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Is alcohol good or bad for you? Yes.

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It’s hard to escape the message these days that every sip of wine, every swig of beer is bad for your health. The truth, however, is far more nuanced.

We have been researching the health effects of alcohol for a combined 60 years. Our work, and that of others, has shown that even modest alcohol consumption likely raises the risk for certain diseases, such as breast and esophageal cancer. And heavy drinking is unequivocally harmful to health . But after countless studies, the data do not justify sweeping statements about the effects of moderate alcohol consumption on human health.

Yet we continue to see reductive narratives, in the media and even in science journals, that alcohol in any amount is dangerous. Earlier this month, for instance, the media reported on a new study that found even small amounts of alcohol might be harmful. But the stories failed to give enough context or probe deeply enough to understand the study’s limitations—including that it cherry-picked subgroups of a larger study previously used by researchers, including one of us, who concluded that limited drinking in a recommended pattern correlated with lower mortality risk.

Those who try to correct this simplistic view are disparaged as pawns of the industry, even when no financial conflicts of interest exist. Meanwhile, some authors of studies suggesting alcohol is unhealthy have received money from anti-alcohol organizations.

We believe it’s worth trying, again , to set the record straight. We need more high-quality evidence to assess the health impacts of moderate alcohol consumption. And we need the media to treat the subject with the nuance it requires. Newer studies are not necessarily better than older research.

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It’s important to keep in mind that alcohol affects many body systems—not just the liver and the brain, as many people imagine. That means how alcohol affects health is not a single question but the sum of many individual questions: How does it affect the heart? The immune system? The gut? The bones?

As an example, a highly cited study of one million women in the United Kingdom found that moderate alcohol consumption—calculated as no more than one drink a day for a woman—increased overall cancer rates. That was an important finding. But the increase was driven nearly entirely by breast cancer. The same study showed that greater alcohol consumption was associated with lower rates of thyroid cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and renal cell carcinoma. That doesn’t mean drinking a lot of alcohol is good for you—but it does suggest that the science around alcohol and health is complex.

One major challenge in this field is the lack of large, long-term, high-quality studies. Moderate alcohol consumption has been studied in dozens of randomized controlled trials , but those trials have never tracked more than about 200 people for more than two years . Longer and larger experimental trials have been used to test full diets, like the Mediterranean diet , and are routinely conducted to test new pharmaceuticals (or new uses for existing medications), but they’ve never been done to analyze alcohol consumption.

Instead, much alcohol research is observational, meaning it follows large groups of drinkers and abstainers over time. But observational studies cannot prove cause-and-effect because moderate drinkers differ in many ways from non-drinkers and heavy drinkers—in diet, exercise, and smoking habits, for instance. Observational studies can still yield useful information, but they also require researchers to gather data about when and how the alcohol is consumed, since alcohol’s effect on health depends heavily on drinking patterns.

For example, in an analysis of over 300,000 drinkers in the U.K., one of us found that the same total amount of alcohol appeared to increase the chances of dying prematurely if consumed on fewer occasions during the week and outside of meals, but to decrease mortality if spaced out across the week and consumed with meals. Such nuance is rarely captured in broader conversations about alcohol research—or even in observational studies, as researchers don’t always ask about drinking patterns, focusing instead on total consumption. To get a clearer picture of the health effects of alcohol, researchers and journalists must be far more attuned to the nuances of this highly complex issue.

One way to improve our collective understanding of the issue is to look at both observational and experimental data together whenever possible. When the data from both types of studies point in the same direction, we can have more confidence in the conclusion. For example, randomized controlled trials show that alcohol consumption raises levels of sex steroid hormones in the blood. Observational trials suggest that alcohol consumption also raises the risk of specific subtypes of breast cancer that respond to these hormones. Together, that evidence is highly persuasive that alcohol increases the chances of breast cancer.

Similarly, in randomized trials, alcohol consumption lowers average blood sugar levels . In observational trials, it also appears to lower the risk of diabetes . Again, that evidence is persuasive in combination.

As these examples illustrate, drinking alcohol may raise the risk of some conditions but not others. What does that mean for individuals? Patients should work with their clinicians to understand their personal risks and make informed decisions about drinking.

Medicine and public health would benefit greatly if better data were available to offer more conclusive guidance about alcohol. But that would require a major investment. Large, long-term, gold-standard studies are expensive. To date, federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health have shown no interest in exclusively funding these studies on alcohol.

Alcohol manufacturers have previously expressed some willingness to finance the studies—similar to the way pharmaceutical companies finance most drug testing—but that has often led to criticism. This happened to us, even though external experts found our proposal scientifically sound . In 2018, the National Institutes of Health ended our trial to study the health effects of alcohol. The NIH found that officials at one of its institutes had solicited funding from alcohol manufacturers, violating federal policy.

It’s tempting to assume that because heavy alcohol consumption is very bad, lesser amounts must be at least a little bad. But the science isn’t there, in part because critics of the alcohol industry have deliberately engineered a state of ignorance. They have preemptively discredited any research, even indirectly, by the alcohol industry—even though medicine relies on industry financing to support the large, gold-standard studies that provide conclusive data about drugs and devices that hundreds of millions of Americans take or use daily.

Scientific evidence about drinking alcohol goes back nearly 100 years—and includes plenty of variability in alcohol’s health effects. In the 1980s and 1990s, for instance, alcohol in moderation, and especially red wine, was touted as healthful. Now the pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction that contemporary narratives suggest every ounce of alcohol is dangerous. Until gold-standard experiments are performed, we won’t truly know. In the meantime, we must acknowledge the complexity of existing evidence—and take care not to reduce it to a single, misleading conclusion.

Source image: Mariia / Adobe Stock

Republish this article

<h1>Is alcohol good or bad for you? Yes.</h1> It's all more nuanced than headlines (including this one) suggest. Written by Kenneth Mukamal and Eric B. Rimm This <a rel="canonical" href="https://harvardpublichealth.org/policy-practice/is-alcohol-bad-for-you-or-is-alcohol-good-for-you-yes/">article</a> originally appeared in<a href="https://harvardpublichealth.org/">Harvard Public Health magazine</a>. Subscribe to their <a href="https://harvardpublichealth.org/subscribe/">newsletter</a>. It’s hard to escape the message these days that every sip of wine, every swig of beer is bad for your health. The truth, however, is far more nuanced. We have been researching the health effects of alcohol for a combined 60 years. Our work, and that of others, has shown that even modest alcohol consumption <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__ajph.aphapublications.org_doi_10.2105_AJPH.2016.303336&d=DwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=2zkJ8D52AYMOeX3KEv5kbt7m_QxlCTvEvHyl46VYiOI&m=eilPAVQaSqlISsukCLsGsFa06wlMg0Wnjjvl3k8EqHDYCso9ap_-9P0OleWWWTp-&s=RS_QMrqSsY2aR6rXjWbjJonqN8We1nnaTfaE5tqMA0M&e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">likely raises the risk</a> for certain diseases, such as breast and esophageal cancer. And heavy drinking is unequivocally <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__jamanetwork.com_journals_jamainternalmedicine_fullarticle_1105638&d=DwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=2zkJ8D52AYMOeX3KEv5kbt7m_QxlCTvEvHyl46VYiOI&m=eilPAVQaSqlISsukCLsGsFa06wlMg0Wnjjvl3k8EqHDYCso9ap_-9P0OleWWWTp-&s=p8q9BO8MMoP_IJFCJBScU1xxwMwTS96NfD-G5YM7e40&e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">harmful to health</a>. But after countless studies, the data do not justify sweeping statements about the effects of moderate alcohol consumption on human health. Yet we continue to see reductive narratives, in the media and even in science journals, that alcohol in any amount is dangerous. Earlier this month, for instance, the media reported on a new <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2822215#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a> that found even small amounts of alcohol might be harmful. But the stories failed to give enough context or probe deeply enough to understand the study’s limitations—including that it cherry-picked subgroups of a larger study previously used by researchers, including one of us, who concluded that limited drinking in a recommended pattern correlated with lower mortality risk. Those who try to correct this simplistic view are disparaged as pawns of the industry, even when no financial conflicts of interest exist. Meanwhile, some authors of studies suggesting alcohol is unhealthy have received money from anti-alcohol organizations. We believe it’s worth trying, <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov_32529652_&d=DwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=2zkJ8D52AYMOeX3KEv5kbt7m_QxlCTvEvHyl46VYiOI&m=eilPAVQaSqlISsukCLsGsFa06wlMg0Wnjjvl3k8EqHDYCso9ap_-9P0OleWWWTp-&s=GmRhmL9tQ--7NUE3SFfP7yaHw-C8LWNtj8ejl0MYitk&e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">again</a>, to set the record straight. We need more high-quality evidence to assess the health impacts of moderate alcohol consumption. And we need the media to treat the subject with the nuance it requires. Newer studies are not necessarily better than older research. It's important to keep in mind that alcohol affects many body systems—not just the liver and the brain, as many people imagine. That means how alcohol affects health is not a single question but the sum of many individual questions: How does it affect the heart? The immune system? The gut? The bones? As an example, a <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov_19244173_&d=DwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=2zkJ8D52AYMOeX3KEv5kbt7m_QxlCTvEvHyl46VYiOI&m=eilPAVQaSqlISsukCLsGsFa06wlMg0Wnjjvl3k8EqHDYCso9ap_-9P0OleWWWTp-&s=D33T6pOTUVxtnVO5muWahuacHfmeY352iSMbnSb3Dj8&e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">highly cited study</a> of one million women in the United Kingdom found that moderate alcohol consumption—calculated as no more than one drink a day for a woman—increased overall cancer rates. That was an important finding. But the increase was driven nearly entirely by breast cancer. The same study showed that greater alcohol consumption was associated with lower rates of thyroid cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and renal cell carcinoma. That doesn't mean drinking a lot of alcohol is good for you—but it does suggest that the science around alcohol and health is complex. One major challenge in this field is the lack of large, long-term, high-quality studies. Moderate alcohol consumption has been studied in <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.bmj.com_content_342_bmj.d636&d=DwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=2zkJ8D52AYMOeX3KEv5kbt7m_QxlCTvEvHyl46VYiOI&m=eilPAVQaSqlISsukCLsGsFa06wlMg0Wnjjvl3k8EqHDYCso9ap_-9P0OleWWWTp-&s=518n4Gjd8W3sJgio65gYGRCP68gkx9PNCh69NELHMD8&e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dozens of randomized controlled trials</a>, but those trials have never tracked more than <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov_26458258_&d=DwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=2zkJ8D52AYMOeX3KEv5kbt7m_QxlCTvEvHyl46VYiOI&m=eilPAVQaSqlISsukCLsGsFa06wlMg0Wnjjvl3k8EqHDYCso9ap_-9P0OleWWWTp-&s=afktNlgJoPup3MPS32SuQahBzJrGxpHxM2fkZfmed8w&e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">about 200 people for more than two years</a>. Longer and larger experimental trials have been used to test full diets, like the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29897866/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mediterranean diet</a>, and are routinely conducted to test new pharmaceuticals (or new uses for existing medications), but they've never been done to analyze alcohol consumption.  Instead, much alcohol research is observational, meaning it follows large groups of drinkers and <a href="https://harvardpublichealth.org/policy-practice/can-the-sober-curious-trend-change-u-s-alcohol-consumption/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">abstainers</a> over time. But observational studies cannot prove cause-and-effect because moderate drinkers differ in many ways from non-drinkers and heavy drinkers—in diet, exercise, and smoking habits, for instance. Observational studies can still yield useful information, but they also require researchers to gather data about when and how the alcohol is consumed, since alcohol's effect on health depends heavily on drinking patterns.   For example, in an <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov_34218856_&d=DwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=2zkJ8D52AYMOeX3KEv5kbt7m_QxlCTvEvHyl46VYiOI&m=eilPAVQaSqlISsukCLsGsFa06wlMg0Wnjjvl3k8EqHDYCso9ap_-9P0OleWWWTp-&s=V-N4UwmqLm0cNJTedTlcZK3YvWHyc0A2qCi-2H6YZbY&e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">analysis of over 300,000 drinkers</a> in the U.K., one of us found that the same total amount of alcohol appeared to increase the chances of dying prematurely if consumed on fewer occasions during the week and outside of meals, but to decrease mortality if spaced out across the week and consumed with meals. Such nuance is rarely captured in broader conversations about alcohol research—or even in observational studies, as researchers don’t always ask about drinking patterns, focusing instead on total consumption. To get a clearer picture of the health effects of alcohol, researchers and journalists must be far more attuned to the nuances of this highly complex issue.  One way to improve our collective understanding of the issue is to look at both observational and experimental data together whenever possible. When the data from both types of studies point in the same direction, we can have more confidence in the conclusion. For example, randomized controlled trials show that alcohol consumption <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov_pmc_articles_PMC517945_&d=DwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=2zkJ8D52AYMOeX3KEv5kbt7m_QxlCTvEvHyl46VYiOI&m=eilPAVQaSqlISsukCLsGsFa06wlMg0Wnjjvl3k8EqHDYCso9ap_-9P0OleWWWTp-&s=32SmDbu5RFmmnSTw-gHzqn4FVMsN9HKeaSLSzs4uYxs&e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raises levels of sex steroid hormones</a> in the blood. Observational trials suggest that alcohol consumption also <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov_18067133_&d=DwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=2zkJ8D52AYMOeX3KEv5kbt7m_QxlCTvEvHyl46VYiOI&m=eilPAVQaSqlISsukCLsGsFa06wlMg0Wnjjvl3k8EqHDYCso9ap_-9P0OleWWWTp-&s=ORNq6MiHRkVBmQC_wZ0RJ6IH574wmDwIIXRuTWlUXSY&e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raises the risk</a> of specific subtypes of breast cancer that respond to these hormones. Together, that evidence is highly persuasive that alcohol increases the chances of breast cancer.     Similarly, in randomized trials, alcohol consumption <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov_25805864_&d=DwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=2zkJ8D52AYMOeX3KEv5kbt7m_QxlCTvEvHyl46VYiOI&m=eilPAVQaSqlISsukCLsGsFa06wlMg0Wnjjvl3k8EqHDYCso9ap_-9P0OleWWWTp-&s=Th5BlrJLBGevw5kL1nS4dHxe_XhT0Hq1yRJUOplZdas&e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lowers average blood sugar levels</a>. In observational trials, it also appears to <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov_26843157_&d=DwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=2zkJ8D52AYMOeX3KEv5kbt7m_QxlCTvEvHyl46VYiOI&m=eilPAVQaSqlISsukCLsGsFa06wlMg0Wnjjvl3k8EqHDYCso9ap_-9P0OleWWWTp-&s=LwFfrxJ8IhPKEBn80dZAMSRGS8K_VMsN99-ZZHNjEQw&e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lower the risk of diabetes</a>. Again, that evidence is persuasive in combination.  As these examples illustrate, drinking alcohol may raise the risk of some conditions but not others. What does that mean for individuals? Patients should work with their clinicians to understand their personal risks and make informed decisions about drinking.  Medicine and public health would benefit greatly if better data were available to offer more conclusive guidance about alcohol. But that would require a major investment. Large, long-term, gold-standard studies are expensive. To date, federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health have shown no interest in exclusively funding these studies on alcohol. Alcohol manufacturers have previously expressed some willingness to finance the studies—similar to the way pharmaceutical companies finance most drug testing—but that has often led to criticism. This happened to us, even though <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__academic.oup.com_eurjpc_article_28_14_e23_6145624&d=DwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=2zkJ8D52AYMOeX3KEv5kbt7m_QxlCTvEvHyl46VYiOI&m=eilPAVQaSqlISsukCLsGsFa06wlMg0Wnjjvl3k8EqHDYCso9ap_-9P0OleWWWTp-&s=4ByM2Dejsn0vmp5IosjtAz7fNA54PbLJz6OD91tKC-Y&e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">external experts</a> found our proposal <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov_32250171_&d=DwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=2zkJ8D52AYMOeX3KEv5kbt7m_QxlCTvEvHyl46VYiOI&m=eilPAVQaSqlISsukCLsGsFa06wlMg0Wnjjvl3k8EqHDYCso9ap_-9P0OleWWWTp-&s=afq0ZuUayTFMDZoq_wDCqc9eYnsJXqZi1QbR3s3rG4o&e=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">scientifically sound</a>. In 2018, the National Institutes of Health ended our trial to study the health effects of alcohol. The NIH found that officials at one of its institutes had solicited funding from alcohol manufacturers, violating federal policy. It's tempting to assume that because heavy alcohol consumption is very bad, lesser amounts must be at least a little bad. But the science isn't there, in part because critics of the alcohol industry have deliberately engineered a state of ignorance. They have preemptively discredited any research, even indirectly, by the alcohol industry—even though medicine relies on industry financing to support the large, gold-standard studies that provide conclusive data about drugs and devices that hundreds of millions of Americans take or use daily. Scientific evidence about drinking alcohol goes back nearly 100 years—and includes plenty of variability in alcohol's health effects. In the 1980s and 1990s, for instance, alcohol in moderation, and especially red wine, was touted as healthful. Now the pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction that contemporary narratives suggest every ounce of alcohol is dangerous. Until gold-standard experiments are performed, we won’t truly know. In the meantime, we must acknowledge the complexity of existing evidence—and take care not to reduce it to a single, misleading conclusion. <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-S1L5BS4DJN"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (typeof gtag !== "function") {function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-S1L5BS4DJN'); </script> Copied! Copy HTML

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Risks, Dangers, and Effects of Alcohol on the Body

Man who quit drinking without rehab going through withdrawal

Although alcohol can make a person feel happy, pleasant, and sociable in short periods of time, excessive or chronic, long-term drinking can lead to alcohol dependence or alcohol addiction, officially referred to as an alcohol use disorder. Chronic alcohol use is also associated with other cognitive and mental health issues, including problems with learning or memory as well as exacerbating or causing serious mental health issues like depression and anxiety. 2,3

Alcohol doesn’t just affect the mind; it also affects the body. Evidence suggests that even drinking within recommended limits may increase a person’s overall risk of death from various causes, such as from several types of cancer and certain forms of cardiovascular disease. 4 This article will help you understand how alcohol affects your physical health as well as answer many common questions about alcohol and its short-term and long-term effects on the body.

How Does Alcohol Influence Your Physical Health?

Any amount of alcohol can affect your body’s health and wellness, and the risk starts from the moment you take a sip. An estimated 95,000 people (approximately 68,000 men and 27,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually, with more than half of those deaths due to health effects like heart or liver disease from drinking too much over time. 5,6

Is There a Safe Amount of Alcohol?

Although research suggests a low to moderate amount of alcohol may have certain protective factors for the cardiovascular system, a robust 2018 study published in The Lancet suggests the only truly “safe” level of drinking is zero. 3,7 As phrased in the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans , “If adults age 21 years and older choose to drink alcoholic beverages, drinking less is better for health than drinking more.” Although the Guidelines suggest that men who choose to drink should limit drinking to no more than two drinks per occasion, and women should have no more than one. (Women absorb and metabolize alcohol differently than men.) 8 Drinking less is better for your health, and among those who do drink, higher average alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of death from all causes compared with lower average alcohol consumption. 4

Short-Term Effects of Alcohol on the Body

When you ingest even a small amount of alcohol, your body reacts in several ways: 7,11,12,13,14,15

Brain: Alcohol slows down the chemicals and pathways your brain uses to control your body, altering mood, slowing down reflexes and affecting balance. It also can contribute to learning, memory, and sleep problems.
Heart: Alcohol increases your heart rate and expands your blood vessels, making more blood flow to the skin (which causes you to feel warm), however, this heat passes out through the skin, causing body temperature to fall after it has risen.
Digestive: Alcohol is first broken down in the stomach, promoting an increase in digestive juices. Alcohol also irritates the small intestine and colon where it is further broken down and absorbed, and it also can affect the normal speed that food moves through them, which may result in abdominal pain, bloating, and diarrhea.
Kidney: Alcohol dries out (i.e., dehydrates) the body, which can affect the kidneys and the body’s ability to regulate fluid and electrolytes. It also disrupts hormones that affect kidney function.
Liver: Alcohol—most of it, in fact—is metabolized in the liver, which filters circulating blood and removes and destroys toxic substances, including alcohol. The liver can handle a certain amount of alcohol, but as a person continues to drink, it can become stressed to the point of causing permanent damage.

