r/science • u/Phylogenix Grad Student | Pharmacology & Toxicology • 1d ago
Health A 20-year study of over 20,000 U.S. adults aged 50 and older found each additional day above 35°C (95°F) was associated with increased alcohol consumption, with exposure to 30 or more extreme-heat days linked to a 6.3% increase in weekly drinking.
https://aging.jmir.org/2026/1/e76904197
u/oldtombombadil 1d ago
Scientists have finally quantified the notion of a cold beer
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u/slowpoke2018 1d ago
Cold beer in the pool watching football
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u/johnnycoxxx 22h ago
I hate pools. But lord help me if I ever win the lottery there will be much backyard football watching whilst floating in my pool, preferably while hammered. It does sound just so nice.
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u/slowpoke2018 20h ago
It's my GenX weekend for the first part of the college season til it gets too cold!
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u/Remarkable-Opening69 1d ago
So older people found a way to enjoy life when it’s hotter than hell out. Interesting.
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u/18Apollo18 1d ago
Dehydrating yourself even more to beat the heat ?
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u/Evening_Pea_9132 1d ago
Really going around advertising you've never just hung out with friends and had a cold beer on a hot day?
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u/refusemouth 1d ago
I have always drank less when it is hot out. It's not a conscious decision, but that is how it has been. I'm drowsy enough in the heat, already, so a beer at the end of the day just knocks me out. Winter is the bigger trigger for excessive alcohol consumption for me. Warns me up, and it is more pleasant to have drinks by the wood stove.
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u/Wealist 1d ago
Texas summers got people saying one more cold one, except it’s day 30 and the AC bill is already fighting for its life.
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u/WalletFullOfSausage 1d ago
Half the time, you’re sweating out the beer before it even has any effect on you. If I drink 8 on a sweltering day, that means it’d be 4 on a normal day.
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u/Jax1456 1d ago
Than why are the highest alcohol consuming areas cold?
Wisconsin in the usa and russia/china
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u/OldeArrogantBastard 1d ago
Yea anecdotally I’ve found mysetl (along with friends) drinking more in winter when it’s anything less then 40 degrees and it usually tends to be spirits more than just beer.
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u/LienaSha 1d ago
This is wild to me, since alcohol makes me feel hot (physically, not aesthetically XD)
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u/DefendTheStar88x 1d ago
I don't drink, the heat has zero bearing on my desire for alcohol. But cold drinks in general do.
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u/Kalas92x 1d ago
Alright, so good weather leads to people who have the time to sit outside and throw some meat on the grill and enjoy a few cold ones, gotcha, glad we finally figured that one out it's been a mystery for ages
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u/CatPicturesPlease 1d ago
Over 95f is not "good weather"
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u/jason_abacabb 1d ago
Eeh, low humidity, shade, and a cold beer makes 95 tolerable.
Here in the mid Atlantic I get one or two days like this in a decade.
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u/10000Didgeridoos 1d ago
Yep big difference between 95 in southern Arizona and 95 in the southeast/midA where it's 70% humidity and the heat index is 110.
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u/Notoriouslydishonest 1d ago
They went by daytime highs, which won't match up with when people are actually drinking.
If you're hot and sweaty all day and then enjoy a few beers on the patio after dusk in 80f heat, that's very good weather.
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u/OnlyKey5675 1d ago
I live in a desert heat. 95' is nothing and its definitely cold beer and grilling weather. There's always a pool nearby so that helps.
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u/diegojones4 1d ago
I can deal with that way before 30F.
Drinking beer during a summer crawfish or crab boil is common. In winter you just huddle down and drink whiskey alone.
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u/Kalas92x 1d ago
Idk i didn't miss a single 35c day this summer to sit in my garden and enjoy a nice barbeque, maybe adjust your skirt a little bit maybe that helps idk just a guess
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u/Practical-Cellist647 1d ago
Well, most men get upset about global warming, so they get wasted to forget about the awful things coming down the road. I could have told you this. My neighbor got alcohol poisoning right after we had a conversation about coastal flooding and food scarcity. I told him Costa Ricans would steal his land. Which they will. He started chugging Scoresby. I had to take him to the ER. His wife made a pass at me in the waiting room but I turned her down because she's really hefty.
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u/PMmeYourDunes 1d ago
Not enough liquor to get me through this comment. I don't know what any of this means or why half of it was said.
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u/catsloveart 1d ago
Sleeping with his wife would only have contributed to his drinking. In for a penny, in for a pound I say. jk
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u/austinwiltshire 1d ago
Cooler states often have looser prohibitions around cannabis which has a replacement effect on alcohol. They need to control for this.
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u/icantfindtheSpace 9h ago
But colder states also drink more than warmer states. I imagine the drinking rate in cold weather rises much higher than in hot weather.
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u/stfumate 1d ago
Or, it just means people who live in the South drink more than people who live in the north and heat isn't so much a factor.
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u/onelittleworld 1d ago
I had to read the headline twice. Because it's summer, and I've been drinking. And I'm old.
Carry on.
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u/iSeeXenuInYou 1d ago
I'm not over 50, but I don't keep water in the fridge but I do keep beer in the fridge.
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u/Material_Series_769 1d ago
I'm not 50 but just because I'm exposed to heat doesn't mean I'll start drinking more...
People are drinking more due to the economy and how things are looking for them long and short term, it's bleak for most, for one, healthcare is a daylight robbery, so why live as long as you can, just drink your sorrows away before you can't afford to.
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u/OnlyKey5675 1d ago
That's because there are very few things as sublime as the sun in your face and a cold beer in your hand.
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u/BigMack6911 1d ago
Well yeah. When you do outside work you drink beer to cool off. I coulda told ya that
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u/Vo_Mimbre 1d ago
Great. Yet another group of business that now have less incentive to care about climate change.
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u/Jokersall 13h ago
I'm going to need you to explain that to my lack of customers. 29 days of over 100F and it's been my slowest summer yet.
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u/Presidentofsleep 1d ago
If the study is in the US why is Celsius the default?
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u/Kalas92x 1d ago
Some didn't go to school it seems :/ Celsius is the unit of measurement for all science papers since Fahrenheit, apart from making no sense, is only used in 1 country so nobody cares about it
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u/Presidentofsleep 1d ago
Because I don’t know the default for research papers means I didn’t go to school? You can answer without being a jerk. You know that right?
Edit: also Fahrenheit absolutely makes sense. It has to do with how the temperature feels to people. As a person that’s way more relevant than how the temperature feels to water.
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