The Effects of Drinking Alcohol
Throughout life people make many different decisions. People make decisions on what to wear, what to eat, what to think, what to do with their life and what will benefit them in the long run. These are decisions that may seem small but they ultimately affect the person in either a positive or a negative way later on in their life. Many decisions we make in life are not the right ones, and they can hurt us later on in life if we do not take into account the consequences of our actions. A decision that can negatively creep up on people is drinking alcohol. The negative effects of drinking alcohol outweigh the few positive health benefits that it presents.
Drinking alcohol can affect every single person in a different way depending on many different factors. Two people who drink the same amount can come out with different blood alcohol levels. Depending on how high a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is determines how the person’s judgment is affected. Having a BAC of .01%-.05% increases the heart rate and decreases judgment. An increase to .10%-.15% causes more dramatic effects. Slurred speech, vomiting, and immobilization are some of the many short-term effects of over drinking (Lang 45). People with drinking problems also frequently use illegal drugs that
negatively affect them also. Some main immediate problems that come about from drinking alcohol include blackouts and brain damage.
Alcohol damages the pathways that connect different parts of the brain and can affect the way the brain looks and works. These pathways, when affected, can change a person’s mood and behavior, and not only make them an entirely different person, but also make it harder for them to think clearly an...
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...sis. Alcoholic hepatitis is when the liver experiences inflammation caused by drinking alcohol. If a person is diagnosed by their doctor with alcoholic hepatitis, they must immediately stop drinking alcohol. People who continue to drink alcohol against the recommendation of their doctor face a high risk of developing serious liver damage that can eventually cause death. Each liver disease is different and can affect each person’s body in different ways. Another affect of alcohol abuse on the liver is Cirrhosis. Cirrhosis is when the liver begins to scare and is no longer able to perform its regular duties. Since the liver has no nerves that identify pain in it, the liver does not feel pain until it is affecting a different part of the body that does. Cirrhosis often has no signs or symptoms until the damage to the liver is extensive and in most cases beyond repair.
Drinking can have a lot of bad effects. It can go from getting arrested to ruining your life. It has broken many families up form alcohol abuse. I have personally seen it happen to several.
Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant it has a huge impact on the lives of a drinker . In small quantities, alcohol results in a mild euphoria and usually removes inhibitions, and is relatively harmless. However, when used in excess, it has the power to change many lives in many ways. Alcohol causes a lot of trouble in a lot of peoples lives not just in the drinkers life. . Some ways it effects peoples lives include alcohol poisoning and alcohol-related traffic fatalities by individuals who are problem drinkers but who are not alcohol dependent. Because alcohol has so many negative effects on a person's mental and physical health, people should avoid the consumption of it altogether.
Zeigler, Donald. "The neurocognitive effects of alcohol on adolescents and college students." Preventive Medicine 40. (2004): 23 – 32. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. .
Liver disease resulting from alcohol affects more than two million Americans and is one of the primary causes of illness and death. The liver frees the body of harmful substances, such as alcohol. While the liver breaks down alcohol, it produces toxins that can be even more dangerous than the alcohol consumed (“Beyond Hangovers: Understanding Alcohol's Impact Your Health” 13). “These by-products damage liver cells, promote inflammation, and weaken the body’s natural defenses. Eventually, these problems can disrupt the body’s metabolism and impair the function of other organs” (“Beyond Hangovers: Understanding Alcohol's Impact Your Health” 13). A condition called steatosis is the result of fat build up in the liver and is the earliest stage of alcoholic liver disease. This condition causes the liver difficulty breaking down alcohol, potentially resulting in alcoholic hepatitis. Fibrosis of the liver, which is also related to heavy drinking, causes scar tissue to build up in the liver. The alcohol alters chemicals that the liver needs to break down this scar tissue, causing liver dysfunctions. If one does not refrain from drinking during the condition of fibrosis, the scar tissue can build up and create another condition, called cirrhosis. Cirrhosis is deterioration of the liver resulting from heavy scarring, causing the liver to not be able to function properly. If cirrhosis becomes severe, a liver transplant may be the only solution (“Beyond Hangovers: Understanding Alcohol's Impact Your Health” 14). It is difficult to calculate when a person would develop cirrhosis, because an alcoholic could never develop the disease, but someone who social drinks could. It is also unknown why cirrhosis is more prevalent in women (...
Most alcoholics proceed to a stage where their brains or their bodies have been so harmed by alcohol that the effects persist even when they are not drinking. This stage may be reached...
It is a factor in five of the leading causes of death among 15 to 24 year olds” Chuck Pearce (2009). Binge drinking not only can lead to fatalities but also destroys the lives of teens. It leads them down the road of misery and self-destruction. Also, teenagers are at the most developmental stage of their life. Alcohol does in fact mess with the wiring of the brain. It mainly affects the prefrontal cortex of the brain; this part of the brain is where one’s thinking, decision making, and impulse control come from. The prefrontal part of the brain develops the most through one’s years of adolescence. When one begins binge drinking at a young age, it blunts the brain cells in the prefrontal cortex (book). Research consistently shows that students who do not drink perform far better in school than those who do (book). Many negative health consequences are directed back to binge drinking; such as, abuse, violence, injury, and addiction. Also, other negative behaviors like having sex, getting bad grades, trying to commit suicide, or trying other drugs (Pruitt & Wrye
The National Institution of Health published this article for the purpose of explaining about the human brain and it’s relation to alcohol. According to the article, people with alcoholism have been known to have problems with skills in their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that controls decision-making and emotions. These same people show exaggerated neural responses in the dorsal striatum due to alcohol-related cues. This information shows that excessive drinking can affect learning and control of behavior and emotion. This information can be helpful in my paper because it explains that alcohol is a disease that affects the brain and it will help me try to prove my point of view.
