Of Alcoholic Drinks on the Human Body
Effects of Alcoholic Drinks on the Human Body
Christmas is fast approaching; many people are now busy with their holiday shopping and most of the malls are now crowded with buyers aiming to buy goods at a cheaper price. Aside from the food ingredients, the holidays are not complete without a bottle of alcoholic drinks. Beers, wines, vodka, martini and Bloody Mary are one of the few popular names for alcoholic drinks, Tempting it may sound but alcoholic drinks are harmful to the body. Gifford, Friedman and Majerus (2009) argue that drinking alcohol causes the human body to become vulnerable against many illnesses. However, there is still an increase towards the worldwide alcohol consumption every year in the United States. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States already released their latest reports about the number of alcohol abuse related cases in all the American states. According to their official documents initially released in March 24, 2014, a survey was conducted by the agency concerning the alcoholism percentage of the US population. Almost 5% of the total American population is engage in alcohol whilst there are 17% of the US citizens who are guilty of binge drinking (Alcohol and Public Health, 2014). Alcoholic beverages pose a serious problem in deteriorating the health of many Americans. Meanwhile another issue concerning the negative effect of alcoholism is the mortality rate of the drinkers. Since 2006 up to 2010, the agency noted there were an approximate number of 88,000 deaths concerning extreme alcohol usage and the issue pertaining to alcohol abuse belongs to the younger generations. In this paper, I would like to argue that alcohol affects not only the health of the body but also it poses some risks in personality disorders which can lead to disastrous results. The sources used in this paper will support the argument I have established in this introduction and at the conclusion, I will reinstate the thesis statement along with a brief summary of the discussion.
What is Alcoholism?
The Mayo Clinic defines alcoholism as a chronic illness pertaining to the increase in the consumption of alcohol. Additionally, Gifford declared that alcoholism is a serious and long-term illness that is prevalent in the society but not yet fully understood (Gifford, Friedman and Majerus, 2010). Alcoholism can also be linked to the term as the ‘cancer of the society.’ Alcoholism affects everyone, regardless of status, gender, age and rank in the society. More and more people are becoming dependent on drinking alcohol in order to relieve stress and to ease the bad moods. Traditionally, alcohol is an integral part of the human history. The first alcoholic drinks were manufactured from grapes and other berries. In Asian countries, rice which is a staple food can also be fermented in order to produce siok-tong and the Japanese sake. Whilst many experts believed that it is fine to consume these drinks for cultural preservation; it is not advisable to consume large amounts of these liquids because it is bad for the health. The media mainstream is awash of the pictures of alcohol commercials that seeks to capture the interests of the public just to have a huge profit.
Drink moderately is probably the most ubiquitous phrase used at the end of each liquor commercials; however, a simple statement will not quench the people’s hunger for the alcohol. Penick (2008) points out that alcoholism is an incurable disease that is deeply embedded in the culture. Drinking is a part of the human’s life since the earliest times. In the European societies at the beginning of the 17th and 18th centuries, the clergymen are highly intoxicated in large alcohol consumptions aside from the nobility (Penick, 2008). Because of the lack of freshwater sources, wine is the equivalent of water during those centuries and this regency tradition of alcoholic indulgence eventually passed along from the older people up to the new generation. Alcohol is bad to the health. Indeed it is bad to one’s health; overconsumption of alcohol decreases the livers capability of regenerating itself and worse, alcoholism is the main cause of road accident related cases not only in America but also in other countries. The indulgence of alcohol intake damages the liver, spleen and other soft organs of the body (Schuckit, 2006). Furthermore, a person who drinks excessively is more prone to alcohol addiction. He or she will become dependent on the pleasure derived from drinking alcohol. Pleasure is often derived whenever a person drinks only for the sake of socializing. Such as drinking in parties together with friends or drinking on every occasion such as birthdays and baptisms. On the other hand, psychologists explain that emotional problems can lead to binge drinking. Binge drinking is drinking in excessive quantities of liquor as a result of depression. Whenever a person is emotionally unstable, they have the tendency to drink more than they can to ease their emotional burdens. A person can be determined as alcoholic whenever he or she exhibit withdrawal symptoms and mood changes especially when they are deprived of their beverage. Sometimes, alcoholism affects the work performance of an individual; Raby (2011) that because of their alcohol dependency, they are having a hard time focusing to their own work. Furthermore, Penick (2008) explains that alcoholism can also be classified as psychological, medical and social. According to her, an alcoholic person is always preoccupied with the thoughts of drinking alcohol up to the point that they are even dreaming drinking alcoholic beverages in their sleep. She accentuates the word ‘obsession’ as characterized by constant dreaming of excessive drinking whilst sober. Self-deception is the second in the line of psychological effects of alcohol. Penick (2008) explains that a sober and excessive drinker might be able to deceive people that he or she had stopped drinking for good but usually this behavior lasts only for a short time. There are many times people who had stopped drinking shows a different and somewhat irritated behavior when alcoholic abstinence becomes too long for them to bear.
