Saw it in a 'paper here today, though. The accompanying text sort of explained things. The gist is that various medical conditions related to alcohol - I don't quite know the English terminology, but apparently mainly dealing with blood vessels - are the single most common cause of death among Finnish males, usually becoming acute between late forties to mid-sixties in age.

I can believe that one. A major beer belly is rather common among Finnish men, especially by middle age, and obviously not exactly conductive to good overall health. The rather drunkennes-oriented Finnish drinking habits ("East European", we often sarcastically observe), primary through beer (lots of "empty" energy and calories) and "hard" distilled liquors (generally unhealthy in large dosages) plus generally little physical exercise and/or healthy eating, no doubt also contribute.

That the gov't taxes the snot out of booze is really only sensible, since it more or less has to foot the eventual medical bills anyway.


But speaking of unhealthy drinking, I've heard a story of a Migrations Period Germanic warlord who got so drunk during a feast he managed to drown in a large vat of mead. Another one then managed to pull off the same stunt - during the first guy's funeral feast...
Beats me if it's true, but it's a good story.