Drinking excessively within a short period of time, or binge drinking , increases the stress on your body and internal organs (and can result in feeling a hangover following a drinking session). High levels of alcohol in your body can result in headaches, severe dehydration, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and indigestion. 3

Drinking excessively, even on a single occasion, increases a person’s risk of detrimental heart effects. These effects include: 16

Cardiomyopathy , which means that your heart muscle has a harder time pumping blood.
Arrhythmias, which is an irregular heartbeat.
High blood pressure.

Excessive alcohol use on a single occasion can also put you at risk of alcohol poisoning. This can occur when your body is overwhelmed by the amount of alcohol you drank and is no longer able to effectively process it from your system. You can experience a negative impact on your breath rate, heart rate, and gag reflex. Severe alcohol poisoning can lead to a coma and even death. 3

Long-Term Effects of Alcohol on the Body

When you drink excessively and over long periods of time, the long-term effects of alcohol can potentially damage many vital organ systems in your body. These health risks include: 3,16,17,18,19

Cardiovascular health risks. In addition to the previously mentioned cardiovascular effects and risk of heart damage, excessive alcohol use can raise your cholesterol levels.
Brain shrinkage.
Loss of grey matter.
Loss of white matter.
Fatty liver (steatosis).
Alcoholic hepatitis.
Liver cancer.
Pancreatic health risks, including vitamin deficiencies. Alcohol is associated with vitamin deficiencies due to malabsorption and poor dietary intake. Chronic alcohol consumption may contribute to developing pancreatitis, which means inflammation and blood vessel swelling of the pancreas. This can harm your ability to digest food and absorb nutrients.
Immune system risks. Drinking too much for too long can impair your body’s ability to fight infection and disease.
Increased likelihood of cancer . The development of many different types of cancers can be influenced by alcohol, a known carcinogen. Clear evidence suggests that heavy alcohol use (particularly in association with smoking) can affect the development of and increase the risk of breast, liver, esophageal, head and neck, and colorectal cancer. Emerging evidence is also pointing to an increased risk of melanoma, prostate, and pancreatic cancer. The National Cancer Institute reports that alcohol can increase the risk of head and neck cancer by at least 2-3 times in people who have 3.5 or more drinks per day.
Musculoskeletal health risks. Alcohol can weaken your bones, causing an increased risk of fractures and broken bones. High levels of uric acid and gout are more common in people with alcohol use disorder.

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Take our free, 5-minute substance abuse self-assessment below if you think you or someone you love might be struggling with substance abuse. The evaluation consists of 11 yes or no questions that are intended to be used as an informational tool to assess the severity and probability of a substance use disorder. The test is free, confidential, and no personal information is needed to receive the result.

Alcohol and Traumatic Injuries

Alcohol’s effect on cognitive and psychomotor functioning can have dangerous and potentially deadly physical consequences. Alcohol also can lower a person’s inhibitions, so you may be more likely to make hasty, irrational, or irresponsible actions that may contribute to a loss of control, which can lead to many consequences, including violence or accidents. 20,21

Increased violent behavior, including homicide and intimate partner violence.
Increased risk of injury, including car accidents or accidental drowning.
Risk of suicide.
Risky sexual behaviors, which can increase the risk of unwanted pregnancy or contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

In addition to risking serious injury, the above consequences may also be deadly. Alcohol is a factor in about 60% of fatal burn injuries, drownings, and homicides; 50% of severe trauma injuries and sexual assaults; and 40% of fatal motor vehicle crashes, suicides, and fatal falls. 22

Alcohol Use During Pregnancy

No amount or type of alcohol is considered safe to consume at any time during pregnancy. 23 In fact, use of alcohol during pregnancy is a leading preventable cause of developmental disabilities and birth defects. If a woman drinks at any time during the pregnancy—including the days, weeks, or months before she discovers she’s pregnant—the fetus is exposed to alcohol in utero. 24

Alcohol use during pregnancy can increase the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, and a host of intellectual, physical, and behavioral disabilities, the latter of which are categorized as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). Characteristics and behaviors of children with FASD include: 23

Small head size.
Shorter-than-average height.
Low body weight.
Poor coordination.
Hyperactive behavior.
Abnormal facial features, such as a smooth ridge between the nose and upper lip (i.e., the philtrum).
Attention difficulties.
Poor memory.
Poor reasoning and judgment skills.
Difficulty in school (especially with math).
Learning disabilities.
Speech and language delays.
Intellectual disability and/or low IQ.
Sleep and sucking problems as a baby.
Vision and/or hearing problems.
Problems with the heart, kidney, and/or bones.

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Alcohol Health Risks

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Essay on Alcoholism

Students are often asked to write an essay on Alcoholism in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Alcoholism

Understanding alcoholism.

Alcoholism is a serious issue. It is a disease where a person cannot control their desire to drink alcohol. They keep drinking even when it causes harm.

Alcoholism can be caused by genetics, environment, and mental health. Some people are more prone to it because of their family history. Others might start drinking due to stress or depression.

The Effects

Alcoholism can lead to health problems like liver disease. It can also cause problems at work, school, or with relationships. It’s important to seek help if you or someone you know is struggling.

250 Words Essay on Alcoholism

Introduction.

Alcoholism, also known as alcohol use disorder (AUD), is a chronic disease characterized by an inability to control or abstain from alcohol use despite its negative consequences. It is a pervasive global issue with significant health, social, and economic implications.

Causes and Risk Factors

Impacts and consequences.

The impacts of alcoholism are far-reaching. Physiologically, it can lead to liver disease, cardiovascular problems, and neurological damage. Psychologically, it can result in depression, anxiety, and increased risk of suicide. Socially, it can disrupt relationships, lead to job loss, and contribute to social isolation.

Treatment and Prevention

Treatment for alcoholism typically involves a combination of medication, therapy, and support groups. Prevention strategies include education about the risks of excessive alcohol consumption, early intervention for at-risk individuals, and policies to limit alcohol availability.

Alcoholism is a complex disease with a multitude of contributing factors and consequences. Understanding its causes, impacts, and treatment options is key to addressing this pervasive issue. As future leaders, we must advocate for effective prevention strategies and accessible treatment services to combat alcoholism.

500 Words Essay on Alcoholism

Alcoholism, also known as Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), is a chronic disease characterized by an inability to control or abstain from alcohol use despite its negative repercussions. It is a multifaceted disease, with complex interactions between genetic, environmental, and psychological factors.

Genetic Underpinnings of Alcoholism

Scientific research has established a strong genetic component to alcoholism. Certain genes can make individuals more susceptible to alcohol addiction, demonstrating that alcoholism is not merely a result of personal weakness or lack of willpower. It is estimated that genetics accounts for about 50% of the risk for AUD. However, having a genetic predisposition does not guarantee the development of alcoholism, indicating the significant role of environmental factors.

Environmental Factors and Alcoholism

The psychological impact of alcoholism.

Alcoholism inflicts significant psychological damage. It can lead to a range of mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and increased risk of suicide. Furthermore, alcoholism can negatively impact cognitive functions, impair judgment, and lead to behavioral changes. It is also closely linked to social problems, such as domestic violence, child abuse, and other forms of crime.

Treatment and Recovery

Alcoholism is a treatable disease, with various therapeutic strategies available. These include behavioral treatments, medications, and mutual-support groups. Behavioral treatments aim to change drinking behavior through counseling, while medications can help to manage withdrawal symptoms and prevent relapse. Mutual-support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous provide a supportive community for individuals recovering from alcoholism.

Prevention is Better than Cure

Alcoholism is a complex, multifaceted disease that requires a comprehensive approach for its prevention and treatment. Understanding its genetic, environmental, and psychological dimensions can inform effective strategies to combat this pervasive public health issue. While alcoholism is a serious disease, recovery is possible with the right support and treatment. Therefore, it is essential to foster a supportive environment for those struggling with this disorder, free from stigma and judgment.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

Happy studying!

The Truth About the Health Benefits of Alcohol

New research challenges long-held beliefs about the perks of drinking..

Posted August 10, 2024 | Reviewed by Margaret Foley

What Is Alcoholism?
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Scientists and clinicians have long debated about the health benefits conferred by alcohol use.
A worldwide study sheds light on the relationship between drinking and chronic diseases.
The findings challenge the notion of health benefits of drinking for those under 40.

Although it has been widely believed for decades that there are health benefits linked with moderate amounts of alcohol consumption, not everyone who drinks experiences health benefits from it. According to the largest study evaluating the relationship between alcohol use and chronic disease, which included over 1 billion people across the world, the safety and potential benefits of drinking alcohol depend largely on your age. Specifically, this groundbreaking study found that there are no health benefits of drinking among those who are under the age of 40 . This younger group is not only susceptible to the health risks and harms related to alcohol use (including motor vehicle accidents, injuries, and suicides related to drinking), but alcohol consumption did not benefit their health or reduce their risk of chronic diseases.

What about those who are over the age of 40?

People who are over 40 may see health benefits from alcohol use, including reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes.
Reduced risks of these chronic diseases were observed among people without underlying health conditions.
These benefits are linked with the use of a limited quantity of alcohol (i.e., no more than one to two standa rd drinks per day).

What should people who drink keep in mind to stay in the “healthy” zone?

The potential health benefits of drinking small to moderate quantities of alcohol for certain people not only vanish if a person who is drinking moderately transitions to heavy drinking, but they are replaced with various potential health risks.
Health risks for those who drink heavily can include high blood pressure, liver disease, and the development of addiction .
The limited quantities of alcohol use that may be linked to health benefits for certain people over 40 are “daily” guidelines and do not apply cumulatively (i.e., “saving up” four days’ worth of daily drinks and having them all on one day is considered heavy drinking—with potential health risks rather than benefits).

If you or someone you know drinks alcohol, it is important to bring intention to the quantity that you consume, with knowledge of what is considered heavy or risky alcohol use.

How much is too much?

Consuming more than three drinks in one day for women, or more than four for men, is considered heavy drinking.
Problematic drinking is defined not only by the quantity of alcohol a person consumes, but also by one’s ability to control their use of alcohol.
When a person is losing control over their drinking, they may frequently drink more than they planned to; make rules for themselves about how much or how often they will drink but have trouble keeping them; experience withdrawal symptoms when the effects of alcohol wear off; have problems in important relationships or in meeting responsibilities because of their drinking; experience cravings; and/or find themselves continuing to drink despite some of these problems.

If you or someone you care about has trouble controlling their alcohol use, consult a professional. I cover this topic in more depth in my book, Addiction: What Everyone Needs to Know , and on my podcast .

GBD 2020 Alcohol Collaborators (2022). Population-level risks of alcohol consumption by amount, geography, age, sex, and year: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2020. Lancet (London, England) , 400 (10347), 185–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00847-9

Suzette Glasner, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA.

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Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility (2004)

Chapter: 1. introduction: the challenge, 1 introduction: the challenge.

A lcohol use by children, adolescents, and young adults under the legal drinking age of 21 produces human tragedies with alarming regularity. Motor vehicle crashes, homicides, suicides, and other unintentional injuries are the four leading causes of death of 15- to 20-year-olds, and alcohol is a factor in many of these deaths. Indeed, so many underage drinkers die in car crashes that this problem, by itself, is a major national concern. In relation to the number of licensed drivers, young people under age 21 who have been drinking are involved in fatal crashes at twice the rate of adult drivers (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002a).

Car crashes are the most visible and most numbing consequences of underage drinking, but they represent only a small proportion of the social toll that underage drinking takes on the present and future welfare of society. Other damaging problems include dangerous sexual practices that lead to both serious disease and unwanted pregnancies, unintentional injuries, fights, and school failures that lead to expulsions or withdrawals. Levy et al. (1999) estimated that in 1996 underage drinking led to 3,500 deaths, 2 million nonfatal injuries, 1,200 cases of fetal alcohol syndrome, and 57,000 cases of treatment for alcohol dependence. Worse yet, underage drinking reaches into the future by impeding normal development and constricting future opportunities. Conservatively estimated, the social cost of underage drinking in the United States in 1996 was $52.8 billion (Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, 1999).

For many children, alcohol use begins early, during a critical developmental period: in 2002, 19.6 percent of eighth graders were current users of alcohol (use within the past 30 days), which can be compared with 10.7 percent who smoked cigarettes and 8.3 percent who used marijuana. Among each older age cohort of high school students, the prevalence, frequency, and intensity of drinking increase, contributing to increasing rates of educational failure, injury, and death as children move from grade to grade. By the time young people are seniors in high school, almost three-quarters (71.5 percent) report having drunk in the past year, almost half (48.6 percent) are current drinkers, and more than one-quarter (28.6 percent) report having had five or more drinks in a row in the past 2 weeks (Johnston et al., 2003). Among 18- to 22-year-olds, 41.4 percent of full-time college students and 35.9 percent of other young adults report heavy drinking (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2002). Heavy childhood and teenage drinking injures the developing brain and otherwise interferes with important developmental tasks. In addition, children and adolescents who begin drinking early are more likely than others to wind up with alcohol problems throughout their adult lives.

The public is certainly aware of these problems, especially drunk driving by teens. However, recent surveys demonstrate that parents underestimate the prevalence and intensity of alcohol use by their own children and by the underage population (see Chapter 6 ). Moreover, as measured by media attention and government expenditures, public concern about teenage alcohol use has not been remotely commensurate with the magnitude of the problem. A telling measure of the current societal response is the large gap in the federal government’s investment in discouraging illicit drug use among teenagers and in discouraging underage drinking, given that the social damage from underage alcohol use far exceeds the harms caused by illicit drug use. In fiscal 2000, the nation spent approximately $1.8 billion on preventing illicit drug use (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2003), which was 25 times the amount, $71.1 million, targeted at preventing underage alcohol use (U.S. General Accounting Office, 2001). The amount spent on preventing underage drinking also appears to be less than the amount spent on preventing tobacco use: in fiscal 2000, the Office of Smoking and Health, only one of many agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with smoking prevention, spent approximately $100 million. In addition, the states spent a great deal more, including funds generated by the agreement that settled the states’ Medicaid reimbursement suits against the tobacco companies.

There are signs that public attention to underage drinking is increasing and that the public recognizes the need to address the problem more aggressively than has thus far occurred. A recent study on public attitudes toward

underage drinking (Wagenaar et al., 2002) shows almost universal recognition of this problem. In fact, 98 percent of adults polled said they were concerned about teen drinking and 66 percent said they were “very concerned.” Moreover, a majority of respondents favored strong regulatory actions, such as additional controls on alcohol sales and advertising that would “make it harder for teenagers to get alcoholic beverages.” In 1999, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) added the goal of reducing underage drinking to its mission statement, and its activities and public statements increasingly reflect this focus (e.g., Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 2002). Underage drinking has also won the attention of the spouses of the nation’s governors, many of whom have come together to form the Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free, in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA, part of the National Institutes of Health). In collaboration with the American Medical Association (AMA), the RWJF has also provided long-term support to 12 community and 10 university-based coalitions with the specific mission of reducing and preventing underage drinking. The AMA has itself also become increasingly active on the issue of underage drinking, calling for tighter regulation of alcohol availability, higher excise taxes, and restrictions on alcohol advertising. Members of the alcohol industry also have continued their efforts to discourage underage drinking through responsible drinking campaigns and approaches such as server, parent, and youth-oriented education and involvement in prevention efforts on college campuses.

Underage drinking has also begun to attract increased government attention in Washington. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), at the request of Congress, recently reviewed the alcohol industry’s advertising and marketing practices. Its report (U.S. Federal Trade Commission, 1999) called on alcohol companies to move toward the “best practices” in the industry “to reduce underage alcohol ad exposure.” In 2003 Congress called on the FTC to revisit its inquiry into alcohol advertising and youth and to investigate if and how the recommendations issued in its 1999 report have been implemented by the alcohol industry. Advocacy groups have also urged Congress to include underage alcohol use in the major media campaign being waged against illegal drug use under the auspices of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

THE COMMITTEE STUDY

In 2001 Congress responded to the increasing level of public concern about underage alcohol consumption by appropriating funds for a study by The National Academies. Acting through the NIAAA and the Substance

Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Congress requested 1 The National Academies to undertake an examination of the pertinent literature, to “review existing federal, state, and nongovernmental programs, including media-based programs, designed to change the attitudes and health behaviors of youth,” and to “develop a cost effective strategy for reducing and preventing underage drinking.” Based on consultations with several of the Academies’ standing advisory boards, members of the Academies, and the Academies’ governing bodies, the final statement of task directs the committee to examine programs ranging from environmental interventions (e.g., taxation, access restrictions) to programs focusing directly on the attitudes and behavior of young people (see Appendix A for the full statement of task).

In response, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families (BCYF) of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies established a committee of 12 members with special expertise in key domains relating to underage drinking. To supplement the expertise of its members, the committee commissioned a set of papers to provide systematic reviews of the scientific literature on determinants of underage drinking and effective ways of reducing it. Topics explored in these papers include the demographics of underage drinking; its economic and social costs; adolescent decision making and risk and protective factors; and the effectiveness of various prevention programs and approaches, including media campaigns, school-based education, pricing, and access. Draft papers were presented at public meetings in October and November 2002 (see Appendixes B and C ) and subsequently reviewed and revised. 2

Numerous programs with the common goal of reducing underage drinking have been implemented at the national, state, and local levels, by governments and nonprofit and grassroots organizations. At the federal level, the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Justice, and Transportation operate several programs that specifically target underage drinking. Seven other federal agencies fund efforts that include underage alcohol use within a broader mandate (U.S. General Accounting Office, 2001). Similarly, numerous state-level agencies administer programs to reduce underage drinking. In most states, the health, human service, transportation, criminal justice, and education departments play some role. State alcohol beverage control bodies also play a role. Many communities, colleges and universities, and grassroots organizations across the country have initiated

	Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2002, H.R. 3061.
	A select compilation of these papers is available as a CD-ROM attached to the inside back cover.

efforts to reduce underage drinking and its associated problems in their communities. The alcohol industry also has implemented a range of efforts with the goal of reducing underage drinking.

The committee reviewed the 2001 report of the General Accounting Office on federal programs. This report focused on federal funding that targets underage drinking or includes underage drinking within a broader mandate. It does not include evidence on the effectiveness of specific programs. For the programs operated by the Departments of Transportation and Justice, the report provides general information on the types of activities funded—traffic safety and enforcement of underage drinking laws, respectively. No information is provided on the HHS-funded programs or activities, the largest overall funder of targeted underage drinking activities (see Chapter 12 ), probably because the funds generally do not represent a national program but, rather, funding for select state or local programs or research aimed at specific aspects of the problem. Although HHS has funded evaluations of specific state and community-level programs, the committee is not aware of any national-level HHS evaluations, or national evaluations of the Department of Transportation program. Each of the federal agencies have initiatives to highlight promising practices, based on varying levels of evidence. Evaluations of state or local programs that receive federal funding that are available in the literature, are reflected in the papers prepared for the committee’s study.

The largest single federal program that targets underage drinking is the Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws (EUDL) Program, operated by the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). A national evaluation of this program is in its fourth year, with only very preliminary outcomes information now available (see Chapter 9 ). The training and technical assistance center funded by the EUDL program produces a variety of materials that highlight best practices, many of which were reviewed by the committee.

The committee also reviewed written materials submitted by numerous organizations and individuals and considered both written and oral information presented at a public meeting held on November 21, 2002, by a wide range of organizations and people (see Appendix C ). This input highlighted programs or approaches considered effective by diverse communities and provided insights into their attitudes and experiences. The judgments provided through this process regarding effectiveness of particular programs or interventions were primarily subjective or based on informal evaluations.

Industry representatives provided extensive materials that were reviewed by the committee on the multiple activities they fund to reduce underage drinking. Included were descriptive materials such as summaries, brochures, pamphlets, videos, and guidebooks; testimonials from commu-

nity representatives on the utility of specific activities, and an evaluation of Alcohol 101, an industry-funded college-based intervention (see Chapter 7 for further discussion of these activities).