Alcoholism is a major problem in today’s society it is considered a disease. The effects of this so called disease are a lot more serious than one might think, and can effect your life in a big way. Many of alcohols consumers drink frequently that they will eventually get used to it, and it becomes an everyday thing. That right there is where the problem starts. Some of the effects I found are economical, physiological, and physical, which are some of the negative effects alcohol, can have on someone’s life.
“When I was 13, my dad started drinking more and more. Every day he would come home from work and have beer, lots of it. I didn’t think much of it at first, but then he started getting more angry and violent. He would shout at my mom and me. It was like my father had gone and been replaced with another guy” says an anonymous kid who lives with an alcoholic parent in “How my dad’s drinking problem almost destroyed my family”. The kid depicts that he is so confused, angry and upset especially when his father got fired for going to work drunk. This is one of many children’s voices who suffers having an alcoholic in their family. Most of them are depressed because alcohol has destroyed their family. This is an addiction that does
Alcohol is something that people use to help with multiply different things and some studies have shown that alcohol may help protect our bodies from cardiovascular disease. Alcohol does have side effects to our health the surroundings around us and can cause violence, vehicle crashes and even suicide. Alcohol does have an effect on people that many social drinkers may not realize. Many people usually have tried alcohol around 13 years of age and high school students consume more wine coolers that are sold in the U.S. and they drink more than 1 billion beers a year. To understand the effects of alcohol, it begins with the brain. It is a curiosity as to why people feel the need to drink and drive. The way the brain works while influenced with alcohol has always fascinated me. Drinking and driving is one of the biggest decisions that alcohol leads to. The National Public Services Research Institute (NHTSA) did a study on 600 people who admitted driving while under the influence of alcohol. They described in detail the decisions they made leading up to the occurrence of driving while impaired like whether to take part in a drinking event, how to get to the event, how much to drink, and how to get home. The people being interviewed revealed more than 2,000 individual decisions that led to alcohol impaired driving. The decisions were then broken down into several categories as shown on the graph attached. Little is known as to what leads people to continue to drinking and driving. But as research shows, people do think, prior to drinking, how they will get home. It’s after they have already had been drinking that they decide to get behind the wheel.
Alcohol affects the body in many different ways. On the website drugfreeworld.org the author tells us about the bad long term and short term effects of alcohol on the body. One long term effect is that it makes the liver work to hard causing it to fail. When the liver fails to function properly the body takes in toxins that harm it. These toxins harm the body in many different ways. One short term effect is that it causes decreased perception and coordination. The decreased perception of things causes things to appear closer or farther away than they really are. The decreased coordination make the people very clumsy resulting in injury. Some other short effects of alcohol on the body are vomiting, slurred speech, and headaches. Some other long term effects of alcohol are alcohol poisoning, Ulcers, and sometimes cancer of the mouth and throat (“Short Term and Long Term Effects”, 2014).
Increased abuse of alcohol leads to physical damage to the body. Alcohol is absorbed directly into the brain, dulling one’s senses and weakling one's will power. According to the article from the Mayo Clinic Health Information, “Excessive use of alcohol can produce several harmful effects on your brain and nervous system. It also can severely damage your liver, pancreas and cardiovascular system. Alcohol use in pregnant women can damage the fetus” (Mayo 1). Continued ingestion of alcohol affects every organ in the body. Every organ in the body is affected. The liver has serious effects that may lead to cirrhosis and death.. At first the liver adapts and tolerates alcohol. It works harder and finally damages itself in time. Alcohol leads the liver to the inability to metabolize facts. Furthermore, it leads to increase in cholesterol and triglycerides leading to clogged arteries. Red blood cells are also affected leading the individual to become anemic.
Underage drinking causes people to make bad decisions, such as; driving while intoxicated, becoming pregnant, and making a complete fool out of themselves. While intoxicated, are just being a few instances that can and will impact your life forever. Some individuals don’t understand what alcohol really does to the body. Beer has empty calories that will make you gain weight. Which is why a lot of alcoholics have larger stomachs, or another term many people use for these large stomachs is, “beer belly.” Some people may say that alcohol helps you escape your problems and is a stress relevant. Alcohol will not only bring more stress onto your life, it will also bring more problems. As much as people may feel alcohol helps, it really won’t help.
Many people could tell you what alcohol will do to you. Blurred vision, memory loss, slurred speech, difficulty walking, and slow reaction times are all very common side effects depending on how much one consumes (National Institute on Alcohol abuse, 2004). To most, there is nothing wrong with this. Party all night, have a good time, find somewhere to sleep, pass out, and wake up in the morning. A couple of Advil and a glass of water and you are good to go, no harm done. This is where many are wrong. These effects are not just short term, they all add up in the long- run. Some of these impairments are detectable after only one or two drinks and quickly resolve when drinking stops. On the other hand, a person who drinks heavily over a long period may have brain deficits that persist well after he or she achieves sobriety (National Institute on Alcohol abuse, 2004).
Alcoholism is a disease that affects many people in the United States today. It not only affects the alcoholic, but also their family, friends, co-workers, and eventually total strangers. The symptoms are many, as are the causes and the effects.