Essay On The Pros And Cons Of Consuming Alcohol

Week 4 Day 2

Joseph Stanley Christensen

February 4, 2015

The Pros and Cons of Consuming Alcohol

In this paper I will be discussing what the benefits of drinking alcohol and the negative experiences associated with alcohol consumption. I am also going expound on one particular positive and negative point during this presentation. I am not a consumer of alcohol so the information in this article will be from the resources we have been given and my own research and my own personal experiences when it comes to alcohols pros and cons. The alcohol I will choose to discuss today is going to be beer, because it is the cheapest form of alcohol available in our country and it was one of the most crucial drinks in the history of the world.

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We will discover what happens to the body if too much alcohol is consumed. Here is a list of just a few of the problems associated with overindulgence with alcohol. This list includes heart problems such as; Cardiomyopathy – Stretching and drooping of heart muscle, Arrhythmias – Irregular heartbeat, Stroke, High blood pressure. The liver can develop such problems such as Steatosis, or fatty liver, Alcoholic hepatitis, Fibrosis, Cirrhosis. It also can lead to different types of cancer such as mouth, esophagus, throat, liver, and breast. ("Alcohol 's Effects on the Body") The major part that is negative that I never even considered as a major risk was all the risks of different cancers. I always believed mouth cancer was caused by smoking or chewing tobacco, not consuming too much alcohol. I think it is interesting to see that the overconsumption of alcohol can be shown to increase the risks of cancer. Stroke is a major problem that affects millions of people per year worldwide. I didn’t know until now that the overconsumption of alcohol could increase your risks of it. One thing not listed above is the fact that if you drink too much beer you can become dehydrated because the body can’t absorb the water in the beer because of the alcohol. It is a major problem that alcoholics face. A person’s liver can repair itself to a certain degree. If an alcoholic stops drinking his/her liver will start

My father was a raging alcoholic for many years and he became so addicted that he couldn’t go one whole day without it. During the week it was beer and on the weekend hard liquor. He one day woke up with his heart pounding like it was going to pound out of his chest. His skin was cold and clammy. He went to the emergency room and discovered that his heart developed and arrhythmia because of how much alcohol had gone through his heart over the course of years. He was given two options in order to survive this ordeal. One was to take medicine and wait to see if it fixed the problem or they would have to shock his heart and re-shock it to reset it. My father was lucky the medicine worked. His eyes became yellow because his liver could no longer keep up with the amount of alcohol being consumed. He changed his life and stopped drinking all together and is still with us today.

This report for me was very informative and it has opened my eyes for the benefit of consuming alcohol in moderation and also the health risks involved in over consumption. I hope my findings in this report open your eyes in greater detail on what is good and what is bad about consuming alcohol. Alcohol has its place in society. It makes some happy and may be drunk at celebrations, and others use it like a drug. I hope this report has been as informative as the research was that went into