The committee’s basic charge is to provide science-based recommendations about how best to prevent and reduce underage drinking. Based on its expertise, consideration of public input, and review of the available scientific literature, including the papers written for the committee, the committee identified eight categories of programs or interventions and presents the evidence for each in the relevant chapter:

media campaigns designed to discourage underage drinking directly, to affect the behavior of adults, and to build a broader public awareness of the nature and magnitude of the problem ( Chapter 6 for adult-oriented campaigns and Chapter 10 for youth-oriented campaigns);

measures to curtail or counteract activities by individuals or businesses, including alcohol marketing practices, that tend to encourage or facilitate underage drinking (Chapters 7 and 8 );

measures restricting youth access to alcohol in both commercial and noncommercial settings, together with programs enforcing these laws ( Chapter 9 );

measures to reduce alcohol-related social harms by enforcing compliance with underage drinking restrictions, such as zero tolerance laws and other programs to reduce alcohol-related traffic injuries and criminal behavior ( Chapter 9 );

educational activities undertaken by schools, colleges and universities, faith-based institutions, healthcare organizations, alcohol companies, parent associations, and other entities designed to discourage underage drinking ( Chapter 10 );

community-based initiatives designed to tailor comprehensive approaches to the specific underage drinking problems of local communities ( Chapter 11 );

screening, counseling, and treatment programs to assist underage drinkers who have developed alcohol problems ( Chapter 11 ); and

methods of increasing the price of alcohol to underage purchasers, including increases in excise taxes ( Chapter 12 ).

It is important to recognize that implementation of any national “strategy” will depend on the cooperative actions of thousands of organizations and millions of individuals who have their own ideas about what is likely to be effective and valuable. These organizations include agencies at all levels of government (federal, state, and local) with an interest in underage drinking (e.g., alcoholic beverage control commissions, schools, and agencies responsible for law enforcement, substance abuse prevention, social ser-

vices, and public health). It also includes all the companies and establishments involved in producing, distributing, and selling alcohol—including distillers, vintners, breweries, package stores, and bars—as well as the advertising agencies that advise companies about how to position their products in different segments of the markets they seek to reach. It includes entertainment companies and other organizations that shape popular culture and affect young people’s attitudes about alcohol. A key role in any national response to the problem is played by parents who set models of drinking behavior for their children and who can affect the conditions under which their children have access to alcohol products. Of course, youths themselves make important decisions—not only about their own drinking, but also about how they view the drinking of their friends and peers.

The scope of the current efforts of many national, state, local, and nongovernmental group initiatives to prevent underage drinking or the consequences of drinking, particularly drinking and driving, is impressive. These programs include educational interventions, media campaigns, and activities to support enforcement of minimum drinking age laws. Young people themselves have organized efforts to discourage drinking among their peers. While few of these activities have been evaluated in any formal way, a successful national strategy will require the continued involvement, wisdom, and experience of the range of people and organizations that have been committed to preventing and controlling underage drinking.

A CHALLENGING TASK

The committee was charged with “developing a cost-effective strategy for preventing and reducing underage drinking.” As we set about this important task, it soon became evident that preventing and reducing underage alcohol use poses unusual challenges. Four of those challenges are the pervasiveness of drinking in the United States, the need for a broad consensus for a national strategy, ambivalence about goals and means, and commercial factors.

Pervasiveness of Drinking

Alcohol is readily available to adults (those over 21) through a large number of outlets for on-premise or off-premise consumption. About half of U.S. adults currently drink alcohol; among drinkers , the mean number of drinking days per month in 1999 was approximately eight. 3

Based on the committee’s analysis of 2000 data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

Notwithstanding the legal ban, alcohol is also readily available to underage drinkers. In recent surveys of high school students, 94.7 percent of twelfth graders and 67.9 percent of eighth graders reported that alcohol is “fairly” or “very” easy to get (Johnston et al., 2003). Purchase surveys reveal that from 30 to 70 percent of outlets may sell to underage buyers, depending in part on their geographic location (Forster et al., 1994, 1995; Preusser and Williams, 1992; Grube, 1997). Focus groups have also indicated that underage youths typically procure alcohol from commercial sources and adults or at parties where parents and other adults have left the youths unchaperoned (Jones-Webb et al., 1997; Wagenaar et al., 1993). Wagenaar et al. (1996) reported that 46 percent of ninth graders, 60 percent of twelfth graders, and 68 percent of 18- to 20-year-olds obtained alcohol from an adult on their last drinking occasion. Commercial outlets were the second most prevalent alcohol source for youths 18 to 20. For younger adolescents, the primary sources of alcohol are older siblings, friends and acquaintances, adults (through third-party transactions), and at parties (Harrison et al., 2000; Jones-Webb et al., 1997; Schwartz et al., 1998; Wagenaar et al., 1993). National surveys of college student drinking find that a large percentage of college youth report they do not have to pay anything for alcohol, presumably because they are at a party where someone else is supplying the alcohol (Wechsler et al., 2000).

American culture is also replete with messages touting the attractions of alcohol use, which often imply that drinking is acceptable even for people under 21. Recent content analyses of television showed that alcohol use was depicted, typically in a positive light, in more than 70 percent of episodes sampled from prime-time programs shown in 1999 (Christensen et al., 2000), and in more than 90 percent of the 200 most popular movie rentals for 1996-1997 (Roberts et al., 1999b). Roberts et al. (1999b) also found that 17 percent of 1,000 of the most popular songs in 1996-1997 across five genres of music that are popular with youth contained alcohol references, including almost one-half of the rap music recordings. Positive images are also disseminated by the alcohol industry, which spent $1.6 billion on advertising in 2001 and at least twice that amount in other promotional activity. Thus, overall, young people are exposed to a steady stream of images and lyrics presenting alcohol use in an attractive light.

Need for Consensus

An effective strategy to reduce a behavior as pervasive and widely facilitated as underage drinking will depend on a public consensus about both goals and means, which will require an unequivocal commitment from a broad array of public and private institutions. If the nation is to succeed in promoting abstention or reduced consumption by minors in a country

that has more than 120 million drinkers, the need to do so has to be understood and embraced by many people in a position to reduce drinking opportunities for minors. An effective strategy will depend on adoption of public policies by authoritative decision makers about how to use tax money and public authority—for example, whether to use federal dollars to fund a national media campaign, how to enforce existing state laws banning sales to underage drinkers, or how local school boards should discipline students who drink. The process of enacting such policies will require some degree of public consensus, but this is only the start.

Ultimately, the effectiveness of government policies will depend on how enthusiastically a great many public and private agencies join in the effort to implement them. If parents, animated by a national media campaign, join local police and school boards in concerted efforts to discourage underage drinking and if alcohol distributors join with regulatory agencies to find means to deny underage drinkers easy access to alcohol, then the impact of government policies will be increased. In short, a public consensus to deal determinedly and effectively with underage drinking is needed not only to generate support for adopting strong policies, but also to make them effective. Conversely, both enactment and implementation will be seriously impeded if the public is divided or ambivalent about the importance of reducing underage drinking.

It is here that the greatest challenge lies. In the nation’s diverse society, communities have differing beliefs and sensibilities about the consumption and social meaning of alcohol use in general, as well as about what should be expected and demanded of young people during the transition between childhood and adulthood. These differences contribute to varying beliefs, varying public policies, and varying individual practices regarding underage access to alcohol. Although the vast majority of families would agree that the nation as a whole has a powerful interest in reducing the negative consequences of underage drinking on society and on the youths themselves, individuals, families, groups, and communities all have different views on the wisdom and propriety of various approaches to the problem.

In this respect, surveys that show that certain steps by governments (e.g., increasing alcohol excise taxes or restricting advertising) are widely supported obscures disagreements about whether young people should be severely punished for using alcohol, whether parents should be punished for allowing parties with alcohol for youth in their homes, or whether the legal drinking age should be 21.

Ambivalence About Goals and Means

The problem of mustering a societal consensus to achieve an objective as subtle, complex, and contested as reducing underage drinking can be

seen most sharply when one compares underage drinking with illegal drug use and underage smoking. The goal of the nation’s policy toward illegal drugs and tobacco—abstention by everyone—is both unambiguous and widely, if not universally, embraced. Thus, the nation aims to discourage and suppress nonmedical use of marijuana, cocaine, and other controlled substances by everyone (whatever their age) through a comprehensive legal regime prohibiting the manufacture, distribution, and possession of these drugs for nonmedical purposes. Even though tobacco products, by contrast, are lawfully available to adults, the nation’s clearly expressed goal is to discourage tobacco use by everyone, by preventing initiation and promoting cessation. The messages to young people and adults in these two contexts are identical: indeed, because few people take up smoking as adults, the overall success of the nation’s anti-tobacco policy depends substantially on the success of its efforts to prevent initiation among young people.

The task of developing a strategy for preventing and reducing alcohol use among young people, in contrast, faces an uncertain policy goal. A strong cultural, political, economic, and institutional base supports certain forms of drinking in the society. Unlike the goals for illegal drugs and tobacco, the nation does not aim to discourage or eliminate alcohol consumption by adults. It is probably a fair characterization to say that the implicit aims of the nation’s current alcohol policy are to discourage excessive or irresponsible consumption that puts others at risk, while being tolerant of moderate consumption (at appropriate places and times) by adults (especially in light of the possible health benefits of moderate use for some populations over 40). For example, as long as others are not endangered or offended, attitudes toward intoxication (per se) vary according to religious beliefs and personal moral standards. In short, current alcohol policy rests on a collective judgment, rooted in the Prohibition experience, that the wisdom and propriety of alcohol use among adults should be left to the diverse moral judgments of the American people. This is not to say that everyone supports this stance of government neutrality. Many public health experts would like to take steps (short of prohibition) to suppress alcohol consumption as a way of reducing alcohol problems, and some conservative religious groups would take a more aggressive public stance against intoxication itself. However, the current stance of tempered neutrality seems to be widely accepted and therefore fairly stable.

In this policy context, the message to young people as well as adults about alcohol use is both subtle and confusing. The message to young people is “wait” or “abstain now,” rather than “abstain always,” as it is with tobacco and illegal drugs. Unlike the policies for those other products, the ban on underage alcohol use explicitly represents a youth-only rule, and its violation is often viewed as a rite of passage to adulthood. The problem

is exacerbated because the age of majority is higher for alcohol than it is for any other right or privilege defined by adulthood (e.g., voting, executing binding contracts). Explaining convincingly—to young people as well as adults—why alcohol use is permissible for 21-year-olds but not for anyone younger is a difficult but essential task for reducing or preventing underage drinking.

There is also confusion about whether messages to young people should emphasize abstention, perhaps drawing together alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs, or whether messages should focus on the dangers of intoxication and heavy drinking. Many people believe that abstention messages are more appropriate (and more likely to be effective) for younger teens than for older teens and college students.

This overall debate raises the same question posed by all wait rules: What is the age of demarcation between childhood and adulthood (see, generally, Zimring, 1982; Kett, 1977). The argument has been given a raw edge by the trend, in recent years, to curtail the jurisdiction of juvenile courts and to prescribe severe punishments, including the death penalty, for teenagers who commit crimes (Fagan and Zimring, 2000).

Commercial Factors

Alcohol is a $116 billion-per-year industry in the United States, catering to the tastes and needs of the more than 120 million Americans who drink. All states generate revenue from the sale of alcohol, either through excise taxes or product mark-ups, and 18 states participate in the alcohol market through retail and/or wholesale monopolies over distribution of certain alcoholic beverages. A strategy to suppress underage alcohol use must somehow be implemented in the very midst of a society replete with practices and messages promoting its use, and with a strong sector of deeply vested economic interests and the accompanying political and economic power. A significant level of underage use is inevitable under these circumstances—as an inevitable spillover effect, even if unintended by the industry—no matter what strategy is implemented. Foster et al. (2003) recently estimated that underage drinkers account for 19.7 percent of all drinks consumed and 19.4 percent of the revenues of the alcohol industry (about $22.5 billion). On the basis of the committee’s independent calculations, we conclude that youth consumption falls somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of all drinks and accounts for a somewhat lower, although still significant, percentage of total expenditures (see Chapter 2 ).

Although a similar challenge confronts tobacco control policy makers in the effort to prevent youthful use of tobacco products, the potency and impact of tobacco industry activity are gradually being lessened by the growing consensus that tobacco is a deadly and disapproved product, that

the industry has misled its customers for decades, and that aggressive regulation is needed to prevent young people from using tobacco and otherwise to protect the public health. It is generally believed that the tobacco industry has targeted young people to maintain demand for tobacco products as older consumers quit or die, notwithstanding the industry’s professed efforts, in the wake of the Master Settlement Agreement, to discourage underage use of their products. In short, public health officials and the major tobacco companies are not on the same side, and “big tobacco” is regarded as the enemy of the public’s health.

In contrast, the alcohol industry is diverse and uniformly acknowledges the dangers of underage drinking. Alcohol experts generally assume that the level of adult demand for alcohol products will not be substantially affected, over the long term, by reducing underage consumption—although getting young people to wait will obviously reduce the overall level of consumption. Thus, while the commercial interests of the alcohol industry are not perfectly aligned with the public health, they are not as antagonistic to the public health as the interests of the tobacco industry. In any case, a strategy for preventing and reducing underage drinking will have a much better chance for success if it attracts the active cooperation, and at least the acquiescence, of various segments of the alcohol industry.

The effectiveness of any policy focused explicitly on reducing underage drinking will be limited by the existence of a large legitimate practice of drinking and by the power of a large industry responding to legitimate consumer demand. When alcohol is available in many home liquor cabinets, the success of strategies to discourage young people from buying at package stores will be much different than in a world where relatively few parents have stocks of alcohol. The widespread legal use of alcohol in the society affects not only cultural and individual attitudes toward drinking, but also the extent to which any youth-oriented control regime can be effective in reducing opportunities for youths’ access to alcohol and drinking opportunities. One can establish a clear-cut boundary between acceptable drinking and unacceptable drinking at conceptual, policy, and legal levels, but it must be understood not only that different communities will construct that boundary differently as a matter of policy but also that the scope created for legal drinking has a profound, practical effect on the effectiveness of other policy instruments in discouraging unwanted, underage drinking.

In sum, the committee set about its task of developing a strategy for preventing and reducing underage drinking while being fully aware of the complexity of defining the public interest in this area and mindful of the severe constraints within which the strategy must be framed and implemented.

UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS

In conducting its work, the committee did not begin with a blank slate. Instead, we were asked to develop a national strategy given the basic framework of the nation’s current policy toward underage drinking. That policy aims to delay drinking by young people as long as possible and forbids lawful access to alcohol for people under 21.

Some people argue that the delay strategy is misguided and that the legal drinking age should be lower than 21 (typically 18). According to this view, allowing drinking at younger ages would mitigate youthful desire for alcohol as a “forbidden fruit”; would provide opportunities to “learn” to drink, thereby reducing harms; and would bring the age at which youth are allowed to drink into alignment with the age at which they can join the military, vote, and participate in other aspects of adult life. Whatever the merits of this view, the committee believes that Congress intended us to work within the framework of current law, anchored in the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, and that reconsideration of the 21-year-old drinking age, and of the premises on which it is predicated, is beyond our mandate. Moreover, as a practical matter, the current policy framework, though disputed by some, rests on a strong scientific foundation, is widely accepted, and is certain to be preserved for the foreseeable future.

Because the current policy framework provides the foundation for the committee’s work, and for the strategy recommended in this report, it is useful to summarize it here and to highlight its basic rationale.

Evolution of Current Policy

Until the last decades of the 19th century, society relied largely on nonlegal mechanisms of social control to constrain youthful drinking. However, in the wake of urbanization, immigration, and industrialization, alcohol came under tighter control, including bans against selling it to people under the legal age (Mosher et al., 2002). After the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, it became settled that decisions about alcohol control rested with the states, and the structure of modern alcohol regulation took shape.

Until 1970, the minimum drinking age in most states was 21. Between 1970 and 1976, 21 states reduced the minimum drinking age to 18, and another 8 states reduced it to 19 or 20 (usually as part of a more general statutory reform reducing the age of majority to 18) (Wagenaar, 1981). Proposals to restore a higher age were soon introduced, however, largely because alcohol-related automobile crashes had significantly increased among teenagers and young adults. Of the 29 states that lowered their drinking age, 24 raised the age again between 1976 and 1984. By that time, only three states allowed 18-year-olds to drink all types of alcoholic bever-

ages, while five others (including the District of Columbia) allowed 18-year-olds to drink beer and light wine while setting the age limit for distilled spirits and wine with high alcohol content at 21. Thirteen states set a uniform age of 19, and four others allowed 19-year-olds to drink beer and set the limit at 21 for other alcoholic beverages. Four states set the age at 20 for all alcohol, and the remaining 22 states set a uniform age of 21 (Bonnie, 1985).

In 1984 Congress enacted the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, as recommended by the Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving, using the threat of withholding 10 percent of federal highway funds to induce states to set the minimum drinking age at 21 for all alcoholic beverages. All states eventually complied and have a variety of mechanisms in place to enforce this restriction

The Goal of Delay

The explicit aim of existing policy is to delay underage alcohol use as long as possible and, even if use begins, to reduce its frequency and quantity as much as possible. Most people recognize that drinking itself is not the issue. Rather, the underlying challenge is protecting young people while they are growing up. Children and adolescents need to be protected in the first instance from the immediate harms that can occur when they are drinking. But they also need to be protected from the possibility that they will mortgage their own future prospects by initiating practices that could cause them permanent harm during a critical developmental period and that could lead to patterns of drinking that will worsen as they grow older.

The question is how best to go about that protective task. As indicated, some people argue that the most sensible approach is to permit drinking by young people (at least older teens) rather than trying to suppress it. In their view, a “wait” rule is not the best way to reduce the problems associated with underage drinking—at least in a society in which it is bound to occur with considerable frequency anyway. They would allow youthful drinking and focus on supervision rather than drinking per se (at least for older adolescents). In their view, a “learner’s permit” for drinking is preferable to a prohibition that drives underage drinking into the shadows and sacrifices the opportunity for supervision. A learner’s permit approach could be implemented in a variety of ways, such as by permitting youth access to only certain kinds of alcohol during the learning period (analogous to a graduated driving license) and by prescribing particular requirements for adult supervision.

If the drinking age were lowered, the critical question is whether the intensity of youthful drinking, and the accompanying problems, would decrease, as contended by proponents of the learner’s permit approach.

Admittedly, the current approach may create incentives for heavy unsupervised drinking on the occasions where alcohol is available. However, as discussed in Chapter 9 , young people who drink tend to do so heavily even in societies with a learner’s permit approach.

In addition, a substantial body of scientific evidence shows that raising the minimum drinking age reduced alcohol-related crashes and fatalities among young people (Cook and Tauchen, 1984; U.S. General Accounting Office, 1987; Wagenaar and Toomey, 2002) as well as deaths from suicide, homicide, and nonvehicle unintentional injuries (Jones et al., 1992; Parker and Rebhun, 1995). Increasing the minimum drinking age to 21 is credited with having saved 18,220 lives on the nation’s highways between 1975 and 1998 (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1998). Voas, Tippetts, and Fell (1999), using data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia for 1982 through 1997, concluded that the enactment of the uniform 21-year-old minimum drinking age law was responsible for a 19 percent net decrease in fatal crashes involving young drivers who had been drinking, after controlling for driving exposure, beer consumption, enactment of zero tolerance laws, and other relevant changes in the laws during that time.

These findings reinforce the decision by Congress to act in 1984. In short, current national policy rests on the view, supported by substantial evidence, that delaying drinking reduces problem drinking and its consequences. The nation’s legislators and public health leaders have reached the nearly uniform judgment that the benefits of setting it at 21 far exceed the costs of doing so.

The Instrumental Role of the Law

Our earlier comparison among alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs raises another important preliminary question—about the role of the law in the prevention of underage drinking. It is possible to imagine an official policy aiming to delay and discourage underage drinking that does not rely in any way on the coercive authority of the state to implement this policy: instead of banning underage access to alcohol by law, society might rely entirely on parenting, education, community expectations, and other mechanisms of social control to suppress youthful drinking and, for older teens, to transmit the desired drinking-related norms and to encourage adults to refrain from supplying youths with alcohol or otherwise facilitating their drinking. Various forms of social disapproval, including social and economic sanctions (e.g., not patronizing stores or bars that serve minors) can be imagined.

In contrast, the United States has decided that there must be laws against supplying alcohol to young people and that it should also be illegal for young people to possess or use alcohol, at least in public. Thus, because

the law plays such a central role in the nation’s policy toward underage drinking, it is essential to clarify the functions that these laws should reasonably be expected to serve.

