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?

New research shows eating half or 2/3 calories slips down ageing which could be a factor.

@Boomboom22 I was very sad to see that as I love my food!

It really is just genetics. Some people smoke and drink and eat junk all their lives and live long, healthy lives. Others are so health conscious but get the diseases anyway. My uncle was an alcoholic for years and when he died from an accident, his autopsy showed that his liver was completely healthy. My dad was on 20 a day and when he reluctantly had his lungs checked, the doctor said he had the lungs of a non-smoker. Both my uncle’s liver and dad’s lungs had remained healthy despite the abuse they’d been through. Generics are the strongest factor but so are our minds - our minds have so much effect over our health. So by following advice and feeling like we are keeping ourselves healthy, this too will have a positive effect on our health purely because we believe it will.

On the flip side, look at the queen and princess Margaret.

Maybe people who smoke/ drink daily have a sort of resigned who cares attitude to life and this bored , low stress attitude means they don’t have anxiety and/or don’t care about others so just selfishly meander through life.

I don’t know, drinking regularly gives you a lot of anxiety

Statistics don’t lie but they are rarely as clear as you’d think. For example you look at a study that shows having high blood pressure results in average 1.2 fewer years of life or whatever.. And you think that hardly seems worrying about. It’s hardly like being unhealthy is guaranteed to take 10+ years off so why stress over it.

Luck.

My mother started drinking a litre of vodka per day around the age of 55 and was dead by 57. Most middle aged women can't handle it, hence why you don't see many elderly female alcoholics.

Your aunt is very very lucky.

Princess Margaret was 71 when she died. I wouldn't call that very old, especially in the royal family.

Well no that’s my point, the comparison with the queen

@Minteraye sorry I misread, that makes sense now!

:)

Think it's more the pickling that has preserved her and possibly the layers of tar that are protecting her.

Totally genetics. I’m about 5 weeks in from having a heart attack in my 40’s. I’m 8.5 stone, walk three times a day and run most days, don’t smoke, drink in moderation and don’t eat much sugar, white carbs, saturated fat or processed meat. Almost always cook healthy food from scratch and eat mostly fruit, veg, fish and chicken. Didn’t stop my artery blocking and having a STEMI heart attack! I’m glad I was healthy prior to having a heart attack as I’m not sure my heart would have come out of it as relatively unscathed as it has, and the guilt I’d have felt would have been enormous. My healthy living efforts have redoubled and I just have to hope I can stay healthy for another 30-40 years. Not a great deal else I can do!

My mother is an alcoholic who has just come out of an extended (months and months) hospital stay due to decompensated liver failure and alcoholic hepatitis. She was literally yellow head to toe, had severe water retention, brain bleed (presumably from falling pre-admission), contracted infection after infection, COVID twice, and yet is still here. There really seems no rhyme nor reason to it. But what I do know is when the liver does break down what a way to go. A young mum in my mum’s ward in her late 30s with teenage son (again liver damage- no cirrhosis) seemed much better than my mum but died after 7 weeks in hospital when her organs just stopped working. It’s an awful disease to watch

She is preserved in alcohol !!! Sorry couldn’t resist 😂

My FIL is 88 and eats out of date food and a high fat, high sugar diet. Seems to be fine!

First of all, Arabs are "white", as in Caucasian, if that's what you mean. When it comes to Muslims, they're like Christians or any other big religion - they come in different colours. As far as I know, genetically people of Eastern Asian descent would have a lower tolerance to alcohol but that doesn't make them Muslims.

It has nothing to do with what we eat, drink or what drugs we consume. That’s just s**t put out to try to control us. My Aunt is 90 next month, and her brothers (my dad and uncles) are 84 and 89. They drink and my aunt smokes too. That side of my family have always smoked and drunk and They’re all fitter than me, who unfortunately has my mum’s genetics, she died at 64 and her mum at 67 😞. My ex mother in law has always been grossly overweight and she’s 90 next year too.

I always thought that about my FIL.
Drinks loads, eats lots of red meat, uses loads of butter to cook stuff. Eats late at night, doesn't exercise.
He use to smoke, but gave up a few years ago.
Now things have changed, he messed up, some painkillers the doctors gave him, for his back and ended up in hospital, he had OD'd on the painkillers. Unfortunately this has led to heart failure and kidney failure.
He has managed to loose some weight, to try and make the 2 years the doctors gave him to live.
Sadly if maybe he had, lost some weight sooner, he wouldn't have had the back pain, which led to pain meds.

One day she will end up in hospital and that will be the start of her downward health. Her liver will give up

My DP's grandmother was a chain smoking alcoholic who lived well into her eighties.
The day before she died DP's mum called an ambulance for her but she threw a huge bottle of Bacardi at the paramedics so they left without her.

I don't know but every family seems to have one.

Smoked 40 a day, drank like a fish and then one day agreed to have a health check at the GP surgery. He stepped out of the surgery and got hit by a bus, he would have been fine if he'd just left the Dr alone.

My mother never smoked or drank alcohol and died at 68 from cervical cancer. Luck of the draw.

My Nan was getting through 70+ a day for the last 10 years that she could hold a cigarette. There were another few years after that, when the repeated strokes had taken their toll. My grandad was a complete softy to her, so even though he quit smoking when I was a child, he used to still buy them for her because she would cry. When she spent time in hospital, it was terrible as all through visiting periods, she would plead with her visitors - especially if it was family - to wheel her outside so she could have a cigarette. It was so pitiful, and painful.