youdon't miss a beat If you're
with us every week.
We thank you as always.
Till next time.
Popular Podcasts
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.