At the outset, it should be emphasized that a secular society seeks to delay underage drinking because it is dangerous to youths and others, not because it is inherently evil or wrong. The ban on underage drinking is an age-specific prohibition, implying that the aim is to delay alcohol use, not to condemn it or inoculate against it. For this reason, the prohibition is distinctly instrumental in nature and is not grounded in the moral disapproval that characterizes many legal prohibitions. To use a traditional legal classification, underage drinking is an example of a prohibition that is malum prohibitum (wrong because it is prohibited) rather than malum in se (wrong in itself). Punishment for an underage drinker, or even for an adult facilitator, is not an expression of public moral condemnation as is, for example, punishment for child sexual abuse or robbery.

Enforcement of prohibitions against immoral behavior serves the twin goals of reducing the harmful behavior and condemning and punishing the perpetrator for the transgression. The prohibition of underage drinking does not aim to serve this second (retributive) objective in any strong sense. Its aim is exclusively instrumental. Consequently, the measure of the prohibition’s effectiveness, and of the social policy it implements, has to be whether it reduces or avoids the dangerous consequences associated with youthful drinking.

Law is a blunt instrument. It is not self-executing, and it requires the affirmative support of a substantial proportion of the population and of those who are expected to enforce it. These characteristics of a law are particularly important for instrumental prohibitions, such as the ban against underage drinking, because the level of compliance will depend heavily on the willingness of a large number of individuals to adhere to the law simply because they accept its moral authority to command their obedience. That is, a legal norm of this kind, which affects so many people in so many everyday social and economic contexts, cannot be successfully implemented based on deterrence (the threat of punishment) alone. It must rely heavily on the “declarative” or “expressive” function of the law: by forbidding the conduct, it aims to shape people’s beliefs and attitudes about what is acceptable social behavior and thereby to draw on their disposition to obey.

Since the ultimate goal is to protect youths (and others within the zone of danger) from harmful consequences, one might wonder whether it is possible to implement an underage alcohol policy by focusing exclusively on the dangerous behavior rather than the drinking itself. In theory, it might be possible to define the prohibited conduct exclusively in relation to the magnitude of the risk: for example, “don’t drive a car after having had alcohol” or “don’t give alcohol to a youth who intends to drive a car or is

otherwise likely to behave dangerously.” However, any such dangerous drinking prohibitions are extremely difficult to implement successfully and would not exert a sufficient deterrent by themselves to prevent the risky behaviors associated with underage alcohol use. As the nation’s lawmakers have concluded, only a categorical prohibition of underage access to alcohol has any realistic chance of doing that, especially in a large industrial society in which the risks are pervasive (and magnified by developmental vulnerability) and where young people have large periods of time outside parental supervision and outside the reach of formal social controls. It is also relevant to note that at least one of the risks associated with underage drinking is intrinsic to the drinking itself—the permanent damage of alcohol consumption on the adolescent brain (see Chapter 3 ).

Given an age-based categorical prohibition aiming to serve exclusively instrumental aims, other policy judgments are needed regarding the scope of the restrictions, the severity of the prescribed sanctions, and the resources and tools that should be used to enforce the law. Banning commercial distribution of alcohol to underage persons is an essential element of the prohibition, but what about noncommercial distribution? Even if noncommercial distribution is banned, what about parental distribution to their own children in their own home? (Many states do not prohibit this distribution.) Is it also necessary to penalize young people who purchase or consume alcohol? Even in their own homes? What enforcement strategies should be used? And how severe should the sanctions be? These issues are addressed in Chapter 9 . The answers require careful assessment of the possible benefits (in reducing harms associated with underage drinking) and the costs of any particular strategy. The degree of public support and the difficulty of enforcement bear on both the potential effectiveness and on the possible costs.

A POPULATION PERSPECTIVE

In requesting the National Academies to develop a strategy for reducing and preventing underage drinking, Congress clearly anticipated that we would do so from a public health perspective, reviewing the etiology and consequences of alcohol use by the underage population and assessing the effectiveness of interventions that might be deployed to reduce the prevalence of drinking in this population, particularly the patterns of consumption most clearly associated with alcohol problems. (The outcomes of interest in assessing the effectiveness of interventions are discussed in Chapter 5 .) Recognizing that underage drinking substantially increases the short-term risks of death, injury, and other harms, as well as long-term risks of alcoholism and other dysfunction, a population-oriented strategy aims to lower the mean level of risk in the underage population in order “to shift

the whole distribution of exposure in a favorable direction,” typically by “altering some of society’s norms of behavior” (Rose, 1985, p. 371). Accordingly, we emphasize the population-oriented tools of primary prevention, rather than the individually oriented methods of secondary or tertiary prevention. Thus, identification and treatment of youths with drinking problems, or at high risk for developing such problems, and the challenge of instilling habits of responsible drinking as young people mature are addressed only incidentally in this report. These issues are important for improved policy and practice, but they are peripheral to our basic charge—delaying underage drinking and reducing its prevalence.

In developing a strategy to delay and reduce underage drinking, the committee has tried to understand the problem from two angles. First, we looked at the problem from the viewpoint of a young person deciding whether and under what circumstances to use alcohol. Our framework draws on the developing literature regarding adolescent decision making, especially in relation to health and risk behaviors. We pay particular attention to youthful decision-making abilities at various ages in the context of the changing social realities of teenage alcohol use. Some components of a comprehensive strategy must aim to help young people make the right decisions, depending on their age and developmental stage, taking account of the dangers of alcohol use at varying points in development.

It is not enough, however, to try to persuade young people to make the right choices. If the strategy relied exclusively on tools directed at changing the attitudes and behavior of underage youths, it would not have much chance of succeeding. To complement a youth-centered decision-making perspective, the committee also drew on the multidisciplinary perspective used by public policy analysts. This framework combines the disciplines of epidemiology, economics, health communications, law, and other social sciences to envision the array of policy instruments that can be brought to bear on the problem and to assess their probable effectiveness and costs, used alone or in combination.

OVERVIEW OF THE REPORT

Although the committee’s recommended strategy responds to a congressional request, the report is intended for a broad audience, including parents, businesses, alcohol companies, educators, state and local policy makers and legislators, healthcare producers and retailers, practitioners, and community organizers. Our work is presented in two parts.

Part I , Chapters 2 through 4 , provides important contextual information about underage drinking and its consequences and determinants. Chapter 2 discusses key definitions and presents pertinent demographic and epidemiological data regarding the scope of underage drinking and the

characteristics of underage drinkers. It includes data on the prevalence of alcohol use and drinking behavior by gender, race, and ethnicity as well as comparisons of youth and adult drinking patterns. Chapter 3 provides an account of the social consequences and costs of underage drinking.

Chapter 4 offers a context for the underlying reasons, motivations, social influences, and risk factors that influence young people’s decisions about drinking. The chapter explores the specific motivations and influences relevant to young people’s drinking behavior and attempts to answer why some young people choose to drink and do so intensively while others choose to drink moderately or not at all. The chapter also discusses the social environment in which young people are immersed and the ways that community and social factors affect underage drinking.

Part II , Chapters 5 through 12 , presents the committee’s recommended strategy to prevent and reduce underage drinking. In each of these chapters, the committee summarizes what is known about the effectiveness of existing programs or interventions in the pertinent domain and presents its conclusions and recommendations. The committee has tried to be realistic in assessing the potential effectiveness of efforts to prevent and reduce underage drinking. The committee assumes that most adults in the United States will continue to use alcohol and that most drinkers will begin their alcohol use sometime before they are 21, despite laws and policies to the contrary. Within that constraint, however, there is substantial room for preventing and reducing underage drinking in the United States, and this part of the report explores various tools that can be used in this effort.

At the heart of the committee’s proposed strategy is the effort to foster a collective societal acceptance of responsibility for reducing underage drinking. Although continued efforts to speak directly to young people about the dangers of alcohol use are an important component of the committee’s proposed strategy, the committee believes that the highest priority should be given to changing the attitudes and behaviors of adults. Adults often facilitate or enable underage drinking directly by supplying alcohol to young people, by failing to take effective precautions to prevent it, or by sending the message that alcohol use is to be expected. Few programs currently seek to influence parents to alter their behaviors and attitudes toward youth drinking as a way of reducing youth access to alcohol, changing permissive social norms about underage drinking, and galvanizing community action.

In Chapter 5 we explain our interpretation of the committee’s charge and some of the key assumptions underlying the strategy, including the criteria for assessing effectiveness and cost. This chapter is the foundation for the rest of the report. In Chapter 6 we discuss development of a national media effort as a major component of a campaign aimed at educating parents and other adults about underage drinking and ways adults can help

reduce opportunities for youth drinking. In Chapter 7 we discuss how the alcoholic beverage industry can become a partner in the overall effort by helping to establish and fund an independent nonprofit organization charged with reducing underage drinking and by exercising greater self-restraint in advertising and promotional activity. Our messages to the alcohol industry (and other industries that benefit from a large alcohol market) are clear: Your efforts to satisfy and expand the legitimate adult market for alcohol inevitably spill over to a large underage market. Even if you do not intend to stimulate or satisfy underage demand, you derive financial benefits from it. As a society, we cannot have a substantial impact on underage drinking without your active engagement in this effort. Chapter 8 issues a similar challenge to the entertainment media, urging more attentive self-regulation to reduce exposure of children and adolescents to lyrics and images that portray drinking in an attractive way. The committee believes that market incentives can be used to reward companies, including entertainment media, who take meaningful steps to help reduce underage drinking, and to punish companies that do not. Chapter 9 explores ways to reduce youth access to alcohol through both commercial and noncommercial channels.

Chapter 10 explains why the committee does not recommend a youth-oriented national media campaign at this time, preferring instead a cautious program of research and development. It also addresses educational efforts in schools, colleges, and other settings designed to persuade young people to choose not to drink and to reduce alcohol problems. The chapter also briefly discusses programs for assisting youths with alcohol problems. Chapter 11 reviews the potential advantages of mobilizing communities to implement locally specific efforts to reduce underage drinking.

Chapter 12 identifies several ways in which the federal and state governments can help implement the proposed strategy, including through increases in excise taxes. Regulatory action by the government is not at the center of the committee’s proposed strategy. The major priority, in the committee’s view, is to galvanize the necessary societal commitment to prevent and reduce underage drinking. Thus, the committee focuses its attention on community action, business responsibility, public-private partnerships, and all the other institutional expressions of a genuine social movement. In this context, government has a supportive, but nonetheless indispensable, role—to provide funding (possibly through increased excise taxes on alcohol) and technical support to strengthen and enforce access restrictions, to keep regulatory pressure on the alcohol industry to act responsibly, and to monitor the effectiveness of the overall strategy.

Alcohol use by young people is extremely dangerous - both to themselves and society at large. Underage alcohol use is associated with traffic fatalities, violence, unsafe sex, suicide, educational failure, and other problem behaviors that diminish the prospects of future success, as well as health risks – and the earlier teens start drinking, the greater the danger. Despite these serious concerns, the media continues to make drinking look attractive to youth, and it remains possible and even easy for teenagers to get access to alcohol.

Why is this dangerous behavior so pervasive? What can be done to prevent it? What will work and who is responsible for making sure it happens? Reducing Underage Drinking addresses these questions and proposes a new way to combat underage alcohol use. It explores the ways in which may different individuals and groups contribute to the problem and how they can be enlisted to prevent it. Reducing Underage Drinking will serve as both a game plan and a call to arms for anyone with an investment in youth health and safety.

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Becoming a “mindful drinker” changed my life

The controversial term may be new, but the goal is the same: Drink less. And I do.

by Derek Brown

Illustration of a man’s face fragmented in vertical lines.

Alcohol isn’t really all that good for you. It certainly wasn’t always good for me. Though I used to joke that without it I wouldn’t have a job, friends, or a hobby, I now teetotal most of the week and drink cocktails, whiskey, and wine infrequently.

Everything about that goes against the way I make my living as a spirits and cocktail expert, author, and bar owner. I don’t think everything we do has to be “good for you.” Neither should everything we do lead us down a fiery path of ruination. Lately, I’m more than content with a few fingers of bourbon followed by a drink without alcohol. And, when I indulge, it’s still with the guardrails on.

These days, my approach may actually be in vogue. We’re steeped in discussions of sober curiosity, soberishness, and hip sobriety, terminology that all spears the same fish: Drink less. This is spawning both a philosophical movement whose adherents have holidays (Dry January and Sober October) and is creating an industry through sober influencers ; nonalcoholic beer , wine , and “spirits” ; dry bars ; dry events ; and sophisticated cocktails without alcohol . Let’s call it mindful drinking.

“Mindful drinking is a nice catchall term for anyone who might be thinking about their drinking in some way,” argues Laura Willoughby, co-author of How to Be a Mindful Drinker: Cut Down, Stop for a Bit, or Quit. “They either don’t drink for religious reasons, they’re not drinking because they’re pregnant, they’re cutting down, they never drank very much, they’ve never drunk, … any of those things.”

Willoughby doesn’t drink, but Jussi Tolvi, with whom she co-founded Club Soda in the UK, is a moderate mindful drinker. Both fit within the model. Willoughby describes the term mindful drinking in the way the LGBTQ movement uses “queer”: as an umbrella term for a range of sexual orientations and gender identities. “I don’t see changing your drinking as linear, I don’t see it as binary,” says Willoughby.

The movement may be controversial, in that it differs from the most widely accepted model of sobriety. It also overlaps with the wellness industry that is a $4.2 trillion market worldwide . But not everyone conforms to that model and, well, I want to be well, wellness aside. There are plenty of people who don’t drink for a variety of reasons, and many of us who question our relationship with alcohol might not need to join a group in a church basement or phone a friend when we’re out on the town. For those of us in the gray areas, mindful drinking might be just what we need.

I thought about drinking long before I took a single sip. My father is a diagnosed alcoholic and is in recovery. He left my family when I was a toddler. I still have flashes of us wrestling on the floor, roughhousing. Afterward, he’d hoist me on his shoulders, this giant, invincible man. I remember little more from that time, maybe purposely, except the afternoons I waited hours for him to pick me up for the weekend. He’d call and say he was on his way, but he wasn’t coming.

As a young teen, I abhorred drinking, pledging to be sober for life — a reaction to my father, to be sure. But that changed as I got older. I discovered drinking at parties in high school, and when the party was over, I’d ride around the block with my friends looking for low-lit cul-de-sacs where we’d drink more, smoke pot, and do psychedelics. For some people, drinking and drugs were a way to relax and even achieve a higher consciousness. For me, they were a way to obliterate it.

It wasn’t long before I found people who felt the same as me. They were restaurant workers, a band of misfits united by the construction of our outer layer: a brick wall of alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs, sprinkled with casual sex and a complete disregard for propriety. I also found my career, one that I’m proud of despite whatever latent psychological forces shaped it.

By then I had split drinking into two extremes: Drink with abandon or don’t drink at all. The former followed me into my career, which seemed to dictate that I spend many intemperate weeks drinking, professionally and recreationally; and the latter, which sprang up from time to time and hung over my head from my days as a youth keenly aware of the ravages of alcohol.

I drank or didn’t drink. There was no middle ground.

I would later be diagnosed with bipolar II disorder. The statistical correlation between bipolar II disorder and alcohol abuse is high , and I lived it. Drinking was a way to make it through the mood swings, impulsivity, risk-taking, and racing thoughts, all of which were sheathed in the appearance of a high-functioning individual. Through drunkenness, I convinced myself that I was well, even happy, that my charms outweighed my faults when my faults were on egregious display. The next morning told a different story.

I can’t remember all the dumb things I did drunk, but I remember one night inventing a game called “Shakespeare Throw a Chair.” The object of the game was to say a Shakespeare quote and then launch the chair across the room in the back of my bar. My business partner sat me down the following week and said, “About this Shakespeare thing ...” I recoiled. In the light of day, the game was embarrassingly stupid. And perhaps that was one of my more innocent drunken ribaldries.

When I woke up the day after a drinking bout, I felt a constant and abiding shame. Had I said something dumb? Had I done something I should regret? There were times I texted people to ask what happened. There were other times I just stuck my toe in with a text reading, “Good times.” But they weren’t always good times, and often I was terrified of my friends’ possible responses. Perhaps that compounded my need to drink, explaining why one drunken night was likely followed by another. (You can see the flawed logic in that pursuit.) I would sometimes be drunk for the stretch of a week.

Hangovers became a certainty. I needed a care pack: ibuprofen, Gatorade, and ramen. When you’re stocking hangover remedies for the inevitable, not the probable, is without a doubt when you should admit that drinking has become a problem. Imagine breaking your toe every morning and stocking up on stick splints and medical tape. Instead, you’re breaking your brain. The gray matter between my ears would suffer the same fate as the chairs launched to exclamations of Hamlet: “To be or not to be — swing , crack — that is the question!”

It wasn’t just my brain I broke. The silly games were one thing, but alcohol would be the abettor of my worst instincts, enabling me to scorch my life before bedfall. I remember chasing a friend around town at night. We drank heavily and went back to the place she was staying, where we were locked out. I don’t even remember how we got in but, when we did, I removed my clothes and tried to climb in her bed. She demurred, possibly something about us being near-blackout drunk. I pulled up my pants, left stumbling, and returned early in the morning to my home, where my pregnant girlfriend had been waiting up all night. I lied about what had happened. I lied about my phone being dead. I lied about everything. But, most importantly, I lied about who I was. I wasn’t a free-spirited man about town; I was an unscrupulous lothario and a wretch.

It eventually all caught up with me after my son was born, and I started to add up the pluses and minuses of alcohol in my life. I realized the red column had become greater than the black. It would take a little more time and convincing, but I finally checked myself into a recovery program that addressed both my mental health and substance use.

The mindful drinking “trend,” make no mistake, is a more expansive model than Alcoholics Anonymous and other abstention programs where it’s all or nothing. While there is no specific definition of alcoholism in AA, its members agree that alcoholism is generally “a physical compulsion, coupled with a mental obsession” and that treatment is not based on willpower alone or creating periods of abstinence. The AA literature spells out this mindset: “We always wound up, sooner or later … getting drunk when we not only wanted to stay sober, but had every rational incentive for staying sober.” In this framework, you either are or you aren’t afflicted by the disease, and the cure is to cease drinking completely. Given this, some sober people are uncomfortable with “curiosity,” downplaying the seriousness of excessive drinking .

But even AA admits that the 12-step program is not the only approach. A spokesperson for AA told the New York Times : “There are lots of different options for getting sober. AA is not trying to convince anyone that AA is the only way to stay sober, we have just found a way that works for us that we share with others.” New approaches to sobriety don’t necessarily replace those programs for people who have committed to abstention, but they offer an alternative for people who believe they fit outside of the traditional model.

Laura Silverman, founder of Booze Free in DC and The Sobriety Collective , a digital hub for sober creatives to socialize, says that “[AA] is good for some people because they need that reminder to physically and psychologically keep them away from dying. For many people, it is a life-and-death thing.” But for her, “I was tired of saying I’m an alcoholic, because I didn’t feel like one,” says Silverman. “I just knew I couldn’t drink safely.” She remains sober but acknowledges the many shades in between abuse and abstention.

“Nowadays, the modern recovering person can pick and choose from a wide variety of things and build their own ‘recovery menu,’ if you will,” according to Silverman. “At the end of the day, it’s up to you to decide what your recovery looks like, and it’s up to no one else to make a judgment that [if] you’re in AA you can’t be in Smart [Recovery] , [if] you’re in Smart [Recovery] you can’t be in AA, or you can’t have a therapist, you can’t take medication for your mental health condition. You get to decide what your recovery looks like.”

Whether you’re the person who drinks too much on dates or the hardened alcohol abuser who has set your life ablaze, there’s a spectrum, joined by a need. I needed alcohol. Whether that made me an alcoholic or simply driven by my mental illness, the outcomes are the same: I would die, kill someone, or set a detonator to all my relationships — maybe the hat trick and achieve all three. But without addressing the cause of my drinking, there was little hope of a happy ending. I had to change my pace.

At first, I was uneasy. How would I explain to people that the very thing I evangelized was also my kryptonite? Like Silverman, I didn’t feel like an alcoholic, but I had a problem. I sat down with my business partners and told them I would not be spending as much time at the bars at night. They seemed to understand.

Through therapy and prescription medication, I addressed a lot of what had motivated my drinking sprees. Eventually, I would start drinking again. But it left me in a bind: How would I combine my love of drinking with my need to regulate it? I admit this just isn’t possible for most, but it seemed achievable in my case. I had addressed the psychic forces that polarized drinking for me, lost a taste for the chaos and destruction of my past, and grew in resolve.

