Abusing Your Health With Alcohol

Lots of risks are involved with the excess consumption of alcohol. These risks include damage to the heart, liver, and brain. Excessive alcohol consumption is dangerous, not just for your body but also for your well-being. Consumption of Alcohol can affect your health badly and your ability to think and work.
Almost every part of the body can be negatively affected by excessive alcohol consumption. Alcohol can cause cancer, liver disease, heart attacks and brain damage.

• A person is considered to be dependent on alcohol or addicted to alcohol when he has experienced two or more of the following symptoms :
• A strong urge to drink or difficulty in controlling the urge for alcohol
• Gradual neglect of other activities.
• Failed attempts to control alcohol use
• Persistent drinking even when you know it is obviously causing harm.
• Withdrawal symptoms, like sweating, shaking and nausea
• A high Tolerance to Alcohol
• Spend a great amount of time consuming Alcohol, during weekdays.

Short-term effects

A small amount of alcohol will make you feel relaxed and make you feel less anxious. It does affect your physical co-ordination and cause blurred vision, slurred speech and even loss of balance. Drinking a very large amount at one time may lead to unconsciousness, coma, death or death by suffocation (Vomiting while unconscious).

Long-term effects

Alcohol can be a dangerous drug. Drinking too much too often will cause physical damage and it does increase the risk of getting some diseases. Excessive drinking over time is associated with:

• Hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver
• Gastritis
• Liver cirrhosis.
• Inflammation of the pancreas
• High blood pressure
• Damage to the brain, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome
• Heart related problems
• Epilepsy
• Psychological effects

Although alcohol initially makes people relaxed, on a long term basis chronic use can ultimately increase anxiety and cause depression and various other diseases. It is also related to problems with sleeping, mood-swings and violence.

Cutting down

Below are some tips which help you to cut down the chronic use of alcohol...

• Replace your "usual" drink with one containing less alcohol.
• Try to have at least one or two alcohol-free days a week.
• Do something else instead of going to the pub, like Sport.
• Try to take non-alcoholic drinks between alcoholic ones.
• Find other ways to relax instead of taking alcohol
• Set yourself a limit of, for example four to five units for any one occasion.

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