by Vic Shayne, PhD

Ahh, college! The time in life when all your worries can be drowned by a keg and a night of partying. When you can look at your reflection in the toilet bowl to make sure your makeup is still sharp between heaves. And when you can scream out the word “party” with your friends while at a party. This is analogous to screaming out the words, “Basketball game!!” when at a basketball game. It probably makes more sense when you have lost all control over your senses.

By the way, partying became a real verb in 1974, when I went off to college. Before that it was only a noun and not used very often except by insurance salesmen. Similarly, to “disrespect” somebody isn’t really a proper use of the language. But enough of the English lesson. What this article is about is the effects of alcohol, but not in what young Biff or Tiffany would say is the “happy” way. So if you’re in college and you haven’t grown out of the excessive drinking phase, don’t read this. You’ll only get depressed. That is, after your headache wears off and you can read again.

But before we go further, haven’t we heard that alcohol can be good for you? Yes, we have. Scientists have reported the health benefits of drinking small amounts of wine. Moderate amounts of alcohol have been shown to support “good” cholesterol. It also makes people happy to silly to just plain unconscious.
Researchers have stated, “Moderate alcohol consumption was independently associated with a decreased risk of ischemic stroke in our elderly, multiethnic, urban subjects, while heavy alcohol consumption had deleterious effects. Our data support the National Stroke Association Stroke Prevention Guidelines regarding the beneficial effects of moderate alcohol consumption.”1 That sounds like an official statement, doesn’t it?

Wait, there’s more. We want to be fair here and offer both sides of the issue. The BBC reported, ‘A study of 19,500 adults found moderate beer and spirits drinkers were as “healthy” as those who drank small amounts of wine – which for some time has been thought to have health benefits. The Spanish finding is in direct contradiction to work carried out in Nordic countries which linked alcohol consumption with poorer health – but researchers say this may be down to the fact that in Spain alcohol is consumed at mealtimes. Experts agree that while a small amount of alcohol can benefit cardiovascular health, large amounts can cause conditions such as cirrhosis of the liver.’”2

However, if you want to be totally honest, you can get the health benefits without the wine. You can get it through grapes, grape seed extract and other grape-related products.

How much alcohol is meant to go into your body, down your throat, over the inner walls of your esophagus, into your stomach and into your liver and kidneys? How much? Technically, the answer is zero parts. Alcohol is a poison. That’s why you feel sick from drinking too much. That’s why after a night of “partying,” your tongue feels like a cheap napkin and your head seems to weigh more than the rest of you. Says the medical profession: “Drinking alcohol can be good for your health, but it can also be harmful. It all depends on how much you drink, your age, and other factors.”

Someone was nice enough to post this on wikipedia:

Cell membranes are highly permeable to alcohol, so once alcohol is in the bloodstream it can diffuse into nearly every biological tissue of the body. After excessive drinking, unconsciousness can occur and extreme levels of consumption can lead to alcohol poisoning and death (a concentration in the blood stream of 0.55% will kill half of those affected). Death can also occur through asphyxiation by vomit.

The liver breaks down alcohols into acetaldehyde by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, and then into acetic acid by the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. Next, the acetate is converted into fats or carbon dioxide and water. Chronic drinkers, however, so tax this metabolic pathway that things go awry: fatty acids build up as plaques in the capillaries around liver cells and those cells begin to die, which leads to the liver disease cirrhosis. The liver is part of the body’s filtration system which, if damaged, allows certain toxins to build up, leading to symptoms of jaundice.

Some people’s DNA code calls for a different acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, resulting in a more potent alcohol dehydrogenase. This leads to a buildup of acetaldehyde after alcohol consumption, causing the alcohol flush reaction with hangover-like symptoms such as flushing, nausea, and dizziness.

Organs, which are important, such as the liver and brain, can be severely affected from drinking alcohol. “The liver will swell with acute intoxication, sometimes painfully, and will show fatty infiltration and enlargement if AB ingestion continues regularly. With excessive AB over many years, the ravaged liver becomes scarred, shrunken, and relatively non-functional. This end-stage cirrhosis is associated with the yellow, demented alcoholic, belly swollen with water (ascites). Alcoholic beverages contribute to malnutrition by replacing foods needed for essential nutrients and by interfering with absorption, storage or metabolism of the essential nutrients. Ethanol may suppress appetite and consumption of food. In some individuals, however, AB’s trigger excessive eating instead. Food choices follow an addictive pattern, with nutrient deficiencies based on poor food choices. Bowel distension and diarrhea are common GIT effects and are correlated with increased brain disturbances. The increased absorption of undigested proteins sets the stage for all the food “allergic” diseases.” (Alcoholic Beverages and Alcohol Abuse; Adverse Health Effects; Stephen Gislason MD)

Long-term effects of consuming large quantities of alcohol can lead to:
• permanent damage to vital organs
• several different types of cancer
• gastrointestinal irritations, such as nausea, diarrhea, and ulcers
• malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies
• sexual dysfunctions
• high blood pressure
• lowered resistance to disease

And we haven’t even begun to discuss alcoholism, which is just a more serious extention of the problems associated with drinking for “fun.” So, boys and girls, today’s lesson is: Good Luck. Chances are someone you know will be seriously injured from drinking. You can either just hope and pray it’s not you, or you can at least not drink too much when you party with your friends.

But so that you don’t accuse me of not firing off a warning shot, here’s the bottom line from the medical experts:

According to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, in middle-aged and older adults, moderate consumption is associated with the lowest all-cause mortality (that is, the rate of death from all causes). But in younger adults, alcohol consumption provides little, if any, health benefits, according to the guidelines. Instead, it’s associated with a higher risk of serious injury or death.

The CDC [Center for Disease Control] has reported that excessive drinking causes more than 75,000 deaths from various causes in the U.S. each year. And what exactly is “excessive”? For men, it’s an average of more than two drinks daily, or more than four drinks at one time, according to the CDC. For women, it’s an average of more than one drink per day or more than three drinks at one time.

If you are going to drink, at least give your body some nutrients to replace the ones you are depleting. Get some food minerals, electrolytes, vitamin B and liver foods into your system!

Additional sources:
1. Ralph L. Sacco, MD, MS; Mitchell Elkind, MD; Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH; I-Feng Lin, MS; Douglas E. Kargman, MD, MS; W. Allen Hauser, MD; Steven Shea, MD, MS; Myunghee C. Paik, PhD, The Protective Effect of Moderate Alcohol Consumption on Ischemic Stroke, JAMA. 1999;281:53-60.
2. BBC News: 21 August, 2001, 11:24 GMT 12:24 UK, “Can alcohol be good for you?”

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