In the backdrop of my recovery was the mindful drinking movement. It seemed like the whole country (and many others ) was publicly discussing what it means to drink too much, and new strategies were emerging to address the gray areas. The movement didn’t just give me a convenient label, it offered me another perspective for my recovery, a perspective similar to Chef Dan Barber’s approach to cutting down on meat : Alcohol is no longer the center of my experiences just as much as meat isn’t at the center of all of his plates. It’s more of a side dish or flavoring, and one that I can take or leave.

For me, that means being aware of my intentions at that moment, excising the need. But I haven’t shut alcohol out altogether, because of my vocation and because I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with drinking alcohol. I like drinking culture, and I’m delighted by the new world of no-alcohol cocktails and “spirits.” As a former bartender, it feels like learning a new language where the grammar is remarkably familiar.

What that means is that I can still go out at night and have complex adult drinks. And, honestly, most of the time they don’t have a drop of alcohol in them. I can be at the bars I created and that inspired me, and enjoy the nightlife without plunging myself into the abyss. I can replace negative experiences with positive ones.

I don’t think banning or swearing off alcohol works for everyone. Alcohol may not be good for you, but it can be a force for good. A couple of drinks have preceded some of my most meaningful moments . It may be the ritual itself, but alcohol has a way of fostering connections. Its rewards rival its dangers, which I believe is what makes alcohol so ubiquitous in human history — at least my history. You must adapt to your own circumstances. And, if amid trying to figure it all out, you find yourself lost, stop. There’s absolutely not one reason why you should be compelled to drink.

It’s not always easy. The pressure still abounds. When I’m not drinking, I just politely decline. And where the decline is declined, I say I’m driving, or I say something about antibiotics or surgery, or I drop the shot in a water glass when they’re not looking. It’s a silly thing, really. Why wouldn’t we trust a grown person to say what they do and don’t want? Hopefully, the mindful drinking movement will provide the best excuse of all: I don’t want to, and that’s my choice.

There will be no shortage of critics . But this article isn’t for them. No, I wrote this essay for you . We might have different reasons why we’ve questioned our drinking, but it rests on the same premise.

And perhaps you need to hear this: Alcohol isn’t really all that good for you. I don’t mean that solely as an indicator of certain diseases. I mean, literally, it’s just not good for some of us. But it can be good for most people, and it can even be good for some people where it wasn’t before. That choice isn’t mine to make; it’s yours. Ask yourself: Why do I drink? And if the answer is because you need to drink, then I hope this helps save you some anguish.

Derek Brown is an expert on spirits and cocktails who is based in Washington, DC. He owns the 2017 “Best American Cocktail Bar” from the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards, Columbia Room, and is the author of Spirits, Sugar, Water, Bitters: How the Cocktail Conquered the World .

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Essay Examples on Alcohol Abuse

These essays serve as an invaluable resource for those looking to deepen their understanding of alcohol abuse and its impacts on individuals and society. Whether you're seeking inspiration, information, or guidance on structuring your own essay, our collection is designed to support your academic endeavors and inspire your writing journey.

Understanding ... Read More These essays serve as an invaluable resource for those looking to deepen their understanding of alcohol abuse and its impacts on individuals and society. Whether you're seeking inspiration, information, or guidance on structuring your own essay, our collection is designed to support your academic endeavors and inspire your writing journey. Understanding Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol abuse is a pervasive issue that affects millions of lives around the globe. It's characterized by the excessive or inappropriate consumption of alcohol, leading to adverse health, social, and legal consequences. Essays on alcohol abuse explore the causes, effects, and solutions to this complex problem, offering diverse perspectives that can enlighten and challenge readers. Through these essays, students can explore topics such as the psychological factors driving alcohol dependency, the social implications of alcohol abuse, and effective prevention and treatment strategies.

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Our collection of alcohol abuse essays encompasses a wide range of topics, ensuring that students can find essays that resonate with their specific interests and academic requirements. From analytical pieces that dissect the societal impact of alcohol abuse to personal narratives that offer a glimpse into the lives of those affected by it, our essays provide a comprehensive look at this multifaceted issue. Each essay serves as a starting point for your own research and writing, offering insights and perspectives that can enrich your work.

How to Use Our Essays:

Inspiration: Let the diverse range of essays spark your own creative ideas for topics and approaches to your alcohol abuse essay.
Research: Use the essays as a foundation for your research, helping you to gather relevant information, statistics, and case studies.
Structure and Format: Analyze the structure of our essays to understand how to effectively organize and present your arguments and findings.
Citing Sources: Learn how to properly cite sources and reference material, an essential skill for academic writing.

Our alcohol abuse essay samples are more than just resources; they are a beacon of inspiration for students embarking on the challenging task of writing about such a significant and sensitive topic. By exploring our collection, you can gain the knowledge, insight, and confidence needed to craft an essay that not only meets academic standards but also makes a meaningful contribution to the discourse on alcohol abuse.

Remember, the journey of writing an impactful alcohol abuse essay starts with understanding, empathy, and the willingness to explore the issue from multiple angles. We invite you to dive into our collection and let it guide you towards creating a compelling and thoughtful piece that reflects your unique perspective and voice.

Start exploring our alcohol abuse essay samples today and take the first step towards crafting an essay that resonates with readers and contributes to a deeper understanding of alcohol abuse and its implications.

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Alcohol Addiction in The Drunkard Novel

Alcohol consumption and why it should not be available after 11pm, substance abuse: drug types, alcohol, tobacco, and more, jane and sam-a case of prenatal alcohol consumption, discussion on the alcoholism and why alcohol should be illegal, aa meeting: a reflection paper, a critical reflection on visiting aa meetings, drinking liquor: teenager's sense of belongingness, group observation report: aa meeting, alcohol abuse among college students in the usa, alcohol issues in the christening novel, alcohol abuse – a national concern in ireland, lowering the drinking age to prevent underage drinking, a reflection on my experience visiting open aa meetings, binge drinking in college students, discussing the causes of alcoholism in teenagers, review of risks of moderate drinking, the issue of smoking and alcohol drinking among adolescents, alcohol abuse - the main issue of struggles in sharp, applying the social cognitive theory as intervention for alcohol abuse, relevant topics.

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Essay On Teenage Alcoholism

Teens and drinking have been an issue for some time and it continues to persist, attracting many young individuals. Whether it’s the pleasure or the ability to forget problems drinking as a teen has become a problem in society with many alcohol related issues. However, that sensation of being able to forget problems soon enters a cycle of many other issues such as consequences to the physical development and to the body itself, which is not able to handle the alcohol properly. In addition, soon the early admission of the depressant becomes and an addictive factor which can lead to alcoholism since the body constantly craves the substance. Teens and drinking has continued to progress over the years and the depressant has consumed many lives. Drinking exposure has begun as early as 12 years old, with girls drinking at around the age of 13 and boys at around the age of 11. The inclination to explore the usage of alcohol is caused by many factors such as trying to forget all of one 's problems, to gain confidence and the influence of other …show more content…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services acknowledges that there are 10 million teens in the United States drinking regularly and over 20 percent binge drink.( Teen Alcoholism). This information illustrates the dependence that teens have developed for alcohol and many of them don 't even know the issue that they are building for themselves. The signs that demonstrate that a teen is becoming or is addicted to alcohol are that he/she is a heavy drinker, they drink regularly for no reason and becoming upset over the removal of accessibility of alcohol.( Teen Alcoholism). Alcoholism creates a dependency on it and many teens who begin at an early age are more vulnerable to become addicted to the depressant leading to many other risk

The Danger Lurking In Just One Drink Summary

I agree with the author's point of view in the article “The Danger Lurking in Just One Drink”, by Jeannie Ralston. She provides many statistics that surround teenage binge drinking and how it is negative and dangerous to teenagers. In the beginning, the article starts off with a short story about a girl from Massachusetts, named Taylor Meyer, who was too drunk to find her way home and ended up drowning in a swampy area in the woods. “Your brain on alcohol becomes a dumber, more unpredictable version of itself and the consequences can be catastrophic” (Ralston, p.7). If Taylor had not drank that night she would have been able to find her way home safely and unharmed.

Satire Essay On Teenage Drinking

“A multilevel model was fitted to predict typical occasion quantity, frequency of drinking and drunkenness in drinkers aged 12–17 years. Findings Typical-occasion quantity was predicted by: frequency of social supply (by parents, friends and others); ethnicity and outlet density;” (Huckle) Also, “Teenage drinking is a particularly important policy issue for a number of reasons: age at which people start regular drinking is predictive of consumption and alcohol-related problems in subsequent years [1–6]; higher levels of harm are associated with drinking by younger people [7]; and there is also evidence of brain impairment associated with intoxication in the teenage years [8].” (Huckle) Huckle also says,“Supply by family, friends and others also predicted quantities

Essay On Lowering The Drinking Age

Drinking is harmful at any age, and especially to the developing brain of a teenager. Alcohol is a poison that we use for recreation. Drinking it can lead to many physical and mental issues for anyone. It can seriously endanger relationships as well. Alcohol consumption

Lowering The Drinking Age Essay

Drinking becomes a taboo thing teenagers just do to rebel against their parents and the authorities. Thus, instead of experimenting with alcohol in an unsafe environment, they would be able to experiment with alcohol under the supervision of their own home, in restaurants and

Drinking In Religion

Alcohol abuse and alcoholism seems like an issue that keeps getting increasingly worse each year in the United States. According to USA Today and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both say that approximately 6 people die from alcohol poisoning, caused from binge drinking, each day, which amounts to roughly 2,200 people each year. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says that “In 2013 an estimated 697,000 adolescents ages 12–17 (2.8 percent of this age group) had an [alcohol use disorder]” (“Alcohol Facts”). Something has to stop and something has to change from preventing this more because 6 people dying each day from binge drinking alone is a lot, not to mention that 12-17 year olds are having alcohol problems at such a young age. Lowering the drinking age will enforce this act even more, promoting more drinking in fact.

Underage Drinking Experience Essay

Campus Police reported 13 incidents of underage drinking that occurred on Homecoming Day, Saturday, Oct. 24, between noon and 4 p.m. A 14th student was issued an underage drinking summons later on in the day, at 11:50 p.m., Campus Police said. Twelve of the summonses were given in Lot 4, one was given outside of the Brower Student Center’s women’s bathroom and the other was issued in lot 6, police reported. A student was charged with allegedly assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest during Homecoming festivities on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 2:35 p.m., according to Campus Police.

The pure thought to get caught by the police or your parents is frightening to teens or underage drinkers and that 's why people use binge drinking. Binge drinking is defined as excessive amounts of alcohol consumed in a short period of time. Teens do this because when your illegally drinking you don 't particularly have a lot of time to drink so you just do it as fast as you can to use the time you have with your friends to get wasted but to be home before curfew. Many accidents and deaths have happened because of binge drinking, and we could lower the chances of binge drinking by lowering the legal drinking age to 18. The effects alcohol takes on the brain is the only “downside” to lowering the drinking age, but if used responsibly it 's not that big of a problem.

Essay On Why The Drinking Age Should Be 18

When a child turns 18, they open to many more responsibilities than any other teenage birthday. When a child is 18, they are not considered a kid anymore, they are adults. One of the many perks of being 18 is kids can vote and they can enlist in the army. In 1984, President Reagan had signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, and this required all states to set the drinking age to 21. If an 18 year old can enlist in the army, and put their life at risk they should be able to drink alcohol at 18.

By the time they are high school seniors, seventy-two percent teenagers say they have already consumed alcohol. Proper education at younger ages is needed for our country’s youth to learn the proper use of alcohol through experimentation with their own limits in safe environments.

Argumentative Essay On College Drinking

The Higher Education of Drinking College is a place for higher learning. It is a time when young adults are exploring themselves as individuals, expanding not only their academic horizons but for many, it’s their first time being on their own socially. Young adults find themselves making many decisions. These choices involve attending class, completing assignments and possibly engaging in behaviors that could impact their own personal health and safety. Sometimes they are faced with decisions that involve the use of various substances including alcohol.

Argumentative Essay On The Drinking Age

Drugs such as alcohol have an effect on all users, regardless of their age; however, alcohol has an especially harmful effect on teens since their bodies are still developing. Studies have shown that alcohol has numerous negative effects on a teen’s body and mental health; for example, a study conducted by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention stated that “alcohol consumption affects the brain’s frontal lobes, which is essential for functions such as emotional regulations, planning, and organization” (“Age”). Teens already have high emotions and difficulties planning and organizing; alcohol will only enhance teens’ struggle. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention also found that alcohol consumption at a young age can potentially cause chronic problems such as memory loss, depression, suicidal thoughts, and poor decision making (“Age”). Teens have a difficult enough time making decisions and organizing their lives, but adding alcohol to the mix will only make matters worse; their bodies are still developing, and they are still learning to be adults.

Underage Drinking Informative Speech

One major thing is Alcohol poisoning from a hard night of drinking can cause you to overdose on alcohol and basically die.. Binge drinkers are one of the majorities that are affected from alcohol poisoning. Binge drinkers take in an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time and then maybe wait for a month and do it again in one night. Excessive drinking from teens can suffer from blackouts and cause them to forget things very easily. Teens that do regularly drink hardcore are shown to have bad testing scores in school and perform bad in school in general.

Essay On Underage Drinking

It apears that children who exprienced drinking at young age will also continously and habitually drink in the future once they grow up. They do not simple do this occasionally but it has become a frequent and habitual addiction (Christiansen et al. 7). In totality, drinking alcoholic beverages of teenagers is not is unhealthy, unsafe, and unacceptable. More and likely teens that drink are trailing behind in their education because of how alcohol affects them so bad. Some parents allow their children drink alcoholic beverages under certain circumstances with their

Informative Essay On Alcoholism

ALCOHOLISM How many times have you heard about the consequences of alcoholism? Have you taken them into account? Alcoholism is one of the major problems in society. People don’t take it so seriously but it actually is a disease. The effects of this disease are really serious.

Drug Abuse: Causes And Effects On Teenagers

Drug Abuse Causes and Effects on Teenagers Drug abuse is one of the top issues defying the country today particularly among the teenagers. Occurrences of drug and alcohol abuse and related anti-social behavior have massively expanded lately. This has become a matter of concern to the government, parents and teachers. Teens regularly try different things with an assortment of activities and substances. Unfortunately, this experimentation can prompt substance misuse and addiction.

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303 Alcohol Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best alcohol topics for essays, 👍 good topics for alcoholism essays, 🎓 simple & easy alcohol research titles, 💡 most interesting alcohol topics to write about, 📌 interesting topics to write about alcohol, 📑 good research topics about alcohol, ❓ research questions about alcohol.

