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Moderate alcohol consumption & its Benefits, How to Treat alcohol addiction?
Moderate alcohol consumption”- In earlier times, when subsistence agriculture was the norm, alcoholic beverages, usually beer or mead (fermented honey and water), provided a substantial percentage of calories in the diet. Today people drink alcohol to relax and socialize, to get high, or because they are physically addicted to it.
What is Alcohol consumption?
Alcohol consumption is drinking beer, wine, or distilled spirits such as gin, whiskey, or vodka, that contains ethyl alcohol.
How Alcohol Produce?
The process of fermenting plants to produce alcohol is at least 10,000 years old and appears to have developed independently in many cultures. Ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, is produced by yeast fermentation of the natural sugars in plants, such as grapes (wine), hops (beer), sugar cane (rum), agave (tequila), or rice (Saki).
Effects of Alcohol on Body
Alcohol affects almost every system of the body. Research suggests that when alcohol is consumed in moderation, there are some health benefits and some health risks. Heavy use of alcohol has no health benefits and many health risks
What is moderate alcohol consumption and its Health Benefits?
As one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men comes under moderate alcohol consumption This difference by gender is because women tend to be smaller than men, and their bodies contain a lower percentage of water, so an equivalent amount of alcohol in a woman’s bloodstream will be more concentrated than in a man’s.
Benefits of moderate alcohol consumption
Researchers suggest that moderate alcohol consumption has protective effects because alcohol increases the amount of HDL or ‘‘good’’ cholesterol and also affects various proteins in ways that make blood clotting less likely
- Moderate alcohol consumption can help prevent
- Heart attack
- Sudden cardiac death
- Peripheral vascular disease
- Stroke
The risk of these diseases is reduced between 25% and 40% in both men and women.
The reduction is seen in both people who have no apparent heart disease and those who are at high risk of heart disease because they have type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), angina (chest pain), or have already had one heart attack..
In two other large studies, people who were moderate drinkers also were less likely to develop
- Type 2 diabetes
- Gallstones
Risks of moderate alcohol consumption
Moderate alcohol consumption has some risks
In women
- Risk of developing breast cancer.
- A pregnant woman can damage the developing foetus.
- Alter sleep patterns
By far the greatest risk of moderate drinking is that for some people it will lead to heavy alcohol consumption, alcohol abuse, and alcohol dependency.
What is Heavy alcohol consumption?
Heavy alcohol consumption is defined for men as consuming 15 or more alcoholic drinks per week and for women as consuming 8 or more drinks per week.
Nutritional deficiencies
People with alcoholism do not eat healthy, balanced diets. When 30% or more of an individual’s calories come from alcohol, serious nutritional deficiencies develop. Not only do people with alcoholism fail to get the protein, vitamins, and minerals they need, alcohol interferes with the absorption of the nutrients they do eat. People who abuse alcohol develop malnutrition and deficiencies in essential amino acids, B-complex vitamins (especially vitamins B1, B2, and B6), and vitamin C. They may develop either deficiencies or excesses of vitamin A.
Condition due to Heavy Alcohol Consumption
| Diseases | Affect organs/Locations |
| Nutritional deficiencies | Chronic Alcoholic is malnutrition |
| Liver damage | Liver Cirrhosis(cause of death in about 32% of people with alcoholism worldwide) |
| Cancer | Esophageal cancer, mouth cancer, and liver cancer or breast cancer in women. |
| Heart Diseases | Increases the risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease |
| Violence | Alcoholism also substantially increases the chance of dying by violence |
| Brain damage | Loss of judgment, Loss of motor skills, Memory loss |
Interactions of Alcohol with other Medicines
Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. More than 150 drugs interact with alcohol. Some of these interactions can be fatal, especially those that involve narcotic drugs that also depress the central nervous system.
Categories of drugs that interact with alcohol include:
- Narcotic drugs
- Sleeping pills
- Antidepressants
- Anti-anxiety medications
- Antihistamines
Medications for the treatment of alcoholism.
Disulfiram -Makes the individual feel ill after drinking alcohol.
Naltrexone – Act on the brain to reduce the craving for alcohol
Acamprosate -reduces withdrawal symptoms
These medications are more effective with some people than others. Always consult your doctor before taking these medicines.
Read also:- Cigarette Smoking- It’s Affects Over Heart, Lungs, Causes Cancer, ED
Reference –
1. Health Risks and Benefits of Alcohol Consumption
2. The GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA of DIETS
