Final paper: drug addiction.

Federica Viero

1331423

Final paper

DRUG ADDICTION 

350-401-DW section 00002

Enrico Museo

December 11 2015

What you should ask yourself about alcohol

Alcohol is something any person lives with in their lifetime, has kids we see our parents consume a glass of wine at diners or a cold beer on a warm summer night with their friends. Has kids we don’t really see the difference between alcohol and apple juice except that apple juice is for kids and alcohol is for your parents. Has we grow older we ear things like alcohol can get you drunk and such but we don’t really understand the term except maybe when you see you uncle at Christmas acting funny and dancing on every Christmas song that’s playing and your ear your parents tell him; your so drunk uncle; then you make the connection alcohol makes you do funny things. But has you grow older and begin your teenage years your are expose to something new; alcohol is being used by people of your age or close to your age, and they say that being drunk is fun its like a drug its gives you a buzz. And from school and publicities you also see that theirs dangers around it, it can make you do stupid things and can cause accidents but those are certain case you think, your friends do it an no accident has occur, so its not that bad and dangerous has its being advertise. But what you don’t think about are the long-term effect; you maybe never seen a terrible accident related to alcohol but that doesn’t mean its not hurting you. Your just not asking the right questions, yes thinking a few drinks wont kill you but in the long run does it affect you health? And not all alcohol has the same effect on your body and theirs a lot of variable. In this essay I will answer six questions that a high school students should ask when exposed to the world of alcohol.

Question 1. Are all types of alcohol bad?

Alcohol comes in many forms it is never pure, you cant consumed pure alcohol (so that is at 100% pure) it will kill you and its basically used to disinfect cuts and such, but you can find drinks that offer different type of percentage of alcohol. Beer usually has between four to eight percent of alcohol; it is the drink with the smallest percentage of alcohol after coolers who usually are maximum five percent alcohol (Éducalcool (source 6)). But that doesn’t mean beer is not bad for you or cant get you drunk. After that you have wine who usually his between eleven to fifteen percent of alcohol and you can also find fortified wine which has a stronger percentage; between 18 and 21 percent (Éducalcool(source 6)). Then theirs the spirits who range around 40% of alcohol but some certain type are even higher. Even with these facts you ask yourself are all types of alcohol equally bad for you health and give you the same risk of falling in alcohol dependence?  In the article: The positive and negative health effects of alcohol- and the public health implications: by M. Grønbæk (source 1), they found many study suggesting that wine drinker reported less health related issues due to alcohol, but this doesn’t prove that wine is better for you they suggested that maybe these result were due to the type of lifestyle someone who drinks wine has. In the same article they talk about studies that were made in the United States and Denmark that suggested that wine drinker are associated with a higher intake of fruits, veggies, fish and salad compared to people who consumed beer daily. So these result do not show that wine is better its maybe just related to the type of behavior someone who drinks wine has in general. This article also said that the worst type for you body of alcohol is spirits, which is logically because it’s the type of drinks that has the largest percentage of alcohol.

 (1) Grønbæk.M (2009). The positive and negative health effects of alcohol and the public health implications Journal of Internal Medicine 265; 407–420 

Question 2. If you start drinking early will this affect your drinking pattern in the future?

Another question you should ask yourself is if you start drinking early will this affect your drinking pattern in the future? Even do the legal age of drinking in around the world ranges from 18 to 21 depending on country’s some people like said before experience alcohol earlier than that. Certain study tried to see if the people who start early; in the beginning of their teenage years have a different drinking pattern then someone who started around the legal drinking age. One study showed that among their participant that started drinking around the age of 14 years old 71% reported drinking in average 2-3 times a week in the past years and 73% during those drinking days they would consume more 5-6 drinks. In comparison the people who started drinking at age 21 or older only 49% reported drinking 2-3 times a week and 47% said they consumed more then 5-6 drinks per drinking days in the past years. This shows that theirs clearly a difference in the odds you have of drinking a lot when your older depending on the age you first started but these number still show that 47% percent so almost half of the people who started drinking around the legal age of drinking still have the same drinking habits then someone who started at a younger age, so your age of first drink does make a difference but their plenty of other factors that affect your future drinking pattern.

(2) Kang.M, Kim.J, Cho.W, Park.E (2014). The Gender-Specific Association between Age at First Drink and Later Alcohol Drinking Patterns in Korea, PLOS ONE, 9(3),1-7.

Question 3.Does gender change something in drinking habit and risk?  

Another question is does gender change something in drinking habit and risk? In several studies done in the past years one main fact has been showed, in average women often prefer wine to spirits and beer. This is essential because wine is associated with better health then someone who drinks beer, the fact that women prefer wine associates women with a lower risk of mortality due to coronary disease (Klatsky, Friedman, Armstrong, & Kipp, 2003).  Also has said in paragraph one, wine is associated with healthier habits that again shows that a majority of women have better drinking habit then men. Men are reported to prefer and drink more beer then women, and people who reported preferring beer are more likely to report alcohol related problem and causing harm due to alcohol for example drinking and driving. Also people who drink beer report binge drinking way more than people who consume wine or spirits which is also a negative for you health (see question 4). So the main difference in drinking habit between gender really is because of the types of drinking usually preferred by the gender, but these difference are not associated with the gender directly more with the type of alcohol associated with each gender and the habits associated with that alcohol.

(3)Whitney,N. Froiland,J-M. (2014). Parenting Style, Gender, Beer Drinking and Drinking Problems of College Students, International Journal of Psychology 16, 93–109

Question 4. Does your drinking pattern affect the consequences of alcohol on you health?

The way you drink can also have an effect on the consequence alcohol can have on your health. Some people are considered binge drinkers, binge drinking is define has drinking a large amount (around 8 drinks or more) per drinking session, in the article they show us that someone who usually has in average of 8 drinks a week but drinks for example 2 drinks a night on four or the seven days of the weeks has a lower risk of heart disease caused by alcohol then someone who drinks also 8 drinks a week but consumes the 8 drinks all in one night (binge drinks). Consuming a large amount of drinks in a short time is logically more devastating for you body because having a high level of alcohol cause way more damage to your liver and other organs than a low level of alcohol on several occasion.