Drug and Alcohol Abuse For along time now, drug and alcohol abuse in the society has been a problem that affects the youth and the society at large. This paper highlights the problems of drug abuse and alcohol drinking […]
Alcoholism and Sociological Imagination In the context of the alcoholism social problem, it is possible to use the concept of sociological imagination to unify individual characteristics of the alcoholic and historical contexts of the problem to illuminate the dynamics […]
Reaction to Attending Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting The mentor and organizer started the meeting with a short introduction, greeting and thanking the participants for their persistence to inspire the conversation that followed.
Alcoholic Anonymous: Advantages and Disadvantages of the Programs In addition to this, the merits and demerits of AA in the fight against alcohol abuse will be articulated so as to demonstrate the effectiveness of AA in helping Alcoholics recover.
Effects of Alcohol Consumption The duration in which a person consumes alcohol determines the intensity of the negative effects of alcohol on the person. Alcohol consumption is regarded as a risk factor in causing colon cancer because it causes […]
Alcoholism as a Social Problem The first attempt to tackle the problem was in the 1920s when the government passed the prohibition Act. This may cause them to turn to alcohol as a way of neutralizing the problem.
Alcohol and Drugs Effects on High School Students According to Martin, “society also advertises the image of individual and social happiness for alcohol and drug users; this misconception results in the societal decrease of achievement, especially, of high school age students”.
Alcoholism Causes and Curing In addition, professional counseling is equally important as the specialist can be able to access the level of alcoholism in the patient, how dependant that person is on alcohol and such information which would help […]
Underage Drinking and Teen Alcohol Abuse However, due to low legal driving age in America, many teenagers are prone to the risk of driving under the influence of alcohol than in other countries.
Non-Alcoholic Beverage Company’ SWOT Analysis For instance, recent data on the progress of Coca-Cola shows that the organization gained the total of $67,749,000,000 in the target market.
Cigarette and Alcohol Consumption Alcohol and smoking have changed the way people act, and this reflects the behaviors of all characters in the three videos.
Drugs and Alcohol Effects and Behaviorism Help The problem of alcohol and drug dependency has increased over the years, fueled by factors such as easy accessibility of drugs, high cost of living, poverty, financial instability, and laxity on the part of authorities […]
Ban on All Advertising of Alcohol To make matters even worse, most of the alcohol adverts tend to neglect references to the bad effects associated with the consumption making it look like an alternative to soft drinks.
Age Restrictions on Alcohol Consumption In my opinion, the average minimum drinking age should be lowered to eighteen years of age because various sources have shown that drinking alcohol for many youths begins as early as the age of eleven […]
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Causes and Consequences Scientists have not yet found out, if the volume of alcohol taken, the frequency of taking, or the time the alcohol is taken during pregnancy, is connected to a variation in the degree of injury […]
Alcohol Consumption Among Students However, the study examines the prevalence of alcohol among college students and the neighborhood surrounding since many studies have not focused on the impact of the environment on alcohol consumption among college students.
Straight Edge Subculture: Hardcore Punk Music and Abstinence From Alcohol In Straight Edge subculture, music forms the realm of the group’s values as it is the fundamental basis of its ideology through the message conveyed through the lyrics.
Alcoholic Anonymous Meeting as Group Therapy The AA meeting allows the participants to feel a sense of belonging. Describe the observations of the social milieu in an AA meeting.
Effects of Alcohol Abuse on Women Among all these destructive substances, alcohol is the leading one and a significant companion of the 21st century people as well as a way of relaxing to escape the difficulties of posed by life. It […]
Alcohol and Alcohol Dependency Chronic use of alcohol leads to alcohol dependency or alcoholism, a condition characterized by continued use of alcohol despite evident adverse psychological and physical effects to the user.
Without Alcohol, The World Would Be a Better Place While the author accomplishes the ultimate goal of persuading the readers, the extensive use of Pathos harms the cohesion of the text as well as the credibility of the argumentation.
Drug and Alcohol Abuse Among Young People It is evident among drinkers that, when the BACs are low they develop a feeling of elation and when it rises, a feeling of friendliness begins to develop.
Alcoholic Industry: Beam Suntory and Diageo Companies In the United States, the beverage industry continues growing: more than 60% of all revenues in the industry are made of the revenues of alcoholic beverages.
Alcohol, Violence, and Sex Content in Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” For example, The Catcher in the Rye is a book that appeals to the majority of adults while the representatives of the younger generation often turn out to be not able to come to the […]
Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol One of the implications of the adolescent and adult driving while intoxicated is enduring the life after the occurrence of breaking the law.
Alcohol Industry and Business Ethics At the same time, Crane and Matten state that alcohol companies can be ethical citizens as they use numerous methods to make people aware of the harm associated with the use of alcohol.
Social Article About Alcoholism Problem by Sanders Russell In his story “Under the Influence: Paying the Price of My Father’s Booze,” author Sanders Russell gives a deeply personal account of the effects of alcoholism in his family as he was growing up. Russell […]
The Side Effects of Drinking Alcohol It is thus of essence that before a discussion of the side effects of alcohol consumption, a detailed analysis of the causes of addiction to alcohol be conducted.
History of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Wilson and Smith went to the Oxford Group to learn the Oxford Group’s techniques of prayer, for example: surrender, guidance, and moral principles.
Alcoholic Anonymous Reaction Essay The understanding of alcohol abuse and the current resources that exist to curb it, such as AA, is fundamental to understanding the challenge on a medical level.
Alcoholism and Treatment Options Even though alcohol has been inappropriately abused recently, it is safe to say that the consumption of alcohol is both a tonic and poison, depending on the dose. In India, several states prohibit the sale […]
Alcohol Use Disorder: Addictive Behaviors Alcohol use disorder is a chronic relapsing brain disease characterized by the following: Compulsive alcohol use Loss of control over alcohol intake Negative emotional state when not using alcohol.
Understanding and Addressing Alcohol Dependence Alcohol dependence is a chronic condition involving a past or present record of excessive drinking, unending craving for alcohol, and persistent, recurring problems associated with the inability to decide when to use the chemical.
Pathophysiology of Stress, Processed Foods, and Risky Alcohol Consumption The body starts to see the fats, sugars, and salt in ultra-processed foods as rewards, which leads to increased cravings and overeating.
Drug and Alcohol Abuse Among Teenagers The thesis statement is: “Conviction is a better way to reduce drug and alcohol addiction among teenagers in the United States”.
Alcohol and Drug Abuse in Canada Therefore, it contributes as a central factor in the essence of the character, and it is crucial to understand the core definition and the elements that foster the ideology.
When Alcohol Use Becomes Substance Use Disorder Patients suffering from AUD believe they cannot restrict their alcohol use; however, others who consume alcohol may alter the limit since they are not addicted to the drug.
Awareness on Alcoholism: What Is It and How to Cope? The availability of these products is a major driver of individual and family problems that many people face. Alcoholism is a form of physical and mental addiction to drinks containing alcohol.
Comorbid Gambling Disorder and Alcohol Dependence The patient was alert and oriented to the event, time, and place and appropriately dressed for the occasion, season, and weather.
Alcohol Abuse: Causes, Symptoms, Prevention, and Treatment Alcohol can additionally be the cause of brain damage manifested in the form of impairments in executive functioning, for example, weakening of visuospatial function and working memory.
Alcohol-Based Sanitizers Preventing Nosocomial Infections Namely, the research papers examine the most prominent strains in the healthcare setting, compare alcohol-based and alcohol-free sanitizers, and prove the effectiveness of the intervention.
Alcohol Consumption Impact on Graduation Rates One of the most acute problems of our time is the increasingly frequent use of alcohol by minors. Alcohol consumption by school students refers to deviant behavior, and this type of behavior of adolescents is […]
Alcohol Misuse and Its Impact on Young Drinkers The impact of alcohol use can range from severe and rapid results of a single incident of alcohol impairment, including unexpected accidents and deaths, to cumulative and varied implications of a persistent pattern of drinking, […]
Alcohol and Aggression: Annotated Bibliography The authors conduct an experiment to examine the alcohol-related cues to aggressive thoughts and violent perceptions in the absence of alcohol or using a placebo.
Screening Alcoholism With AUDIT Evaluation Method This tool, in turn, could provide some extra explanations for Brian’s drinking and help determine whether he was genetically predisposed to the condition. Thus, AUDIT happens to be the most suitable tool for reviewing Johnson’s […]
Isopropyl Alcohol in Cosmetics and Medicine Isopropyl is synthesized in two steps: through the reaction of propylene with sulfuric acid and the consequent hydrolysis. In the context of isopropyl alternatives as sanitizers, ethyl alcohol serves as a solid option.
Drug and Alcohol Addiction: Abby’s Case The amounts of money Abby spends weekly on fulfilling her addictive desires and her long history of drug usage imply that she has an addiction problem.
Alcohol Consumption: The Key Aspects The quantity of alcohol a person’s body can handle is determined by the type of drink, the person’s weight, and the drink’s serving size.
Aspects of the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome It is not known when alcohol is most harmful to the fetus during pregnancy and whether there is a safe lower limit for alcohol consumption.
Impaired Control and Alcohol Consumption The study will focus on the relationship between mood/attitude and impaired control in the context of alcohol consumption. The purpose of the study is to identify whether certain moods or attitudes result in a greater […]
Alcohol-Induced Chronic Pancreatitis: Population Affected, Side Effects, and Treatment The recurrence of acute pancreatitis is linked to the development of chronic pancreatitis, and it is more prevalent in alcoholics who use alcohol often.
Evidence of the Success of Alcohol Prohibition in the United States in 1920 Consumption of alcoholic beverages considerably declined as a result of the enactment of prohibition in the United States. As a result, there was a considerable decrease in the number of alcohol-related diseases.
Alcohol Consumption Among Students: Linear Regression and Correlation 0, the p-value is 0. From the correlations results in table 3.
Narcotic Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous Groups The desire to change one’s life for the better and look at the world soberly is what many people come to with time, and all of them are united by the desire to return to […]
Alcohol and Narcotic Anonymous’ Recovery I was impressed by the fact that at the beginning of the meetings the group finds a volunteer who reads an excerpt from the book as a prayer, and the discussion of personal experiences begins.
Substance Abuse: Drug and Alcohol Treatment National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers: Concentrates on ethical interventions Provides integrated treatment approach Offers cognitive-behavioral methods Reinforces the value of family support Recognizes addiction as a complex issue Prohibits discrimination
Alcoholism Issue in Miami Gardens The new data also matches tendencies from the summer of 2020, when the coronavirus struck, when many Floridians resorted to alcohol and other narcotics in the face of unpredictable circumstances.
Alcoholics Anonymous Program Evaluation Program evaluation also assesses the organization’s quality, the efficiency of its methods and identifies aspects of the procedures that can be improved.
Alcohol Usage Should Be Controlled As such, the current landscape of alcohol production and marketing requires heavier regulation in the form of a number of policy changes.
The Effects of Drinking Alcohol While Pregnant However, the study revealed an unexpected association between the two conditions and improved awareness of the devastating impact of protean on development and health. The study evaluated the neuropsychological and alcohol exposure parameter as well […]
Effectiveness of SBIRT for Alcohol Use Disorders in the Emergency Department In this stage, the health practitioner asks the patient three questions regarding the quantity and frequency of alcohol use by employing the AUDIT-C tool.
Alcoholism Causes: Where Science and Religion Converge Although it is difficult to pinpoint a single cause of alcoholism, it is clear that many internal and external factors serve as raw material in the making of an alcoholic.
The Cost-Effectiveness of Alcohol Screening, and Brief Intervention Miami is a highly-populated area; According to statistics, 463,347 people reside in it; Approximately 25% of the population suffer from different forms of addiction and alcohol abuse is one of the leading problems on […]
Alcohol Abuse and Effective Prevention Technique The original presentation and this extended exploration for it discuss the community structure, the essence of the problem and the theory and practice behind the SBIRT approach.
Media Influence on Alcohol Abuse Consequently, many people are likely to watch the advert, and the ad can increase consumption of the product and limit the fight against alcohol problems.
Alcohol Addiction: Biological & Social Perspective At the same time, the UK is one of the most drinking countries, as the average number of liters of alcohol per person there was 11. In addition, taking acetaldehyde dehydrogenase inhibitors allows to break […]
Alcoholics Anonymous Overview When I attended the third meeting, I was among the people who largely contributed to how it is easy to stop taking alcohol.
Addressing Drug and Alcohol Addiction in Baltimore While a lot of the violence in Baltimore is related to the drug trade, the drugs themselves killed at least 180 more people than homicides in the city as of 2019.
Alcohol Addiction and the Role of a Community New Horizons Group of Alcoholics Anonymous is a local fellowship to support men and women with alcoholic problems in Miami Springs.
The Research in the Field of Alcohol Consumption by Adolescents Therefore, at this stage of the discussion, it is important to consider the role of the theory in the five approaches to qualitative research with the purpose to underline the role of theory in our […]
Alcoholism, Domestic Violence and Drug Abuse Kaur and Ajinkya researched to investigate the “psychological impact of adult alcoholism on spouses and children”. The work of Kaur and Ajinkya, reveals a link between chronic alcoholism and emotional problems on the spouse and […]
Alcoholic Anonymous Meeting and Impact on Treatment As the name suggests, the meeting was open to alcohol addicts and those who have recovered, members of the public, media, and professionals in different fields.
Alcohol Addiction Among Women Women are a population of interest because of the increased mortality rates from alcohol-related health complications and the effect of this substance on childbearing. Similarly, to the previous organization, Alcove is a recovery facility that […]
Alcoholism Problem Overview Alcoholism is one of the major factors affecting the health of individuals and family relations due to the repercussions of the dependence.
Nuances of Alcohol Using Addiction Despite the traced co-occurrence of criminal activities and alcohol consumption, people argue that there are many positive aspects of drinking moderately, such as relaxation that is useful in many social environments. Goode argues that “for […]
Alcohol Use Disorder: SBIRT Alcohol is widely known to be a harmful substance, but many people tend to underestimate its dangers due to the slow and incremental nature of its effects.
Social Work Related to Alcohol and Substance Abuse The social work of this setting offers services to understand the current point of clients and identify the directions to improve their behaviors.
Predicting Medium-Term Success Among Alcohol and Opiate Dependents The purpose of this project: to establish establish whether the detoxification facility is an important inclusion in the process of getting addicts off drugs.
The Alcohol Consumption Relapse Issues In the case of my patient, she is highly willing to improve her life, and she understands that it is the only path to happiness.
Moderate Alcohol Use Disorder: Treatment Plan The primary tool to help determine the disease’s presence are surveys – CAGE-test, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, usage of DSM 5 criteria, and others.
Effects of Alcohol. Alcohol-Related Statistics It is also a leading cause of death including both for the chronic drinker and the innocent victims of alcohol-related accidents.
Pinacol Rearrangement and Alcohol Reactions Lab The purpose of this experiment is to use the researcher’s background knowledge on alcohol reactions to explain more complex reactions. The objective of this reorganization is to generate a ketone.
Alcoholism: A Female Patient’s Drinking Profile It had changed her perspective of reality and destroyed her family in a way that each of her children had a health problem leading to death of one child at the age of 10 years.
Moderate Alcohol Abuse as DSM–IV–TR Diagnosis The DSM-IV-TR diagnosis in this case is a moderate alcohol abuse ), which requires a minimum of four symptoms as specified in the DSM.
The Problem of Co-Morbidity: Alcohol and Tuberculosis The problem of alcohol abuse as one of the main factors for the emergence and amplification of tuberculosis is widely discussed in medical circles and social organizations as well.
The Use of Alcohol During Pregnancy Since you would like to understand if it is important for you to stop drinking alcohol, I would say that in case you want to prevent the emergence of any complications for the baby, it […]
Reasons of Alcohol Addiction in Teenagers Given the clinical diagnoses, the wide-spread nature of the problem, and the severe consequences impacting the life and health of millions of people, the in-depth investigation of the causes of the disorder is of critical […]
Alcohol and Substance Abuse There has been “no definitive treatment strategy for alcohol-related intervention with homeless individuals”. Some of the most successful interventions or programs to help homeless individuals with alcohol and substance abuse include the following: Providing both […]
Alcoholic Anonymous: Its Purposes and General Topics Another primary objective of AA groups is for the members to provide support to each other in the process of healing from alcoholism.
Alcoholism in Native Americans Theories suggest that the rate at which alcohol is absorbed in the body of a Native American is different from that of the rest of the U.S.population.
Alcohol Use: Prevalence and Causal Factors Thus, to understand the issue of alcohol use in Australia, this paper examines the prevalence, causal factors, preventive strategies, and then criticizes the effectiveness of these strategies in curbing the use and abuse of alcohol.
European Alcohol Beverage Industry Crisis The instability of the euro, as a common exchange medium and the financial crisis in the Eurozone, has caused severe problems to the company and harshly affected the profitability.
Recall Bias in Alcohol Consumption Epidemiological Studies Recall bias is one of the factors that affect the credibility or validity of the research. The correctness of the answer is usually dependent on the memory of the respondent.
Public Health. Excessive Alcohol Use in the US According to a recent article published in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, excessive alcohol use in the United States ought to be recognized as a national health problem that is frequently associated with […]
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Overview Tait argues that although the level of drinking of the Aboriginal population is higher, findings indicate that many Aboriginals have the ability to abstain from alcohol more than the rest of the Canadian population. Impacting […]
Reasons People Justify Consumption Drugs and Alcohol The rate of prevalence of drug use is high, and some of the problems that have been quoted in use of these are like high mortality rate and morbidity.
Excessive Consumption of Alcohol Among Adults The legislation should be targeted at providing funds for federal and state health agencies to operate media campaigns on how to deal with factors mentioned in the lower levels of the socio-ecological model.
Alcohol Interaction With Medication: Type 2 Diabetes EM is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and the doctor advises him to take the prescribed drugs, but to keep of alcohol, due to its negative reactionary effects with medications.
Alcoholism Among the Adult Population in Wisconsin Alcohol dependency, which is an offshoot of excessive alcohol consumption, has been noted to lead to behaviours such as child abuse and neglect, poor dietary habits and absenteeism among the adult population in Wisconsin.
Alcohol Before and After Military Combat Deployment The conclusion of the article addressed the risk in the new-onset of heavy drinking, binge drinking and the alcohol-related crises among the soldiers who return from war.
Alcohol Advertising and Youth This has been achieved by analyzing the relationship graphs of alcohol consumption versus advertising, as well as bans on advertising. One of them is that it only focuses on advertising as the only influencer of […]
Abdominal Pain Caused by Excessive Alcohol Consumption Alcohol can alter the metabolism of various drugs, hence narrowing the choice of drugs that can be used on the patient and this should be explained. The possibility of recurrence should be mentioned and the […]
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives The mission of this agency is to protect the U.S.from the illegal use of firearms and explosives as well as the trafficking of tobacco and alcohol products.
Alcoholic Cirrhosis: Symptoms and Treatment The onset of alcoholic cirrhosis is proportional to the amount and period of ethanol intake. Alcohol breakdown in the body occurs in the liver and partly in the alimentary canal.
Alcohol or Substance Abuse: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Criteria one deals with tolerance which states that tolerance is a need to consume large amounts of alcohol in order to achieve intoxication, and it is the diminished effect that the substance abuser experiences with […]
Alcohol Consumption and Pregnancy This is not true and medical research show that all beers and wine do contain alcohol and the difference is the alcohol content in the drink and the amount of drink consumed by the pregnant […]
Alcoholism and Depression: Intervention Strategies The intention of the research paper is to assess if indeed there is an association between alcoholism as manifested by Jackson, and a case of depression.
Alcohol Related Fatal Crashes: The Impact of Tennessee’s Emergency Cellular Telephone Program The author of the article used the data that was collected from the cases that were recorded previously over a period of time.
Examples of Court Cases Involving Alcohol On the day the deed was executed, the plaintiff was driven in an automobile from his farm to Reno, Nevada for the purpose of the plaintiff and defendant being married in said city.
Teenage Depression and Alcoholism There also has been a demonstrated connection between alcoholism and depression in all ages; as such, people engage in alcoholism as a method of self medication to dull the feelings of depression, hopelessness and lack […]
Alcohol Abuse, Behaviour, and Types of Personalities Personality type is a process that assists in the determination of people’s behavior; it however assists in the classification of people into distinct category types.
Social Media Efficiency in Decreasing Youth Alcohol Consumption The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effects and efficiency of social media in raising awareness of alcohol as a health risk factor and decreasing alcohol consumption among youth.
The Main Problems of Alcoholism Despite the overall advance in treatment, alcoholism is still a challenge due to the lack of successful drug efficacy appraisals and pharmacotherapy personalization in patients with AUD.
Impact of Alcohol Use Disorder Social workers play a vital role in addressing alcohol use disorder as they can identify people who are at risk of developing it or fit the diagnostic criteria already and refer them to mental health […]
Prohibition Period in the USA History: Why the Government Was Trying to Ban Alcohol Prohibition was a momentous period in the history of the USA, during which the government was trying to ban alcohol. Naturally, the producers of liquor and owners of saloons protested, but it was surprising to […]
Advancing Alcohol Research and Treatment: Case Analysis Additionally, in the first stages of the assessment, it became apparent that O.K.is not aware of the causes of her alcohol abuse and lacks the motivation to address the problem.
The Risks of Maternal Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy Certainly, the risk of abnormal development of the fetus depends on the number of alcoholic beverages and the frequency of their use.
Alcoholism and Schizophrenia: Interconnection In addition to its physical effects on the chronic drinker’s body, alcohol is associated with a variety of mental impairments. Alcoholic dementia and Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome are among the most prominent concerns in the matter. The former is a blanket term for a variety of cognitive deficiencies caused by the substance. The latter is a two-stage […]
Alcoholic Anonymous Organization Fighting Addiction By accepting the problem and causes, a participant can try to resolve. In the program, participants have to admit their past wrongs and errors to a group and receive support to change.
A Workaholic and an Alcoholic This happens due to the fact that workaholics and alcoholics both tend to neglect their responsibilities at the family level in favor of their engagements.
Maternal Consumption of Alcohol During Pregnancy Should Be Unlawful in Canada Supporting the assumption to make maternal alcohol consumption illegal in Canada, it is appropriate to review corresponding articles that are associated with health and women’s rights.
Personality Issues Among Male People With Alcoholism The main message of the authors is that the personality degradation occurring during alcoholism is directly caused by problems of a socio-psychological nature.
Counseling Theories in the Management of Alcoholics The amount of alcohol he needs to get drunk has been increasing over the years and he spends much of his income on alcohol.
Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting After the analysis of a series of data collected over a fixed six months period, by the concerned members globally, in connection to that, 15% of accidents, 36% of deaths due to fire, and 26% […]
Managing Business Ethics: Alcohol and Marketing The promotion of alcoholic beverages is one of the “highly regulated” form of marketing, and in some countries of the World the direct marketing of alcoholic beverages are completely banned.
Alcohol and Smoking Abuse: Negative Physical and Mental Effects The following is a range of effects of heavy alcohol intake as shown by Lacoste, they include: Neuropsychiatric or neurological impairment, cardiovascular, disease, liver disease, and neoplasm that is malevolent.
Alcohol and Domestic Violence in Day-To-Day Social Life My paper will have a comprehensive literature review that will seek to analyze the above topic in order to assist the reader understand the alcohol contributions in the domestic and social violence in our society.
Should Alcoholic Beverages Be Legalized for All Ages? Alcohol expectations vary across different cultures and this affects the mode of consumption and the age limit to which alcohol is taken. The loopholes in the law should also be amended to prevent any consumption […]
The Dram Shop Act and Alcohol Consumption Laws were put in place for the accountability to establishments arising out of the self-service retailing of alcohol beverages to clearly drunk patrons or minors. It is clear that the dram act was put in […]
Alcoholism: Insights from Peer-Reviewed Journals The main issues which are commonly focused on in this article are the criminal justice system on the drugs, overview of both national and international policies concerning alcohol and drugs, the patterns of the drug […]
Alcohol and Tobacco Advertising History in the American Media This is the promotion of tobacco products by the tobacco industry in the media. In the 1970s the development of color lithography was a boost to the tobacco advisement in the U.S.media.
Alcoholism as a Psychiatric and Medical Disorder He meets criteria A since he is unwilling to admit that he needs help to fight his dependence, which means that he requires the assistance of an expert to recognize the issue and, therefore, manage […]
Alcohol and Sexual Assault, Health Problems and Alcohol Among Adolescents The reports of the various studies say that 50% of the sexual assault among adolescents is due to the influence of alcohol.
Genetic Predisposition to Alcohol: The Appreciation and Therapy for Alcoholism Through family studies it has been established that the likelihood of alcohol dependence and similar complications happening is more in the families of the individuals who have been affected as compared to in the people […]
Alcoholism: The Disease Is Often Progressive and Fatal According to the definition, the disease is a problem in society, but Colchado argues that if alcoholism is a problem, it cannot be considered a disease.
How Teenagers Can Avoid Becoming Alcohol Abusers Drinking a glass of wine or a can or two of beer during a social event is acceptable and does not impair the physical ability and senses of a person.
Alcohol Consumption Factors Among College Students In general, the purpose of the research was to arrive at evidence-based recommendations for university policy and guidance programs that could more holistically help students avoid binge drinking or alcoholism and systematically cope with the […]
Effects of Drugs and Alcohol Use on Mental Health This paper is a bibliography listing a selection of works discussing effects of drugs and alcohol use on mental health.
Alcohol and Crime in the U.K., the United States, and Australia The present paper looks at the issues of alcohol and the part that this liquid plays in violent crimes and offences in three major countries of the world: the U.
Excessive Alcohol Consumption in Adolescents Dynamisms in the family and peer relationships coupled with alterations in cognition and growth related to puberty play a major role in the onset and escalation of the use of alcohol.
Drug and Alcohol Abuse: A Comprehensive Research Study First, it is necessary to indentify the age groups, most inclined to drug and alcohol addiction, and ascertain the major reasons for it. The research should discuss the problem of addiction from various standpoints therefore […]
Alcohol Consumption and Cardiovascular Diseases This is necessary to examine the relationship between individual experience of disease and consumption, and, in the population, is essential to the calculation of attributable risk.
Genetic Basis for Alcoholism Further, Genetic studies will help you to understand more about the heritability of alcohol dependence and which will positively help you to explore the correlation of alcoholism to other disorders like major depression.
Analysis of Alcoholic Products Market in Ireland One of the major threats to the alcoholic drinks industry in Ireland is the increase in the number of coffee shops on the high street.
Alcohol Addiction Issue in USA In order to do well in the group of Alcoholics Anonymous, it is better if the individual is talkative and open to conversations, as the main way of psychological therapy is telling stories about their […]
Critical Issues in Education: Drug Abuse and Alcoholism For this case, the ministry concerned has a very hard task of ensuring there are no critical issues that are left unsolved that relate to education, failure to which will affect the performance of students […]
An Arbitrary Restriction: Current Minimum Age Limits on the Lawful Consumption of Alcohol Are Unreasonable Voting was almost always restricted to men over the age of 21 if only because of the gravity of the responsibility involved.
Alcoholism: Its Causes and Effects This is because when the levels of CYP2E1 are high, there is a greater level of lipid peroxidation within the liver, thus a lower ability of the liver to fight against the toxins that have […]
Cirrhosis: Non- and Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease 27%, is the end result of a hepatocellular injury that leads to both fibrosis and regenerative nodules throughout the liver. The main cause of alcoholic liver disease is the excessive intake of alcohol, whereas the […]
Single Parents in the Alcoholic Classification In this category, the single parent, either the father or the mother is a chronic alcoholic and heavily uses alcohol and other substances.
Depression in People With Alcohol Dependence Alcoholic depression in the presence of alcohol dependence is a mood disorder that occurs quite often in the structure of the course of alcohol dependence syndrome during the period of withdrawal syndrome and alcoholic psychoses.
Alcohol Addiction: Opting for a Correct Referral Method The psychological content of codependency is evidence of the uniqueness of health disorders and personal functioning of a family member as compared with alcohol-related disorders.
Alcohol Beverage Management Trends This paper aims to review the recent management trends in the alcohol beverage industry that are directed at enhancing the potential of the sector.
Alcoholic Fermentation and Metabolic Traits Furthermore, researchers intended to investigate the impact of human selection on strains’ food processing in addition to studying both the genetic variability and plasticity of different fermentation products between strains and food processes.
Alcohol Addiction and Psychological Assistance Smith is a supporter of the Democratic Party like most people in her family and among her friends and colleagues. Smith was asked what goals she wanted to achieve in the course of her treatment.
Alcohol and Smoking Impact on Cancer Risk The research question is to determine the quantity of the impact that different levels of alcohol ingestion combined with smoking behavioral patterns make on men and women in terms of the risks of cancer.
Gender and Alcohol Consumption Influence on a Date The third null hypothesis is based on the effect of interaction between the first and second main effects: there is no significant interaction effect between gender and alcohol consumption in terms of the attractiveness of […]
Reducing the Alcohol Abuse Among the Youth This paper includes a brief discussion of two possible ways to improve the problem and the justification for the use of one of the options.
Decreasing Overall Alcohol Consumption The long term goal is to eliminate alcohol consumption as part of my list of consumables. One major benefit that one gets from a lack of consumption of alcohol is the reduced chances of contracting […]
The Problem of Taking Alcohol
Alcohol Abusers and Their Psychological Treatment
Alcoholic Drinks Market Analysis
Alcoholism and Related Issues: Treatment Plan
Alcohol and It Effects on Brain Functioning
Alcohol & Substance Abuse and Medication Treatment
Alcohol Marketing Regulation and Its Effectiveness
Treatments for Alcohol Abuse in the Military
Restriction of the Alcohol Sale at Outdoor Music Events
Health Services for Drug and Alcohol Treatment
Alcoholics Anonymous Observation and Group Therapy
Alcohol Abuse for Military-Connected
Pocket Guide for Alcohol Screening
Prevention of Alcohol Consumption Among Youth
Child Abuse and Neglect: Drug and Alcohol Problems
Alcohol as the Most Common Depressant on Earth
Alcoholism as a Social Issue and Its Effect on Families
Teratogen Alcohol Exposure in Pregnant Women
Disease Concept of Alcoholism
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Regulation
Alcohol Effects on College Learners
Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings as Community Agency
Neural Development and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Should Marijuana Be Treated Like Alcohol?
Economic Tools: The Alcohol Abuse Problem Solving
Stereotype of Aboriginals and Alcohol in Canada
Taxes on Alcohol and Cigarettes as a Healthcare Costs
Alcohol and Drugs in Fatally Injured Drivers
Alcohol Effect on Teenagers Health
Alcohol Consumption in the UK
Alcohol Consumption in Adolescence
College Students Alcohol Drinking Effects
Healthcare: Excessive Alcohol Consumption Among Adults
Drinking Alcohol at Arizona State University
Alcohol Harmful Effects: Are There Any Benefits?
The Facts About Alcoholism
Substance-Use Disorder at the Workplace: Alcohol Dependence
Under the Influence of Alcohol
Should Abstinence Be the Goal for Treating People With Alcohol Problems?
Predictors of Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Use
The Genetics of Alcohol Dependence
Do Alcoholic People Interact Differently?
Alcohol Abuse by Quentin McCarthy
Integrated Advertising: America Alcohol Industry Case
Dangerous Effects of Alcohol and Cannabis
Alcohol Abuse Among Elderly
Reducing Drug and Alcohol Abuse: Europe vs. USA
The American Image of Alcohol
Concept and Treatment of Alcohol Abuse
Minimum Price for Alcohol
The Effects of Energy Drinks and Alcohol on Neuropsychological Functioning
Ethical and Social Responsibility of the Alcohol Industry in the UK?
The Effects of Alcohol Use on Academic Achievement in High School
A New Alcohol and Drug-Abuse Rehabilitation Center in Liverpool Hospital, Sydney
Women, Alcohol, Self-Concept, and Self-Esteem: A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Person-Centred Counselling
The Effectiveness of Alcohol Marketing, Regulation and How It Is Can Protect the Consumer From Fake Products
Definition of Alcohol Misuse (Alcohol Abuse and Addiction) in Youth Population Age 18-29
Social Observation and Analysis of Alcohol Drinking
Non-Alcoholic Beverage Industry
Social Influences on Behavior: Towards Understanding Depression and Alcoholism Based on Social Situations
Problem of Excess Alcohol Drinking in Society
Motivational Program and Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcohol Abuse and the Contribution of Economists to Solving This Issue
Abuse in Childhood Common Among Alcohol Addicts
Understanding Drug & Alcohol Addiction
Alcoholism and the Impact Colonization Has Had on Aboriginals
Effects of Alcohol on African American Teens
Diseases Caused by Alcohol Abuse and Its Preventions
How Drugs and Alcohol Affect Pregnancy and a Developing Child
Alcoholism-Nature vs. Nurture Debate
Alcoholism: The Rough Road
Developmental Issues With Adolescents Due to Alcohol Consumption
Feasibility of Introducing Alcohol Made in the U.S. Into the Thai Market
Alcoholism Disease or Self Will
Drug and Alcohol Testing
Why Drinking Alcohol During Pregnancy Occasions Unnecessary Risks to Prenatal Development
Alcohol: Should the US Lower the Drinking Age to 18?
Alcohol Problems and Abstinence
Teenage Alcoholism: Parental Influence and How to Get Rid of Vice
Should the Government Attempt to Reduce Current Levels of Alcohol Consumption?
How Does Alcohol Abuse Affect Aging People?
Should the Legal Alcohol Drinking Age Be Lowered to 18?
Are Drinking Motives Universal?
How Has Alcohol Abuse Become Part of the Culture in Many Societies?
Does Alcohol Use Increase the Risk of Sexual Intercourse Among Adolescents?
How Does Alcohol Affect the Brain’s Size?
Is Alcohol Advertising the Cause of Underage Drinking?
How Does Alcohol and Smoking Affect Erection?
Does Drinking Location Matter?
How Does Alcohol Cause Mental and Moral Changes?
Are Visual Impairments Responsible for Emotion Decoding Deficits in Alcohol-Dependence?
How Are Drugs and Alcohol Affecting the Teenagers?
Does Oxidative Stress Induce by Alcohol Consumption Affect Orthodontic Treatment Outcome?
How Far Will Alcohol Consumption Go?
Does Repetitive Negative Thinking Influence Alcohol Use?
How Does Alcohol Depress the Central Nervous System?
Are Alcohol Excise Taxes Good for Us?
How Does Alcohol Affect Human Behaviour?
Do Employers Have the Right to Submit Employees to Drug and Alcohol Testing?
How Does Alcohol Make You Drunk?
Can Alcohol Make You Happy?
How Many People Have Alcohol Use Disorders?
Does Alcohol Consumption Reduce Human Capital Accumulation?
How Similar Are Alcohol Drinkers?
Which Drug Is More Effective in the Treatment of Alcohol Withdrawal?
How Does Alcohol Affect the Human Body?
Should Alcohol and Tobacco Advertisement Be Banned?
How Similar Are Youth and Adult Alcohol Behaviors?
Should Alcohol Drinking Age Be Decreased or Increased?
Abuse Research Topics
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7 Lies About Alcohol You Need To Stop Believing

