EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION

He was very loving, caring and responsible. The sight of him made everyone happy. He was always there for us through good and bad times. I had a loving family when growing up which made my friends envious of me.

Everything changed when he started drinking alcohol. The loving father we had has changed totally to a different personality. He gets drunk most often and the moment he gets to the entrance of the house, there is fear, panic and sadness. The sudden appearance of alcohol shredded my family into pieces. It took the grace of God and the prayers of my mother to gather the pieces and rebuild the family again.

I am one of the many victims whose happiness were taken away by alcohol and their lives destroyed through the effect of it.

Wanting to know how my friend’s father started drinking alcohol, I ended up asking people why they take alcohol and what triggers them to start that addiction. From my field investigations, I gathered that peer pressure plays a major role in people’s addiction in consuming alcohol.

“I started consuming alcohol at the age of 10 years, a respondent answered”. Another respondent also revealed that she takes alcohol occasionally and some added that they consume alcohol before eating.

People take a drink or two without much problems, but heavy drinking over longer periods of time can have very serious outcomes for the victims. Alcohol misuse does not only harms the individual, but damages relationships, families and society in general in terms of the physical or mental well-being of the person, broken homes, violence and crime, accidents and drink driving as Ghana ranks among the top countries with high road accidents in Africa.

It should be noted that alcohol consumption and its benefits vary based on an individual's body makeup and type.

In a discussion about the effects of alcohol consumption, it was known clearly by that there are positive effects of alcohol as well as negative. But the negative always out weights the positive. 

Here are some negative effects of alcohol consumption given by one medical doctor.

Negative Effects of Alcohol Consumption

There are short term and long term effects of alcohol on the body. The short term effects are immediate effects as well as the long term effects of heavy drinking has prolonged effects over a longer period.

Sexual health

When you drink heavily, you lose your inhibitions, the natural tendency to exercise restraint and it affects your judgement ability to make sound moral choices between good and bad. This may make you less likely to use a condom, which increases your risk of getting a sexually transmitted infection such as chlamydia, HIV or hepatitis. It can also lead to an unplanned pregnancy.

Weight gain

Alcohol is high in calories depending on the type. Drinking alcohol leads to weight gain, the alcohol in a drink contains almost as many calories and fat. The average bottle of wine contains 600 calories while four pints of average club lager contain 640.

Brain damage

Alcohol damages the brain and heavy drinking can cause blackouts, memory loss and anxiety. Long-term drinking can result in permanent brain damage, serious mental health problems and alcohol dependence or alcoholism. Young people's brains are particularly vulnerable because the brain is still developing during their teenage years. Alcohol can damage parts of the brain, affecting behaviour and the ability to learn and remember, resulting in amnesia.

Heart and circulation

Alcohol can cause high blood pressure (hypertension), which increases the risk of:

•   having a heart attack or stroke
• Developing some types of dementia.
• It also weakens heart muscles, which can affect the lungs, liver, brain and other body systems, and also cause heart failure.

Binge drinking and drinking heavily over longer periods can cause the heart to beat irregularly (arrhythmia) and can been linked to cases of sudden death.

Cancer

Drinking alcohol is the second biggest risk factor for cancers of the mouth and throat (smoking is the biggest). People who develop cirrhosis of the liver (often caused by too much alcohol) can develop liver cancer.

Lungs

People who drink a lot of alcohol have more lung infections and are more likely to suffer collapsed lungs and can be more likely to get pneumonia. When a person vomits as a result of drinking alcohol, they may choke if vomit gets sucked into their lungs.

Fertility

In men, impotence or lowered libido/sex drive and infertility in women. Drinking alcohol when pregnant can seriously damage the development of the unborn baby.

Kidneys

Heavy drinking can increase your risk of developing high blood pressure a leading cause of chronic kidney disease.

There are many other negative effects and positive effects of alcohol. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, "moderate alcohol consumption is having up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men. This definition is referring to the amount consumed on any single day and is not intended as an average over several days."

Doctors sometimes advice their patience to take a certain amount of alcohol which is laudable.  But we shouldn’t always try to hammer on the positives relating it to scriptures in the bible, religious beliefs and culture.

Binge alcohol consumption is destroying the bright future of this generation, help let’s reduce alcohol consumption and save our generation.