Negative Effects of Alcohol

Negative Effects of Alcohol

Team Two

University of Phoenix

Negative Effects of Alcohol

Many alcohol consumers only think about the positive effects of consuming alcohol, the pleasurable time they will have with their friends. Little do they know, about the negative effects alcohol carries with it. This research will discus the negative effects alcohol has regarding: addiction, genetics, health, family, and advertisement.

“Alcohol addiction is a physiological dependence on alcohol” (National Institute of Health, 2000). This means a person has no control over whether he or she takes a drink. Physical addiction is when a person’s body actually becomes dependent on alcohol. It also means that a person builds tolerance to that substance, so that person needs a larger amount to get the same effect.

When a person who is physically addicted stops using a substance like alcohol, he or she may experience withdrawal systems. Withdrawals can be like having the flu; symptoms are diarrhea, shaking, and generally feeling bad.

Psychological addiction happens when the cravings for alcohol are psychological or emotional. People who are psychologically addicted feel overcome by the desire to consume alcohol. A person crosses the line between abuse and addiction when he or she is no longer drinking for fun, but because he or she has come to depend on it. Their whole life centers on the need for alcohol.

“Dependence on alcohol is our most serious public health problem” (Health & Wellness Resource Center, 2006). Most individuals who abuse alcohol have jobs and are productive members of society. They are our neighbors and our co-workers. People with this problem really believe that they drink normally.

Alcohol dependence disorders are medical disorders that can be treated, once the person is willing to admit there is a problem. When an addicted person will not seek help, sometimes family members, friends, come together out of concern and love, to confront the problem drinker. They urge the person to get help and explain to them the possible consequences, such as family breakup or loss of a job. People with alcohol dependence problems can and do recover.

What makes an alcoholic: is alcoholism genetic or the environment or is it both?

Gary has alcoholics from both sides of his family: his grandfathers, father, uncles, aunts, and cousins. In addition, there were family members that were not alcoholic, such as his grandmothers, mother, uncles, aunts, and cousins.

Gary has several generations of alcoholics in his family. When Gary was 12, with the consent of his father he started drinking alcohol. His father would buy a six-pack of Coors beer for him at least once a week. He would also give him shots of Kessler, a bourbon alcohol. This 25-year ordeal was not just “Alcohol”, he graduated to “marijuana” then to “cocaine.”

Some would say that with the number of alcoholics in his family he must have the gene that make a person an alcoholic. Other would say, but more than half of his family was not alcoholic; therefore, he could not have the gene. He must have learned how to be an alcoholic.

Just because alcoholism tends to run in families, does not mean that a child of an alcoholic parent will automatically become an alcoholic too. Some people develop alcoholism even though no one in their family has a drinking problem. “Not all children of alcoholic families get into trouble with alcohol. Knowing the risk is important, though, because then you can take steps to protect yourself from developing problems with alcohol” (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2007).

The idea that alcoholism runs in families is an ancient one. In recent decades, science has advanced this idea from the status of folk-observation to systematic investigation (1-3). In the 1970s, studies documented that alcoholism does run in families (4, 5). “However, does alcoholism run in families because a child learns to become an alcoholic from parents and the home environment, or because a child inherits genes that create an underlying predisposition for alcoholism? Or both”? (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 1992).

Alcohol has no beneficial attributes on a person’s health. Alcohol can have several harmful effects on human organs. Some organs in the human body that are damaged by alcohol consumption are the brain, kidneys, and liver. The human liver is the one organ that suffers the most damage. As stated in an article published by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “Because the liver is the chief organ responsible for metabolizing alcohol, it is especially vulnerable to alcohol вЂ" related injury” (NIAAA, 2005). Regular use of alcohol can lead to alcoholic liver disease (ALD). The severity of ALD can vary based on several different factors. Some of these factors include gender, age, the amount consumed, and how often alcohol is used. “ALD includes three conditions: fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis” (Alcohol Alert, 2005).

The first condition of ALD is fatty liver which is the build up of fat cells in the liver. It is the earliest stage of the disease. People can develop fatty liver just by drinking heavily for a period as short as three days. “Heavy drinking is considered three to four drinks (30 grams) a day for a man and two to three drinks (20 grams) a day for women” ( USC Research, 2006). To some people that could be cutting loose on a weekend trip to Las Vegas. The next stage of the disease is alcoholic hepatitis. Alcoholic hepatitis is caused by long periods of heavy drinking which causes inflammation in the liver. There are three different types of hepatitis. Although ALD is not a viral hepatitis it is still just as deadly. Inflammation of the liver causes healthy liver cells to be replaced by scar tissue. Scar tissue on the liver is referred to as cirrhosis, and in this case is called alcoholic cirrhosis. This is the third stage of ALD. “Cirrhosis of the liver leaves it unable to perform vital functions” (Alcoholic Alert, 2005).

Women suffer the negative effects of alcohol more than men, due to the way each gender absorbs alcohol. If a man and a woman were to drink the same amount, in the same time, the alcohol level would be higher in a woman than in a man, even when weight is not a factor. “Women have lower levels