Alcohol and Your Life

Alcohol is a depressant, meaning it can cause extreme sadness and a whole host of emotions. There are a large amount of negative side effects that alcohol has on the body, as well as life in general.

Alcohol's effects on the body change over time. Initially, alcohol really does produce the feeling of relaxation and happiness, seemingly the reason why many people drink. You will be very outgoing and have more confidence in yourself, but it catches up with you after awhile. Excessive drinking can lead to blurred vision and coordination problems. The cell membranes in our bodies are very permeable to alcohol, so it gets into virtually every area of the body when it is consumed. Very heavy drinking can cause a person to become unconscious and lead to alcohol poisoning, a state where your body begins shutting down and organs stop working due to the alcohol, or even death. Another common cause of death in drunken persons is asphyxiation. It happens when a person is vomiting due to excessive consumption of alcohol and chokes to death on the vomit.

Alcoholism, an addiction to alcohol, is obviously a major health problem that affects many people in this country. Many of us may know someone that is an alcoholic and if not, we've surely heard stories in health class about those who are. Longtime use of alcohol is where one can run into many more major health problems. It can cause cancer in the digestive system, esophagus, the pharynx, larynx, and the liver. The liver contains special enzymes which break down the alcohol in fats, carbon dioxide, and water. Fat deposits are what cause the "beer belly" that everyone has heard about. In the body of a chronic drinker, fatty acids build up as plaques around the liver capillaries, which kills these cells. In time, the drinker could develop cirrhosis, where the liver experiences excessive scarring from the alcohol abuse and simply cannot filter out the alcohol anymore. This disease can lead to liver cancer or failure.

Alcohol causes dehydration because it has a diuretic effect which produces excessive amounts of urine. Think about how much someone has to use the bathroom when they are drinking. They are becoming more and more dehydrated each time they urinate. A more common effect that most of us have normally experienced is the dreaded hangover, the feeling one gets the next day where they wake up feeling nauseous with a terrible headache, and is very sensitive to light and noise. All these effects are caused by severe dehydration. The dehydration causes the brain to shrink away from the skull and triggers pain receptors on the brain's outer surface, causing the headache. The other symptoms are all by-products of a headache. The best way to rid oneself of hangover symptoms is by drinking large amounts of water.

It is definitely true that alcohol affects virtually all areas of the body. In the brain, tissue sizes are reduced and ventricles become larger. Alcoholic beverages deprive the brain of vitamins, because many heavy drinkers obviously do not eat correctly. Vitamin deficiencies can cause many problems over time, the most serious being severe mental problems. The heart is also affected by these vitamin deficiencies, and pumping action can become weaker. Prolonged alcohol use can cause heart failure. Another affected area is the skin. Alcohol causes blood cells to widen, resulting in a "flushed" look and feeling of warmth. I have seen persons who turn extremely red when they are drinking. This is also a result of blood pressure shooting up. Alcohol can also cause problems with our reproductive organs. It depresses nerve impulses and many men may lose the ability to get an erection. Women who drink heavily have even to lose. Drinking while pregnant can cause fetal alcohol syndrome in the young child, a situation where the alcohol inhibits the child's growth and nutrition. The child may have brain damage or bodily deformities. Alcohol can also cause extreme weight gain because of its high carbohydrate content. It definitely has something to do with that "freshman 15" that everyone talks about.

Large amounts of alcohol obviously have a detrimental effect on the brain and the central nervous system. Brain damage can be caused by long-term use, and other effects on the nervous system include blurred vision, altered sense of time and space, slowed reaction time, and dull smell and taste. Alcohol causes damage to the lining of the esophagus. It causes severe vomiting and pain and difficulty swallowing. This is a case where cancer can result over time. Large amounts of alcohol can be bad for the lungs as well. A person may experience respiratory failure and die. There is also less resistance to infections. Alcohol even causes muscle problems. Muscles become weaker, and a person may experiences spasms and pain throughout all areas of the body. It also causes bones to weaken as a result of lessened calcium absorption. Bones become soft, brittle, and thinner.

There are a host of other negative things that come with drinking alcohol. Obviously, the legal drinking age in the United States is 21, and I think this age is appropriate. I really think the age is 21 because that seems to be the true measure of adulthood. Alcohol causes many more problems than tobacco, where the legal age of use is 18, and alcohol seems to have a higher age limit for this reason. At 21, you have a much better handle of yourself and life in general than you do at 18. Also, the reason we changed the age from 18 to 21 in the first place was because so many of our young teenagers were dying in accidents where alcohol was involved, mainly automobile crashes.

Drunk driving is something that is really stupid. People who get behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated can basically be compared to a bullet in a loaded gun. Driving is dangerous enough in itself, so driving under the influence is just absolutely ridiculous. It is something that has been stressed to us throughout our adolescent years. When you drive drunk, you put yourself and others at risk. You can tear apart your own family as well as someone else's. It's simply just not worth it. Another big problem is underage drinking, which I can obviously attest to. Drinking illegally can cause many problems; you can obviously go to jail or be arrested and even lose college scholarships in the state of South Carolina.

Another negative side effect of drinking alcohol involves social situations. It is obvious that alcohol lowers our inhibitions and makes us more confident socially, but it can also be disastrous. You say and do things that you would not do otherwise, and this is where you run into problems. People start making ridiculous comments and get on others nerves; this is where the fighting begins. Many fights break out due to drinking just because people are intoxicated and get mad. Of course, if these things happen in a public place, it can lead to more arrests and being in jail.

Alcohol can really just make you feel like crap in general. It can affect your schoolwork and all areas of your life in a negative way if you use it excessively. The long-term effects of alcohol are really scary to think about as well. I really do not want my body breaking down in the future because of something I could have prevented. Too much alcohol is dangerous in any situation and usually leads to bad things happening. I know this because I have seen it. After doing this paper, I have really realized the negative affects of alcohol and what it can to do somebody.