These myths are officially busted.

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Beer Before Liquor, Never Been Sicker

You've probably heard the saying " Beer before liquor , never been sicker. Liquor before beer, you're in the clear." We're not sure when the phrase originated, but there are many variations of it around the world. The crux of the saying is that drinking beer before hard liquor will make you sick or give you a bad hangover. Starting with hard liquor, however will keep you "in the clear." But is it true? Nope. Experts say the order in which you drink them doesn't really matter. In the end, it's all alcohol.

Coffee Sobers You Up

While coffee is a stimulant and alcohol is a depressant, it won't sober you up . Caffeine could make you feel more alert, but it won't change your blood alcohol level. According to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' Emergency Department , coffee won't rid the body of alcohol any faster than not consuming coffee. Based on their studies, UAMS said that it appears that coffee has a partial reversal of the sedating effects of alcohol. But does it make you more sober? Not really.

woman pouring herself hot coffee to a mug

Bottles Of Mezcal Contain Worms

Mezcal is made from agave, a plant that can have larvae called gusano de maguey. There are many theories as to why people started putting the larvae in mezcal. Some say that the distiller Jacobo Lozano Páez added gusano to mezcal for flavor back in the 1940s. But many believe the idea of larvae being added to mezcal simply comes down to marketing.

Tequila Is A Stimulant

Tequila, like all alcohol, is a depressant. This myth likely grew to prominence because of the way its often drank—as a shot. But no, tequila isn't a stimulant .

Dark Beer Has More Alcohol Than Other Beer

Many people mistake stouts and other dark beers for being heavy and having more alcohol. While some might have a heavier body, not all of them do, and the color of the beer doesn't determine its alcohol content. Guinness is often mistaken for a heavy, high ABV beer, when in fact, it has a light mouthfeel, only comes in at 4.2% ABV, and is relatively low in calories for a beer—125 calories in 12 ounces.

Alcohol Warms You Up

A glass of red wine or a hot toddy might make you feel warm, but alcohol doesn't actually raise your body temperature. According to the Missouri Department of Mental Health , alcohol causes the body's internal temperature to drop. The warm feeling is from dilated blood vessels that make your skin feel warm, and the Cleveland Clinic said that this can be dangerous as it gives you a false sense of warmth.

A Drink Will Help You Sleep

You've probably heard that a drink before bed will help you sleep, but according to Cleveland Clinic , drinking before bed will backfire. Dr. Joseph Janesz, clinical dependency specialist, tells Cleveland Clinic that alcohol might help you fall asleep, but it interrupts deep sleep making you feel tired the next day.

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Drinking Alcohol Essay

Drinking alcohol is like taking a drug. It is a form of drug abuse, and drug addiction. This is a worldwide problem that many people are involved in. There are good effects of alcohol if it is in small amounts, and in moderation. On the other hand there are bad short and long term effects. The effects that a person will get are all based on certain factors like, how much and how often alcohol is consumed, the age of the person, when the person started and how long they have been drinking for, gender, their family history and last but not least based on their health. Lately scientists have been saying that a little bit of alcohol with dinner is not only okay but it is also good for you. This is true in …show more content…

After that stage you start to get clumsy and will have slurred speech with about a 0.10% blood-alcohol level. Once you come close to unconsciousness you have a 0.30% blood-alcohol level. After that point it starts to get dangerous, because you can go into a coma at 0.45%, and then at 0.70% the brain starts to shut off and stop controlling things like breathing, and your heart, which will end up in death. These facts are not meant to scare you, because most people can’t drink past 0.40% because they are asleep. Some other short term effects include blackouts, where you can’t remember what happened, and insomnia, where you can’t fall asleep. While you are drinking you will be less alert, less aware of your surroundings, lose your muscular coordination, have difficulty walking, have blurred vision, and have slow reaction times. This can lead to accidents, injuries, and death. Also after drinking you may get a hangover the next morning which will include effects like headaches, nausea, thirst, heartburn, dizziness, and fatigue. If you are not careful with the amount of alcohol that you drink you can get some bad side-effects. Once you start to become addicted to alcohol you are considered an alcoholic. There are many long term effects that come along with drinking lots of alcohol for a prolonged amount of time. Drinking alcohol like this will damage your organs, like the brain, liver, stomach, intestines,

Crack Cocaine Research Paper

Alcohol results in unstable movement, and it changes an individual’s awareness and doesn’t let them think clearly and distorts their judgment, black outs and impairs their vision and hearing. Depressants, back in the day were used as a sleep aid. An overconsumption of alcohol can lead to the substance becoming a depressant. There are many different forms and types of alcohol but the ethanol is what causes an individual to become addicted to drinking. The effects that alcohol has on the central nervous system starts When alcohol arrives in the brain it binds with the GABA receptors that are in charge of transmitting information from each synapse so it prevents the GABA from following through with transmitting information. And it also fixes itself with glutamate, thus causing the glutamate to not recycle through the cell. This slows everything down leading the individual to react slowly to things and causes decreased cognitive function, decreased reflexes, and decreased coordination. Which then causes the individual to have impaired judgment and decision making due the brains receptor sites being blocked by the alcohol (Sullivan, Harris, & Pfefferbaum, 2010). The larger the dose of alcohol the more extreme the effects are. With a larger dose of alcohol, the individual has very poor fine motor skills and is emotional and seizures are likely. The rest of the alcohol goes through the liver and metabolizes breaking down the toxicity within your body but the more alcohol that the individual drinks the harder it is on their liver which can also cause liver failure (Capuzzi & Stauffer,

The Problem With College Drinking

Over a long time binge drinking can damage the liver and other organs. Car crashes, drunk driving arrests, sexual assaults, and injuries. For many their goal is to black out. Blacking out is when you just shut down into a hard sleep and can’t remember anything. Drinking too much alcohol can make you have alcohol poison and get really sick. You may even die or suffer health problems for the rest of your life.

Whats the Appropriate Drinking Age?

8 Works Cited

Alcoholism has been a major problem in the world for hundreds of years. Most people that deal with alcoholism became alcoholics because they needed a quick and easy way to de-stress. After long days at work or arguments with family and friends, the first thing they do is start drinking to make their stress go away. No one wakes up and decides, “I’m going to become an alcoholic today.” No one wants to be an alcoholic but bad things happen. If you are not careful with alcohol then you can easily become an alcoholic.

Should 18 Year Olds Be Allowed The Drinking Age To 18?

While alcohol may have damaging effects to one’s body, many benefits exist if one drinks responsibly. Many studies and cases do show alcohol can damage the liver and other parts of the body; however, when one drinks in a moderate manner many health benefits may exist. Alcohol helps to fight against various health conditions and risks common among many people,

Cause And Effect Of Lowering The Drinking Age

The effects of drinking can change from person to person depending on the personality of the drinker. Some of the people who drink have tempers or they may have violent outbursts, some may assault, just may relax and make themselves comfortable, but there are the dumb drinkers who get so drunk they will jump off a house if their friends tell them it would be funny and convinces them to do it. Drinking too much can weaken your immune system, making your body a much easier target for disease. Most people drink to forget something that has happened to them or they are trying to get rid of the pain and suffering they are going through. The effects of drinking under the age twenty-one is the increased risk of physical or sexual assault. Drinking

Drinking and Driving Essay

This pattern often encourages people to drink more to keep the buzz going." ( Net Biz Mentor ). When people get like that they usually get a little bolder and want to do normal tasks and routines like driving a motorized vehicle. The effects of alcohol result in poor coordination, slurred speech, double vision, decrease of self-control, lost of consciousness and maybe even death.

The Consequences of Drinking And Driving Essay

"After drinking people usually feel pleasure and become talkative at first. These feelings are usually replaced by drowsiness as the alcohol is eliminated from the body, and the drinker may then become withdrawn. This pattern often encourages people to drink more to keep the buzz going." ( Net Biz Mentor ). When people get like that they usually get a little bolder and want to do normal tasks and routines like driving a motorized vehicle. The effects of alcohol result in poor coordination, slurred speech, double vision, decrease of self-control, lost of consciousness and maybe even death.

?Alcohol?s effects are progressively more noticeable as the blood alcohol concentration increases. At a BAC of .02 to .05 percent the effects are almost entirely pleasurable. The drinker feels relaxed and sociable. There may also be some modest impairment of reasoning or memory and general reduction in caution. A BAC of .05 to .07 produces a state of excitement. The drinker begins to suffer from what may be a slight but nonetheless noticeable impairment of balance, speech, vision, reaction time, and hearing. Judgement and self-control are also effected. The driver?s behavior is apt to become more aggressive. In general, the drinker feels stimulated and highly capable. In reality his or her ability to safely perform tasks such as driving that require quick reactions, concentration, and good judgement has been significantly reduced.

Essay on The Effects of Drugs in the US

Often, the alcohol will bring out a violent temper and often, alcoholics abuse, physically and mentally, their friends and family. Drinking makes the drinker feel he is more confident. The drinker thinks he is in control, even if a little high, and he might get behind the wheel of his car and go for a drive. Drunk driving is deadly. Hundreds of thousands of people get killed every year due to drunk driving.(Castro 60) Other physical effects of drinking are vomiting, passing out and sometimes, if enough alcohol is consumed over a long enough period of time, or if mixed with other drugs, death.

Alcoholism Essay

The physical effects of alcoholism are somewhat gruesome. Excessive in take and prolonged use of alcohol can cause serious disturbances in body chemistry

Outline For Alcoholism Research Paper

There are some long-term effects on the body due to the abuse of alcohol. You can end up with brain damage, and dementia. Common disease resulting from excessive alcohol consumption are pancreatitis, gastritis, hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, and heart disease. Alcoholics are also at risk for developing cancer in the mouth, throat, esophagus and even the liver. You can also develop psychiatric problems such as depression and anxiety which may lead to suicide. Woman who are pregnant shouldn’t drink alcohol because it will cause damage to the fetus.

Alcohol Essay 10

Alcohol is a drug that is classified as a central nervous system depressant. There are three forms of alcohol, beer, wine and distilled spirits. Alcohol is one of the most commonly used drugs in the United States and has more adverse effects that most other drugs combined. There are many aspects to consider when thinking about alcohol as a drug. There are many myths surrounding alcohol, including who uses it, what its effects are on users, social and sexual situations and the amounts people drink. The vast majority of the American population uses alcohol and in many various ways and this also causes different effects. Alcohol is also has a great causation in crimes committed by users, social, medical, and educational problems as a

Alcohol Addiction Research Paper

Drinking can cause a person to have a complete personality change and become violent or hostile after drinking. They may also become irritable or panicky during times when a drink is expected. An alcoholic may drink to the point of black out; this is where they don’t remember what they’ve done or said that happened during a bout of drinking. A definite red flag for alcoholism is when a person has to have to drink in the morning when they first wake up.

