Excessive consumption of alcohol and its effects on your health Any emergency room nurse in the U.S. can tell you that their shift is more chaotic and busy weekend rolls. The same can be said for any major sporting event, New Year's Eve, St. Patrick's Day and the day before Thanksgiving. What all these seemingly different occasions have in common? alcohol or, more precisely, over-consumption. But what is it and why bother? Forty-two percent of people aged 18-25 engaged in binge drinking in 2007 and its effects on your health prove substantial.
As defined on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site, alcohol abuse is a pattern of drinking that increases the concentration of a person alcohol concentration (BAC) of 08% or more in a one exit. While this may seem something that "heavy drinkers" would commit a BAC of .08% is reached after only 5 drinks for men and 4 drinks for women. You are considered a binge drinker if you drink that amount in one evening at least once a month. For most people 18-29 years in the U.S. today, it is a typical Friday or Saturday evening, a light there.
The term binge drinking, in fact, refers to the social environment that younger adults are not only participate, but the festival. The teens begin their careers by finding consistent drinking older siblings or even strangers and convince them to buy a crate of beer or bottle of vodka, especially when they are lucky, a whole barrel. Some studies show that it is easier for minors to obtain alcohol than it is cigarettes. Alarmingly, many of the illegal practice of obtaining and consumption of alcohol becomes a priority.
The first years after alcohol found in adolescents can be a dangerous period of time. Because they have to work to find alcohol at that age, they are never that next time they'll have in his possession. Consequently, they tend to go beyond a BAC of .08% and memory loss can occur. Blackout, the term usually attributed to access the memory loss that binge drinkers experience, are even more alarming than the name suggests, and many things can go wrong. One of the most serious consequences is that of sexual assault or rape of a young girl blackened.
Most parents of young boys and girls begin to worry about alcohol poisoning. Essentially an overdose of alcohol, alcohol poisoning is especially worrisome because its symptoms coincide with the idea of most people about what happens after "one too many." Ask any 17-20 years and they will tell you they have been for many a party where one, if not more of their friends passed out or vomited. Unfortunately, they are also the early stages of a person suffering from alcohol poisoning. The result of a medically compromised blood alcohol, alcohol poisoning can be fatal.
Parents, schools and even the media have taken note of the alarming statistics on binge drinking and its effects on those not old enough to engage in the behavior. Campaigns, programs and professional interventions have acquired a growing presence in the lives of these adolescents and will surely grow in the years to come. Although it may seem discouraging excessive consumption of alcohol and its effects can be reduced and even prevented.
Posted on April 30, 2010.
