idk if vices are good for you, but people act like a lot of this medical science is not the accumulative averages of thousands of people shifting a value a couple of thousandths one way or the other. It's less true for smoking I think, but it's perfectly reasonable to say that drinking is generally unhealthy and tons of people will never be drastically affected by their moderate alcohol consumption because there are so many other variables in each individual's life that can never be accounted for. The same goes for a lot of "healthy" activities and foods too.

a nasty autoimmune condition a few years back that nearly destroyed his lungs

what is it called?