To wonder how my Aunty Margaret is still alive?

[Marie2023]

My Aunty Margaret has just turned 70. She’s 15 years older than me and all the time I’ve known her she has been an alcoholic. She hasn’t been invited to any family gatherings since the 90s because she always gets drunk, causes a scene and ruins the event. She hasn’t had a job for years but has a partner who looks after her financially.

Aunty Margaret currently drinks a litre bottle of vodka during the day and more drinks when her partner gets home from work. She also smokes around 60 cigarettes a day. She rarely eats and is stick thin.

Recently Margaret wasn’t feeling very well so her partner took her to the doctor. The doctor ordered some tests which came back fine. His summary of the situation was: “Margaret is as fit as a fiddle, although should probably consider drinking and smoking a bit less.”

🤔

I am honestly amazed she’s still alive, let alone “fit as a fiddle”. Why is it that some people can abuse themselves like that for years with no consequences?

Luck and genetics.

Two of my grandparents were smoking alcoholics and both lived into their nineties 🤷🏻‍♀️

Because some peoples bodies adapt to things in different ways to others.

You can be the fittest person on the planet but just be unlucky and your organs start failing, or you can have a liver of steel like Aunt Marg.

It's just luck.

How on earth does she smoke 60 a day? Say she’s got 16 waking hours, that’s 3.75 fags an hour!

I often wonder this about my dad.

Though now he vapes instead, and doesn't drink every night anymore, but he did for years.

Assuming she’s a chain smoker, 3.75 fags an hour is easy peasy!

I know people who wake up in the night to get their nicotine fix in!

I used to have a client who was an alcoholic chain smoker and she would even try and smoke when she was being loaded into an ambulance thanks to her latest drinking binge 🙈

Gosh imagine if the drink and cigarette money had been invested over 50 years.
Aunty Margaret would be a millionaire.
£50 a day on booze and cigarettes!

Yup similar relative here. Chain smoking alcoholic . A bit younger but I'm beginning to think may go on forever.

We are constantly fed health information but to be honest I’m not sure I believe half of it. There doesn’t appear to be any correlation between lifestyle and life span in the people I know.
I personally think it’s down to genetics and when your times up it’s up.

Yup, it's genetics. We have a history of heavy drinking/alcoholism in my family, plus a lot of smokers, yet everyone seems to live till their late 80s - then die of something not caused by drinking or smoking.

My brother is similar, age 64. Like OP's aunt + HepC. I wouldn't say "no consequences": obviously he was meant to live to 90+.

Definitely true to an extent.
A Muslim colleague told me that Muslims who drink often get drunk quicker than white people because genetically white people have developed a better tolerance to alcohol.

Did you know not all brown people are Muslims?

Who says her results were fine? Aunty Margaret? I don’t she is to be trusted to tell the truth.

I think this about my Dad. He's been very overweight and a functioning alcoholic for about 30 years. High blood pressure, glaucoma, takes SO many pills every day. Has sleep apnea and can barely breathe while he's awake, he basically snores watching TV while he's awake. Yet he's never had a serious illness in his life.

Whereas I'm slim, fit, eat very healthily, never smoked, barely drink etc and have had cancer and other serious illnesses.

@Moopsi sorry to hear about your health issues.

Lifestyle effects (smoking, drinking, bodyweight, exercise levels etc) on health is all about statistics and only applicable on a population level and not on an individual level. There will always be outliers Like Auntie Margaret who defy the odds.

Like others have said I am sure genetics and luck play a big part.

It is likely Auntie M's life will be cut short by her lifestyle though. I'd be surprised if she lives beyond 80 but without the booze and fags she would have probably lasted to 100.

Liver function tests aren't necessarily a brilliant way to assess liver function(!) - if a patient has significant cirrhosis, the LFTs can be normal. So I wouldn't set a huge amount of store by that.

OP, even if your auntie does remain in good health despite making unhealthy choices - that's just the luck of the draw. Luck and genetics play a part in health, just as lifestyle does.

Some people are lucky but maybe she's not telling the truth. I expect if the average person had a lifestyle like that they wouldn't even see 70. My FIL doesn't smoke but is an alcoholic, he's not even 65 and in a terrible state health wise. He's had cancer twice and is now type 2 diabetic. I've never seen him eat fruit or veg. The fact that your aunt is slim is probably a good thing despite her terrible lifestyle. I can imagine extra fat is a huge strain on the organs.

To be honest if your Dad has improved his habits I'd think it would reverse any damage to his health/organs

We’ve got one of these, she’s 92.
No smoking but has been pissed for around 20 years basically. Could probably walk further than me.
She’s from hardy farming stock though and slim as a whippet which I’m sure helps

My aunt is in her mid eighties and whilst she doesn’t smoke she’s been a raging alcoholic for decades. I think her and Keith Richards will outlast us all.

It’s annoying really, there are people who try so hard to be healthy who cop it early, and the lucky bastards who get away with anything due to very good genes.

I have a relative who died fairly young who was the opposite - never smoked and literally had a couple of glasses of wine a year. Very healthy eater and always did exercise. Never overweight in their whole life.

When they died, I thought about all that energy they put into their healthy lifestyle. They might as well have gone wild! It must come down to genetics.

I'm wondering how she affords it.

This could be me (just back from a run round the park) the honest answer is I enjoy a healthy lifestyle, if the game's up at 60 then so be it.