Most of the time, people who are addicted to the liquor are more prone to become emotionally unstable and may exhibit some disturbances particularly in their moods and social interactions (Stimson et al., 2008). Alcoholism can be distinguished as a form of disorder that can be managed through counseling. Dipsomania is the term for excessive craving for the taste of alcohol and in this case, patient evaluation is a necessity. Dipsomania is a chronic illness; typically persons who drank excessive bouts of alcohol within a period of seven days continuously is classified as dipsomaniac. Persons with emotional problems are the ones who are more prone to become future dipsomaniac (Gifford, Friedman and Majerus, 2010). Alcohol triggers some psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, social isolation, aloofness, depression and other medical problems such as liver cirrhosis, heart problems. Ethanol is the component of alcohol that induces addiction, which then results to alcohol slavery. Upon drinking alcoholic beverages, the liquid is then processed by the liver. However, due to constant alcohol intake, the liver becomes damage which leads to liver cirrhosis or the scarring of the liver (Raby, 2011). Moreover, Alters and Schiff (2011) argues that alcoholism is also another problem amongst college students who having the experience of their first drink. Responsible drinkers do not allow alcohol to take control of their lives (Alters and Schiff, 2011 p. 193). In the case of heavy drinkers, they even lose their sense of good judgment whenever they drink; this is mainly due to the effects of alcohol that already circulated throughout the body. Alcohol damages the brain cells which lead to memory impairment. The initial effect of alcoholism affects the brain and its neurophysiological functioning. Medical reports state that underage alcohol exposure is fatal to the health of the lactating mother and her baby. Young children are no exception; their young bodies will not be able to support the hard liquors and this might cause them to become highly addicted to beers. Beers and other liquor affect the cognitive, physical and behavioral trait of any person. Depending on how intense his or her addiction might be, it is an undeniable fact that once the body is exposed to alcohol, there will be a strong urge to taste it again. Belo is a constructed table with the purpose of enumerating the list of the different types of alcohol consumers.
Figure 1: Classification of Alcoholic Drinkers according to the frequency of their alcohol intake. Note that a standard glass of liquor contains 0.5oz of alcohol; 12oz of beer and 5oz wine or 15 or 80 proof liquor. This chart was provided by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (Alters and Schiff, 2011, p. 193).
Alcohol is harmful to the brain because it destroys the brain cells. This is the primary cause of behavioral changes and personality changes of a person. Alcohol destroys the smooth flow of electrical communication between different nerve fibers of the brain (Stimson et al., 2008). The Central Nervous System is the part of the brain that controls the behavioral aspect of an individual. Alcohol abusers tend to drink more glasses of booze per day, depending whether their bodies can tolerate it. This often results to slurred speech, poor locomotor movements and poor thinking (Farrell and Stewart, 2006). In addition, excessive consumption of the alcohol causes the liver to produce toxins; resulting to the improper functioning of the pancreas. When the pancreas becomes inflamed, the patient will experience pain in the abdomen and this is commonly known as pancreatitis. Pancreas just like the liver is one of the most important organs in the body because they control the digestive system. The liver produces bile, a substance secreted by the liver in order to help in digesting food. Meanwhile, the pancreas regulates the amount sugar in the blood by producing insulin. Hence, medical experts only advise individuals to drink moderately to avoid further health costs (Penick, 2008). Alcoholism can also cause into various heart and kidney ailments. The liquors processed by the factory contain too many hard chemicals and preservatives that might trigger some ailments such as the coronary heart disease. Furthermore the point of my paper is to enumerate the bad effects of alcohol in the human body. Additionally, alcohol can be beneficial to one’s health only if it is drunk in moderate amounts respectively. Balancing the risks and the benefits of the alcohol intake can lead to satisfactory results. Wine is also another alcoholic drink but it is actually good for the body since it promotes healthy blood circulation and it contains antioxidants that slow the process of aging (Schuckit, 2006). Hence, drinking alcoholic drinks is only good if a person drinks moderately. Alcohol can also be considered as a bane of the society because it induces the risk of being a slave to alcohol. Alcohol is closely embedded into our tradition and culture; every person should and must know the health threats of alcohol abuse that can lead mood changes, memory impairment and alcohol-related illnesses. Some people would say that managing alcoholism is hard due to the temptation of giving in to the desire of drinking alcohol again. However, I think alcoholism is not that hard to manage if the person gets enough support from his or her family, attends alcoholism counseling and most importantly is the determination to overcome the addiction. Drinking is not bad, but people should set the bar limiting the alcohol intake to maintain the health of the body before it is too late.
References
Alcohol and Public Health: Data, Trends, and Maps. (2014, March 24). Retrieved December 18, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/data-stats.htm
Alcohol: Balancing Risks and Benefits. (n.d.). Retrieved December 19, 2014, from http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/alcohol-full-story/
Alters, S., & Schiff, W. (2011). Essential Concepts for Healthy Living (5th ed.). Sudbury, Massachusetts: Jones and Barlett LLC.
Farrell, T., & Stewart, W. (2006). Behavioral Couples Therapy for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. New York: Guilford Press.
Gifford, M., Friedman, S., & Majerus, R. (2010). Alcoholism. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-Clio LLC.
Penick, E., Manzardo, A., Goodwin, D., Campbell, J., & Gabrielli, W. (2008). Alcoholism (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Raby, A. (2011). Alcoholism. British Medical Journal, 493.
Stimson, G., Grant, M., Choquet, M., & Garrison, P. (2007). Drinking in Context: Patterns, Interventions, and Partnerships. New York: Routledge.
Schuckit, Marc, (2006). Drug and Alcohol Abuse: A Clinical Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment. (6th ed.). New York: Springer Science and Business Media Inc.
