Moderating Modern Day Alcohol Consumption
Moderating Modern Day Alcohol Consumption
I work at a restaurant in Ithaca. In this restaurant we also cater. I recently catered a frat party and was astonished with all the alcohol that such a small number of people had consumed in less then two hours. I understand that in social gatherings, which may include alcohol, are for the most part a time to kick back and relax from our regular grind. However, for potential alcoholics this lifestyle may present a problem. This is because drinking leads certain people a step farther down the road to becoming an unsocial drinker and later a victim, an Alcoholic. Why is it such a problem for us to drink? It’s a large issue because of the nature of the poison in which we are ingesting, Ethanol.
Ethanol, or in its most common form alcohol is a substance that has all negative affect on the human body. If exposed to “over 1,000 ppm [it] may cause headache, irritation of the eyes, nose and throat and if long continued, drowsiness and lassitude, loss of appetite and inability to concentrate.” (Lewis 1999)
Alcohol is a stimulant and in small doses takes away social fears and creates a state that breads contact between people. In larger doses however we may see in our own friends the typical “drunk” that is so often portrayed in movies and the media. In still larger amounts there is a large likelihood for the victim to go into a coma and even die. Hundreds of thousands even millions of people in the world today take in too much alcohol, without being aware, until too late, that they have a serious problem. (Boyden 1999) The sad thing is that little to no people receive the help needed in the early stages of becoming an alcoholic. The countdown to alcoholism continues and the problem grows larger every day. Identifying the problem drinker in their early warning signs of trouble is perhaps one of the largest single steps that can be taken towards eliminating the problem. We must remember the process of becoming an alcoholic can take between two to sixty years but the average is ten to fifteen. The scary truth is that no one is immune. (Komaroff 1999)
This kind of excessive drinking can cause physical disease. With this in mind, what sort of harm can this drug have on the body?
The Stomach:...