Alcohol Consumption : The Effects Of Alcohol On The Body

“’ Were seeing kids coming in with blood alcohol see levels in the mid-.3s, even .4, which four to five times the legal limit for driving. That’s the level at which 50% of people die,”’ says Dr. Mary Claire O’ Brien, an emergency medicine physician and associate professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Underage drinking has become an issue in young teens. Teens are drinking large amounts of alcohol in short periods of time. The effects of alcohol in adolescents are much more life threating then an adult. In the article “The Underage Drinking “, Emily Listfield acknowledges that binge drinking is common in adolescents, it causes long term effects, physical injury and death.

The pathophysiology of Alcohol affects virtually every organ system in the body. Therefore, consuming to much alcohol in high

A recent US study revealed that more than 15 million people, 18 years of age and older, have Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Broken down by gender, this includes 9.8 million men and 5.3 million women. Even more disturbing is the fact that roughly 623,000 adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age have AUD. Of those, 298,000 were male and 325,000 were female.

Underage drinking is very common in the United States. Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused drug in the United States, even more so than illicit drugs (Marijuana, Cocaine, etc…) and tobacco. “In 2012 the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that 24% of youth aged 12 to 20 years drink alcohol and 15% reported binge drinking. In 2013, the Monitoring the Future Survey reported that 28% of 8th graders and 68%

According to current statistics released by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, “In the United States in 2011, there were an estimated 25.1 million adolescents aged 12 to 17. In the past year, more than one quarter of adolescents drank alcohol, approximately one fifth used an illicit drug, and almost one eighth smoked cigarettes” ("A Day in the Life of American Adolescents," 2013, para. 1). Substance abuse is major problem amongst adolescents. Some are experimenting, but some adolescents may become dependent on a particular substance. If one becomes dependent on a substance as an adolescent it could be detrimental to their future health and success as an adult. Spear (2003) stated in an article titled Alcohol’s

In 2008, a National Institutes of Health Survey counted a total of 1.3 million children from the ages of twelve to seventeen that have experienced alcohol abuse just within the last year, and a total of 2.3 million young adults from the ages of twelve to twenty who have drunk five or more times within a single occasion. “At age twelve, 11 percent of boys and 9 percent of girls have commenced drinking, and 1 percent of them are classified as binge and heavy users. By age fourteen, the numbers are 31 and 33 percent use, respectively, and 6 percent of them are binge and heavy users. At age eighteen years, 73 percent have commenced drinking, 42 percent have used alcohol in the past month, and 39 percent are heavy users,” (Sherwood, 2012, p.1). However, the most common group in which abuses the use of alcohol is the college age. In 2007 alone, over 1800 college students were killed due to alcohol-related accidents, along

Alcoholism is a growing problem in the United States. It can, and oftentimes does, result in illnesses and deaths. “Alcohol is the world’s third largest risk factor for disease and contributes to 4 [percent] of the global burden of disease” (Marshall, 2014). In relation to alcoholism, specifically adolescent alcoholism is a growing concern in the United States. The age at which young people are starting to experiment with alcohol is younger than ever. Dr. Don Macdonald explains that this may most likely be due to the fact that it is legal for the majority of the population. Therefore, adolescents are able to access and get a hold of alcohol more easily than they can other drugs – such as marijuana, heroin, cocaine, etc.

Each year about 5,000 people under the age of twenty-one die from causes related to underage drinking. Today, about 10.8 million children and teens, ages twelve to twenty-one are underage drinkers. Teens start to drink because of the environment around them, their physical changes, emotional changes, and the increase of independence. Alcohol is now the most widely-used substance among teens. Many think that drinking is less serious than drug use, but that is not the case. Alcohol is a depressant that could alter with your brain, which could lead to disease and serious health effects later in life. Preventing teens using alcohol could save many lives.

Nearly 25 percent of teens drink alcohol because they think it is fun; however the problems it may bring are not so fun (Hyde 22). There over six times more teen deaths per year from alcohol than any other drug (O’Malley 30). Alcohol affects the body of teens as well as all of the developmental processes. A major issue of teens drinking is that it increases the chance of becoming an alcoholic in the future; which leads to lowered self-control, impaired judgment, and lowered inhibition (Heath 12). Alcohol can completely change the life of a teen from the time they start drinking till death. Alcohol affects so many aspects of a person’s life and once it does, it is so hard to get life back to normal. Alcohol effects teens by harming them

First off, alcohol addiction and abuse among teenagers today is a bigger problem than ever before. The root of the problem lies in the fact that the teens are so exposed to the culture of this day and age, leading them to where they have easy access to alcohol. For example, their parents may already be alcoholics, and it's merely a few bad decisions later which could cause the child to have a few drinks and cloud their judgement. This is a big problem because their young bodies have never encountered anything like alcohol before, so in turn, the body does not know how to process it, and therefore leads to their downfall. A publication released by the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAA) suggests that by age 18, an astounding 60% of US teens would have had at least one drink. Moreover, according to the NIAA, youth between the ages of 12 and 20 will often binge drink as well.

For motor skills part, there are two factors to analysis, which include muscle control: leg muscles and heart muscles; eyesight effect by the alcohol consumption. An organization which is named Narconon Reviews (2013) claimed that motor-skills are those functions that muscles, hand, feet, etc work together. They are always executing specific actions, such as walking/running, driving a car, picking up an object/moving it. Motor skills also connect with sensory channels. These channels include sight, sound, touch, smell and even tastes. If an independent drinks alcohol, one of the channels will be limited.

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)

Alcohol is one of many dangerous substances that effects our bodies. The effects of this drug can be very harmful. Alcohol is a potent non-prescription drug sold to anyone over the national legal drinking age, 21. Unlike other deadly drugs it is easy to access. This makes it easy to over-consume and create a tragic accident, even death. It can damage a person not only physically but also mentally and emotionally. Many people each year become more and more addicted to alcohol and soon experience all of it?s dangerous effects. Even if alcohol use is discontinued, some of these damages can not be cured, because the scars have been left on those that drink and those that surround them. The only hope

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 – 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).

Alcohol and Its Effects on the Body As tempting as it might be to consume alcohol in college, I have found through recent experiences that the idea might not be as glamorous and fun as it seems. I have experienced the trouble that drinking can cause and the negative impacts that alcohol does to your body. Unfortunately, I have experienced many of the troubles that alcohol can acquire for someone.