What a shame

To me it rather depends on what anyone considers a person’s ‘best interests’. Some may think they consist of enabling that person to live as long as possible. Others may think that ‘as long as possible’ won’t be much fun if all little treats such as chocolate or a G&T are not allowed.

I’m reminded of the Duke of Omnium in Trollope’s Palliser series. Evidently on his last legs, or very near, and no longer allowed his glass of curaçao, he had a toddler-like tantrum and screeched , ‘I am the Duke of Omnium and Gatherum and I want a glass of curacao!!! ?
‘

I have an aunt,88, who last saw a doctor when she was 60 when he told her to stop smoking.

She still smokes 10 cigarettes a day and has two glasses of wine every evening.

She is active and appears healthy, maybe it will shorten her life but at 88 I feel it is her choice, not that I would feel it is my place to tell her what to do anyway.

I have read, for what it’s worth, that HMQ had gout. So alcohol would be likely to make matters worse.
Otherwise, an evening tipple might help her sleep.

I'm afraid if I reach my 80s and want a small tiple at night that's exactly what I will have...I'm kind of getting that way just now and I'm only 64....

Yes, at 90 or 96 I think you might as well do what you want.

But it’s still the doctors responsibilty to tell you it’s bad for your health. That’s their job. Just like drug manufacturers have to tell you all the side effects of a drug.

Doctors can’t decide oh that will injure their health but I won’t tell them because they’re old and they’re going to die soon anyway. They have to give the appropriate medical advice. They could be sued if they made that moral judgement and the patient died as a result.

So if the doctors advised against alcohol they had a medical reason for doing so. It’s a very dangerous path to suggest that they should withhold that information because they take a wider view.

There have been doctors who took that view to extremes.

I have 'mobility' problems and have been prescribed morphine for the pain (which isn't just in my legs) so I cannot drink alcohol. We don't know what she was taking to alleviate her mobility problems.

Lathyrus

I can’t comment about the evening drink. It’s all “a close friend” “a palace source” etc. Just speculation and people who want to seem in the know.

So accurate.
A 90-year-old lady I used to visit in a nursing home, had a treat sized Bounty every day (or maybe even two for all I know) even against advice.
She said, “My husband is gone, my family are all busy, am I not entitled to a bit of enjoyment? What will get me first old age or a Bounty?”
She died at 94.

But all within reason. Most doctors will weigh out the pros and cons and advise accordingly- taking the age and life expectation of the patient into account.

I can’t comment about the evening drink. It’s all “a close friend” “a palace source” etc. Just speculation and people who want to seem in the know.

However, a close friend of mine, with intelligence and a will of her own killed herself by ignoring the doctors advice and thinking “I know my body best”.

So I’m very sceptical about people making intelligent decisions.

if a doctor knows something will have an adverse effect on health it’s their professional responsibility to tell the patient. They’d be negligent if they didn’t.

It's all conjecture though as we have no context to evaluate the advice do we?

Re-frame the situation looking at what we do know: at the same time as 'mobility issues' were increasingly preventing Her Late Majesty from participating in public events we were told that doctors advised that she refrained from alcohol. There is a bigger picture there: elderly people with a degree of heart failure tend to have issues with balance and falls are ever more likely. Seen from this perspective, would the OP still feel it was "a shame"?
The Queen was a highly intelligent woman and was well able to make her own decision on this matter

Having lived with a medic for nearly 50 years I think their advice is usually given after a lot of thought and assessing the medical conditions.
We do not and never will know how much was being consumed. My MIL when in a Care home in her 80 was allowed 2 Gin and tonics every evening and we supplied it. She sat with another group of friends who were all having their customary evening drink.
Sometimes Dr,s orders can sound Draconian but usually are in the patient's best interest.
Having said that sometimes they being only human get things wrong.

There may have been a very good medical reason for the advice - and was it really just the one drink?

If the Queen's tipple was causing her discomfort or pain then the doctor was right to advise her to stop.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Giles Brandreth has been quoted today, saying that the Queen loved a crafty cigarette!!! Seems like she had a full life to me!

Good grief when I get in my 90 s I m going to drink smoke a spliff and have wild sex

Do we know she took any notice of the advise at all, do we know she didn’t think ‘Damn doctors i ll have me little tipple when I want it’ ???

There’s lots online about it
www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10095581/amp/The-Queen-95-ordered-quit-drinking-royal-doctors-family-friend-claims-Vanity-Fair.html

Yes, it was widely reported AussieGran
I can’t remember why it was recommended though.
Like her mother, she enjoyed a gin and dubonnet or two

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

How do WE know for fact that the Queen was advised to give up her evening drink?? DerbyshireLass totally agree with Go Granny statement...think I'm already there..

I get what you're saying Aussiegran. Unless there was a specific reason, I imagine she continued.
I don't think though that many people blindly take doctors advice. We usually respect their knowledge.
Although I do remember being given huge amounts of antibiotics for an infection for which I hadn't been tested. After reading very possible side effects, I insisted on the test, which was negative!

I agree with you Aussiegran and as a retired nurse I thought it was questionable advice and not one I have ever heard being said to a very elderly lady with moderate habits.

Perhaps the Queen was taking medication that would have reacted badly with alcohol.

But I tend to agree, if someone is of sound mind then it's their decision as to whether or not to take their doctors advice as gospel or whether to temper that advice with their own discretion.

I think many elderly people are actually advised to have an evening tot of something. My father was and my FIL always had a couple of whiskies of an evening.

I often think about my late grandmothers response to a patronising medic.

When she was 91 she fell and broke her hip. As she lay in bed in the hospital quietly reading a slightly racy book a young doctor admonished her for her choice of reading material.

He said "Madame, at your age you should not be reading saucy novels".

She gave him a pitying look and replied "Young man, at my age I get to read exactly what I like".

Go granny.....?

I agree with you AussieGran. While it may not have been her one indulgence at her age exactly what was she going to achieve by giving up her evening drink. By the time one gets to their 90's as long as one understands that there may be negative consequences by ignoring the medical advice then I say go for it!

And yes doctors do need to look at the bigger picture, particularly specialists who usually only see an issue they are dealing with but not the impact of how that interacts with other issues.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.