Essay on The Effects of Alcohol

The abuse of alcohol over long periods of time may also cause diseases such as cirrhosis, acute alcohol hepatitis, and the most severe liver disease. Cirrhosis is a disease in which the liver becomes so scarred that the patient lacks sufficient healthy tissue to perform the organ?s functions. Once you?ve got it, you are stuck with it. (Gross, 6) The worst thing about these diseases is that you will not know you have them unless you are medically examined on a regular basis. Alcohol consumption is a large contributor to the development of several types of cancer- mostly dealing with the neck and brain. We know that cancer kills and therefore it is safe to say that in some cases, alcohol can be deadly. It is important to realize that alcoholism is a disease. A heavy drinker will experience the effects of withdrawal syndrome (which include hypertension, anxiety, disorientation, hallucinations, and seizures) if he decides to stop drinking. Being addicted to alcohol is similar to being addicted to any other drug in that once one starts using, it is tough to live without. It is also a ?gateway drug? just as marijuana and other sedatives. (Bennett, Woolf, 13-23)

Abstract Of Alcohol

While drinking might make you feel good now, if you abuse that alcohol it may lead to serious complications later. Heavy drinking is defined as consuming four or more drinks in a day for women and five or more drinks in a day for men (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Alcohol is considered a depressant, so it is only seen fit that one of the chief effects of alcohol on the brain is to depress central nervous system functioning. In turn it may be why major depressive disorders occur in those who abuse alcohol. If the alcohol abuse continues over a period it intensifies into an alcohol dependency. Alcohol has effects on the body both mentally and physically. After a certain limit alcohol will slur your speech, increase your reaction time, and make you lose co-ordination. Alcohol consumption, particularly long-term alcohol dependence has many physiological ricks to consider, such as permanent damage to the brain, alcoholic liver disease, pancreatitis, alcohol poisoning

Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse

How to stop self-medicating depression, anxiety, and stress.

Binge Drinking: What it is, the Effects, and How to Stop

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Aging and alcohol use

Why older adults drink, effects of drinking as you age.

Signs that you’re drinking too much

Tip 1: Set plans to reduce your drinking

Tip 2: Recognize triggers

Tip 3: Find social support

Tip 4: look for healthier ways to cope with stress, tip 5: add new meaning to your life.

How to help an older adult who’s drinking

Alcohol and Aging Effects of Drinking in Older Adults and How to Cut Back

Many older adults are drinking more, but alcohol use comes with unique risks as you age. Even if you're drinking to cope with the challenges of aging, there are ways to cut back.

As you age, you may find yourself indulging more in your favorite wine, beer, or liquor. You may have grown fonder of the taste over time, your social group may be incorporating more alcohol into your get-togethers, or you may be turning to alcohol for the purpose of self-medicating issues such as depression, anxiety or stress . A new phase of life can come with all sorts of new challenges and obstacles, such as reduced finances, a dwindling social life, and declining physical abilities. And when those changes feel overwhelming, alcohol can seem like a convenient way to cope.

While you’re not alone— research shows that alcohol use is rising among older adults—trying to drink away your problems only creates a dangerous spiral. Even if your drinking habit doesn’t progress into alcoholism or alcohol abuse , you might notice physical, mental, and social consequences to your actions, which in turn may cause you to drink more to relieve the stress.

With age comes wisdom, but even older adults can be caught off guard by a drinking problem. However, you can always take steps to adopt a healthier relationship with alcohol. The first step is to learn about common reasons for drinking, signs of excessive drinking, and the unique risks alcohol poses to older adults.

Instead of addressing the root causes of daily stressors or negative emotions as you age, some people use alcohol to change how they feel and find relief from their problems. People who develop a drinking problem are often trying to numb feelings of stress with alcohol. This can be a tempting route to take, especially in the face of new challenges and stressors that emerge later in life, such as:

Boredom or lack of purpose . Many of us look forward to retirement. But if you don’t have activities or interests to replace work, retirement can be a stressful time where you might feel bored or directionless. A loss of identity, status, or purpose can even contribute to feelings of depression in older adults .

Reduced income . Retirement or a reduced ability to work can affect your income, and financial instability often increases stress. Drinking may seem like a way to ease your tension, but ultimately it just further worsens both your mood and financial situation.

Failing health or chronic pain . Aging comes with an increased risk of serious health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, or hearing loss . Health issues might lead you to despair or even ruminate on your own mortality. Drinking can seem like a way to escape from these difficult feelings or provide relief from chronic pain and discomfort.

Loneliness . Many of us as we get older start to struggle with social isolation and loneliness . This could be due to anything from living alone to retirement to limited physical mobility. Drinking can be a way to pass the time you spend alone. If you do venture out, alcohol can also offer “liquid courage” in social situations, especially when you’re facing them alone

Recent bereavements . The loss of old friends and family members can spark intense feelings of grief. It’s not uncommon for people to try to “drown their sorrows.”

Over time, drinking can make it more difficult for you to overcome any of these aging challenges. You might find that alcohol use further limits an already-tight budget, deepens your sense of grief, or accelerates a physical or mental health condition.

Maybe you’ve fallen for the common misconception that the older you are, the better you can handle alcohol. In actuality, as you grow older, your body has a harder time metabolizing alcohol, increasing your sensitivity to it. You also likely have less muscle mass than you did when you were younger, so the effects of alcohol can come on faster.

Older drinkers are more at risk of:

Injuries from alcohol-related accidents . If your balance, sight, or reflexes are not what they were, accidents such as falls and vehicle collisions may be more likely to occur. In addition, reduced muscle mass and bone density increase the odds of severe injury.

Health complications . Alcohol can exacerbate conditions that are common in older individuals, such as high blood pressure , osteoporosis, diabetes, liver problems, ulcers, or impaired memory .

Adverse drug interactions . As we age, we often rely on prescription or over-the-counter medication to manage health conditions, whether it’s sleeping pills or pain medication or medication for depression or other mood disorders. Some of these medications can be dangerous when mixed with alcohol.

Older adults who drink in excess also face many of the same risks as younger drinkers, including:

Reduced sleep quality .
Increased anxiety .
Worsened depression .
Weight gain.
New development of chronic conditions like cancer , heart disease, or liver disease.
Social problems, including damaged relationships with family and friends.

Signs that you’re drinking too much as an older adult

A 2021 survey suggests that more than half of Americans over the age of 50 enjoyed alcohol at least once in the past year. Because drinking is such a common activity, it’s not always easy to tell when moderate alcohol use progresses into alcohol misuse or abuse. Here are signs that you may be drinking more than is healthy.

You have more drinks than you intended . You might plan to have a single drink with dinner, but you keep telling yourself, “One more won’t hurt.” Later, you find yourself looking at a collection of empty bottles on the table.

You experience cravings . You might find yourself wanting a drink even at inappropriate times. When you can’t reach for a drink, you might feel unfocused or irritated.

You blackout while drinking . A blackout is when you drink so much that you experience memory loss or fragmented memories. It can leave you feeling worried about your health or nervous about the things you said or did while drinking.

You feel ashamed of your drinking . After drinking too much, you might feel guilty about your lack of self-control. You might also regret things that you said or did while intoxicated.

Drinking worsens your mental health . You might have a few drinks in hopes of forgetting your troubles. However, later you notice that drinking has increased your sense of hopelessness and anxiety. If you’re trying to numb unpleasant feelings or relieve stress, drinking often only pushes your stressful obligations back a day or two, ultimately making them even more time-sensitive and stressful.

Drinking affects your relationships . Even if your physical or mental wellness isn’t noticeably affected, your drinking might be a point of contention between you and your loved ones. Perhaps your adult children worry about your health, or your partner dislikes the way you behave after a few drinks.

If any of these signs sound familiar, you might feel a sense of despair. Perhaps you fear that this pattern of behavior will degrade the quality of your physical and mental health as well as your social life. Rest assured that there are steps you can take to regain control, deal with challenges in healthier ways, and get the most out of life as you age. The following tips can help you to quit drinking or cut down to healthier levels.

According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), men should aim to limit alcohol consumption to two drinks or less a day, while women should aim for one drink or less. If that seems like a tough goal, remember that cutting back on just one drink a day could improve your brain health.

Start by making these small changes:

Set hard limits . You might want to limit yourself to a certain number of drinks per sitting. Write your goal down somewhere as a reminder. If necessary, record how much you’re consuming, so you can better track your drinking habit. Let those around you know about your limits as well. They’re not responsible for your behavior, but they can offer gentle reminders or avoid encouraging you to drink more.

Choose dry days . If you have a habit of drinking every day, this might be a good way to reduce your alcohol usage. Come up with a list of activities that will keep your mind off of drinking during the days you decide to abstain. For example, go for an evening walk with a friend, have a movie night with family members, or spend time tending to your garden.

Slow down . When you have a drink in front of you, take slow, small sips and appreciate the taste. Making a conscious effort to be mindful —present in the moment and more appreciative of each sensation, rather than drinking on autopilot—can help reduce the amount you end up drinking by the end of the night. It might also help to drink water between sips of alcohol. Drinking water won’t prevent a hangover, but it might help fill your stomach and discourage you from chugging alcohol. Taking bites of food between sips can have similar benefits.

Make it harder to find alcohol . Although it’s convenient and often cheaper than going to a bar, avoid storing alcohol in your home. If you have beer in the fridge or wine in the dining room, it’s too easy to reach for a drink at the end of a stressful day. The more time and difficulty you have to acquire the alcohol, the less likely you are to drink.

Try alcohol-free alternatives . If you love the taste of beer or wine, try nonalcoholic products. The alcohol-free alternatives can be especially useful when you’ve hit your set alcohol limit for the day but still have cravings. You might have to experiment with a few products before you find the nonalcoholic drink that you find most satisfying.

Addressing alcohol addiction

Should you aim to cut back on drinking or quit altogether? It’s a personal choice, but if you have an alcohol addiction, dropping the habit is likely the healthiest option. But alcohol can be a very difficult substance to detox from . Alcoholics can experience severe and dangerous withdrawal symptoms if they suddenly stop drinking, including headaches, nausea, elevated heart rate, and even an increased risk of seizures.

Treatment options such as residential facilities, individual or group therapy, and peer support groups can be helpful in dealing with an addiction. Learn more in our guide to Overcoming Alcohol Addiction .

Tip 2: Recognize triggers to your drinking

Understanding your triggers can be extremely helpful in regaining control over your alcohol consumption. Triggers are familiar circumstances that guide you to take a specific action. They don’t force you to engage in a behavior, but they can subconsciously provoke a behavioral response — in this case, reaching for an alcoholic drink.

While triggers can be very personalized—just because a situation triggers someone else, it may not affect you in the same way—some common triggers for drinking can include locations, such as being seated in a restaurant or bar. Specific times, such as weekends or evenings, might serve as a cue that it’s time to drink. You may instinctively reach for a beer when you come home from running errands. Or perhaps you feel compelled to drink anytime you’re with certain friends.

Triggers aren’t limited to external factors. You might feel an urge to drink whenever you experience negative emotional states, including anxiety, frustration, or sadness.

Take note of your unique triggers. What circumstances lead to your cravings? Write them all down if necessary. By learning what your triggers are, it can allow you to start making changes in your life that don’t put you in difficult situations. For example, you might choose to cut down on trips to a restaurant that serves alcohol. If being around a certain friend triggers your cravings, you can suggest outings that don’t involve drinking.

[Read: Staying Social When You Quit Drinking]

If you can’t avoid a certain trigger — weekends by yourself, for example — you can take several approaches:

Focus on the reasons why you want to avoid drinking . Try to recall how awful a hangover feels or imagine the long-term consequences of alcohol abuse.
Find a distraction . Think of activities that can take the place of drinking. This could include anything from going for a leisurely stroll outdoors to running errands. If you distract yourself long enough, the craving will pass.
Reach out . Consider calling a friend, family member, or another trusted person for support. They might be able to either distract you from the urges or remind you of why drinking isn’t the answer.

Loneliness is a common hurdle many of us face as we age, and it can go hand-in-hand with depression and excessive drinking. Maybe you’ve lost touch with a valuable circle of work friends after retirement. Or perhaps lifelong friends have passed away or moved. If you’re living in a rural area or dealing with limited physical mobility, you might also struggle with isolation which can lead you to spend too much time alone, drinking and ruminating.

Strengthening or building a social support network is a great way to overcome the loneliness that can trigger alcohol use. Here are some tips:

Start by reaching out to acquaintances — people you regularly run into but aren’t friends with yet. This could be someone you see at a local café or library. Invite them to a simple outing, like a walk in the park, so you can get to know each other better.

Volunteer . Look for local volunteer opportunities that interest you. Help with a clothing drive or mentoring program. This is not only a good way to make friends but can add a sense of purpose and satisfaction to your days.

Engage with local groups and events . Join a yoga or tai chi group, go to a museum when a new exhibit is unveiled, or look for activities at adult day care centers . Open yourself up to new experiences, and you’re bound to meet new, interesting people. Just try to avoid groups or events that might entice you to drink. You may even want to try out a peer support group, such as AA, where you can find social support from sober people who understand your struggles.

[Read: AA and Other Peer Support Groups for Alcohol Addiction]

Staying in touch via technology

If distance or limitations with mobility mean you’re unable to regularly meet with loved ones, embrace technology. Email and text messages are useful for sharing daily life updates and photos. Or you can schedule video calls so you can hear and see friends and family members. You can also reconnect with old friends via social media and then schedule online get-togethers.

You can also get creative with long-distance communication. Rather than just chat, consider hosting a digital book club or game night with friends over a video call. If you’ve never used video conferencing or social media before, it may seem a little uncomfortable at first, but you’ll soon get the hang of it.

Some alcohol support groups, such as AA, also offer online meetings as a convenient way to connect.

Despite the fleeting euphoric sensation that comes with a buzz, drinking alcohol won’t help you cope with the stressful challenges that often come with aging. However, there are healthier ways to manage stress and boost your emotional resilience.

Stay as active as possible . Regular exercise is important to physical and mental health as you age. Exercise releases endorphins and promotes feelings of well-being. The next time you feel a craving — or if you’re feeling one now — get up and go for a short walk and see if the urge to drink subsides. Even if you’re experiencing limited mobility, you can still find activities that match your abilities . Working out with a friend or neighbor is also a great way to make exercise a social activity.

Experiment with relaxation techniques . Relaxation practices such as mindfulness meditation, visualization, and deep breathing exercises can help to combat stress without turning to alcohol. Exercises that involve rhythmic movement, such as swimming or running, and activities that involve deep breathing, such as yoga, can also be helpful.

Follow a healthy diet . Your diet is another factor that can affect your physical health as well as your mood and energy levels. Try to eat nutritious, well-balanced meals .

Get enough sleep . Getting seven to eight hours of sleep at night can help reduce feelings of anxiety and depression. Changes in your body’s hormones can lead to difficulty sleeping as you age. However, identifying and addressing other underlying causes of insomnia can help to improve your sleep quality .

Events like retirement or bereavement can make you question your purpose in life. You might feel that your sense of identity was tied to your job or your sense of meaning stemmed from your relationship with your late spouse. Or perhaps a diagnosis of dementia , cancer, or a similar condition has robbed you of your sense of independence.

It’s tempting to turn to alcohol to fill a void in your life or cope with stress and anxious feelings. But here are a few ways to renew your sense of meaning in more fulfilling ways:

Volunteer . Think of ways to serve your local community or support causes that you’re passionate about. Help with a food drive, participate in clinical studies, or work with your church to set up a summer program for kids, for example.

Mentor younger people . You’ve likely amassed years of skills and experience during your life and career that can be passed to benefit the younger generation. Reach out to youth groups, community centers, local colleges, or volunteer groups to find mentorship opportunities in your area.

Write your memoirs . Or a how-to book about something you’re knowledgeable about. If you have grandkids, you could compile a family history or photo albums to pass down to them. Or start a blog about your life and experiences.

Learn new skills . Don’t fall for the belief that you’re too old to learn something new. Take dance lessons, experiment with a musical instrument, or enroll in a community college course. This is also a great way to expand your social circle.

Dive further into your hobbies and interests . Love cooking? Start to compile your recipes into a book. Enjoy spending time in nature? Join a bird-watching or hiking group. By focusing more on the interests that add meaning and joy to your life, you’ll begin to feel more fulfilled and less reliant on alcohol. If new limitations prevent you from pursuing your old hobbies, try taking up something new.

Add a furry companion to your life . If you’re an active person, a dog can make a loyal friend and can accompany you on daily walks. Cats are better if you have more limited mobility. In either case, taking care of an animal can make you feel needed, add a new sense of purpose, and benefit many different aspects of your life.

By doing things that add joy and meaning to your life, you can ease symptoms of anxiety and depression, and also boost the feel-good chemicals in your brain that promote long-term happiness.

Speak to a Licensed Therapist

BetterHelp is an online therapy service that matches you to licensed, accredited therapists who can help with depression, anxiety, relationships, and more. Take the assessment and get matched with a therapist in as little as 48 hours.

How to help an older adult who’s drinking too much

Watching an aging parent or other loved one struggle with a drinking habit can be a painful experience. You might feel frustrated by their alcohol abuse or distressed about the potential long-term consequences. Although you can’t control their behavior or make decisions for them, you can broach the subject and advocate for change.

Educate yourself on alcohol addiction if necessary . Addiction isn’t as straightforward as it may seem, and there are many misconceptions. Take the time to learn about alcoholism and alcohol abuse, including common signs, effects, and myths.

[Read: Helping Someone with a Drinking Problem]

Let them know about your concerns . Don’t lecture or threaten your loved one. Just let them know how their actions seem to be affecting their health or your relationship. Don’t be judgmental, but let them know you care. If other family members have also noticed the drinking problem, you can set up a family meeting to broach the subject.

Expect denials . An aging parent might push back on the idea that they have a drinking problem. They might say that they know what’s best for their health. Be patient. Give them time to process what you’ve said. They might eventually see past their own sense of denial. In the meantime, it’s important that you don’t blame yourself for their actions.

Help them change their habits . If your loved one is willing to address their drinking problem, you can play a supporting role in their efforts. Again, it’s not your job to control their behavior, but you can assist them in identifying their triggers and finding ways to better handle them.

If they drink because they’re lonely, for example, try to schedule more frequent face-to-face visits, or give them a call when in-person visits aren’t possible.
Encourage them to stay in touch with close friends or explore ways to become more social.
Consider home care services and adult day care centers as ways to add social interaction to their lives and ensure they’re eating healthier meals.
If your parent lives in an isolated area or is unable to get out much, it may be time to consider different housing options that provide greater opportunities for social connection.
If possible, join them in daily exercise and other healthy habits.

Your support can’t fully solve an older adult’s drinking problem, but it can be key to helping them confront their own issues. With patience, effort, and support, you can help your aging parent find health, joy, and satisfaction in their later years.

Support organizations for managing your alcohol use

Most of these organizations have worldwide chapters:

Women for Sobriety – Organization dedicated to helping women overcome addictions.

Alcoholics Anonymous – Learn more about the 12 steps and find a support meeting in your area.

SMART Recovery – Self-Management and Recovery Training (SMART) is a program that aims to achieve abstinence through self-directed change.

Al-Anon and Alateen – Support groups for friends and families of problem drinkers

Professional help for alcohol treatment and recovery

Search SAMHSA’s Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator .

Find NHS support services for alcohol addiction .

Find Quality Addiction Care from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.

More Information

Rethinking - Tools to help you check your drinking patterns, identify signs of a problem, and cut back. (National Institutes of Health)
Alert - Effects of alcohol on the brain, including blackouts and memory lapses. (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)
A Booklet for Families - Learn about treatment options and what you can do. (SAMHSA)
Facts - The effects of alcohol and problem drinking. (National Institute on Aging)
Find an effective path toward recovery - Alcohol addiction recovery. Special health report from Harvard Medical School. (Harvard Health Publishing)
Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders. (2013). In Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . American Psychiatric Association. Link
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A Literature Review: Alcohol and Its Impact on Creativity in Undergraduate Students

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Record ID: 78

Award(s): Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentorship

Program Affiliation: NA

Presentation Type: Poster

Abstract: Alcohol seems to have been woven through our culture; in fact, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 49 percent of college students have consumed alcohol in the past month (NSDUH, 2022). Despite more recent interventions and research on the detrimental effects of drinking, alcohol-related consequences still persist in society. One important aspect to look at in relation to alcohol use is creativity, which is key for problem solving and brainstorming; it is so complex and multifaceted that it is hard to get a concrete measurement. This project presents a holistic review of the differing methods used to measure creativity, and how the usage of alcohol impacts creativity, including across different measurements of creativity. These methods range from looking at the concept of divergent thinking, to looking at the creative process (preparation,incubation,illumination, verification, restitution), and how alcohol inhibits and disinhibits varying parts of the creative process. Preliminary findings suggest that divergent thinking has shown to be minimally affected by alcohol; while the creative process was shown to be inhibited by alcohol at the illumination phase and facilitated at the verification phase. These inconsistent and complex findings from the literature review demonstrate the need for future studies to look at the drinking behavior of college students and how that has impacted their ability to creatively think.

Article Details

Major: Biological Sciences

IMAGES

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