After a long and stressful day, I often find myself sitting down with a beer or glass of wine.
Rituals like these are the signal that the working day is over and that the time for fun and relaxation has arrived.
The problem is that over time this way of drinking does not work.
Regular (and excessive) alcohol consumption is associated with depression and poor sleep.
And research shows that it can also increase long-term anxiety levels.
However, the idea that alcohol is relaxing remains a powerful myth.
There is evidence to suggest that many people started drinking more during the covid-19 pandemic to try to relax.
Delving into the history of alcohol may offer some insights into why this myth has prevailed.
Medicinal purposes?
Throughout history, alcohol has often been used for medicinal purposes and is considered to have many useful properties, including as an antiseptic and anesthetic.
I have studied how 19th and early 20th century explorers used the drink.
Observing the behavior of travelers can shed light on the scientific and medical understanding of alcohol.
Because, in an era before clinical trials, medical writers turned to the narratives of explorers to gather evidence regarding the health effects of different foods and beverages.
Therefore, his writings can help us understand previous approaches to alcohol and health.
In fact, many Victorian Arctic explorers drank a glass of rum “to warm up” at the end of a long day of sledding.
They said it helped them sleep, relax and relieve tension.
Also British travelers in East Africa often drank small amounts of alcohol at the end of a day’s travel.
They considered it a useful “medicine” that helped them deal with both the effects of the fever and the emotional stresses of travel.
In a travel advice guide published in 1883, George Dobson, a British Army surgeon, advised that in hot climates “continuous work, like that of sportsmen and travellers, cannot be long maintained without the aid of the occasional and sensible consumption of alcohol.
health and balance
Initially and in small doses, alcohol seems to act as a stimulant, causing the heart to beat faster and giving more energy.
However, it soon acts as a depressant, inhibiting the action of the central nervous system, thus slowing thought and reaction times.
These health effects were particularly important in medicine in the early 19th century, as some medical theorists viewed the body as a system that had to be kept in balance.
And stimulants or depressants were seen as an important way to restore balance if someone was unwell.
Over time, these views became increasingly unpopular with scientists and physicians, and were replaced by theories of disease that sought to determine more specific causes of infection.
For example, the “germ theory,” first proposed in 1861, showed that many diseases were caused by microbes and not by the weather.
Similarly, British doctors were becoming increasingly interested in the role of mosquitoes in the spread of malaria.
Such developments led to new medical approaches that sought to prevent and treat diseases common in hot regions.
Alcohol might also be used to mix other drugs.
criticism of drinking
But changing medical attitudes toward disease weren’t the only factor in declining medicinal drink consumption on expeditions.
The growing criticism of the expeditionaries’ drinking was also the result of changing medical and social attitudes towards alcohol.
This was largely due to the temperance movement, a campaign rooted in evangelical Christianity that sought to discourage (and sometimes outright ban) the sale of alcohol.
Even those who found moderate alcohol consumption acceptable began to worry that it might actually be more dangerous in extreme weather conditions.
For example, the National Arctic Expedition (1875-1876) was criticized for distributing a ration of rum, with suggestions that it had contributed to an outbreak of scurvy, which allegedly first manifested itself among the heavy drinkers on the expedition.
Criticisms like these meant that the explorers were increasingly trying to emphasize that their drinking was moderate and “medicinal.”
They often did so by ingesting only certain types of alcoholic beverages, which they argued had greater medicinal properties.
This normally meant brandy, champagne, or certain types of wine.
But disagreement among doctors over which drinks were healthier was fierce.
In fact, many of these beverages were considered medicinal for no reason beyond the fact that they were expensive.
These drinks are rarely considered medicinal today, but medical concerns regarding the effects of alcohol have not gone away.
And, like their Victorian counterparts, many contemporary doctors have suggested that certain types of beverages are healthier than others.
Stimulants: alcohol or caffeine
As recent research by my colleague Kim Walker and I shows, stimulants (including alcohol) remained a popular medicine for European travelers in Africa well into the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In part this was because they were relatively cheap, easy to administer, and had noticeable effects on the mind and body of the drinker.
They were also believed to remedy the persistent belief that hot climates were physically harmful and psychologically depressing.
In the same 1883 travel guide, Dobson complained of “the depressing effects of the weather” to support his prescription of alcohol.
Consequently, some travelers viewed alcoholic beverages as useful stimulants to help combat these effects.
Even those opposed to expeditionary drinking still considered stimulating drinks important, but prescribed “a cup of coffee” instead.
The medical understanding of the drink has changed considerably in the last 150 years.
But studying how Victorian and Edwardian explorers approached alcohol also shows important continuities.
Then as now, drinking practices are determined not only by medical knowledge, but also by cultural attitudes towards different beverages and the settings in which we consume them.
