Alcohol Essay Research Paper About a week

Alcohol Essay, Research Paper

About a week ago, I was passively watching television until a governmentally-funded advertisement caught my eye. In this commercial, a young child goes to the family refrigerator and gets his father a bottle of beer. Then a stereotypical narrator says, “When some parents crave their favorite drug, they’ll even use their own kids to get it. Alcohol is the number one drug problem in this country. Not marijuana. Not cocaine. Don’t be fooled. Alcohol is a drug.” This commercial alarmed me because the majority of people I know consume alcohol. I decided to investigate alcohol and see how bad this all-dangerous “drug” really was. My findings were very shocking, and they led me to question a central federal policy. Should the federal government’s abstinence ideology concerning alcohol be reconsidered.

Contrary to what the federal government would have people believe, moderate consumption of alcohol is very healthy for the human body!

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [NIAA] would have people believe that alcohol is currently the worst drug in the United States. This institution along with Center for Substance Abuse Prevention [CSAP] periodically releases conclusions concerning alcohol to the public that are both misleading and fraudulent. These comments are not based on scientific evidence but instead seem to reflect a neo-prohibitionist effort to stigmatize alcohol. Here are some of the examples of statements made by officials representing governmental agencies in the last five years that are neither based on conclusive, scientific evidence nor even remotely reported from a disinterested, neutral position: Alcohol is the dirtiest drug we have; It permeates and damages all tissue; No other drug can cause the same degree of harm that it does. Alcohol is harmful to the body; Alcohol is a poison, and drinking it might lead to death; Alcohol is toxic (no level of consumption indicated); The effects of alcohol on men (no level of consumption indicated) are that hormone levels change, causing lower sex drive and enlarged breasts; Alcohol is a gateway drug leading people into illicit drug use; Alcohol (no level of consumption indicated) can cause deterioration of the heart muscle.

The same federally funded institutions that release misleading statements to the public, also project their belief that there is no difference between moderate drinking and alcohol abuse–the two are portrayed as one and the same. After some of the statements made by the officials cited in the previous paragraph you might of noticed the notation (no level of consumption indicated). These notations illustrate how the federally-funded agencies fail to differentiate between moderate consumption of alcohol and abusive consumption of alcohol. The difference between moderate consumption and abusive consumption is the single-most important aspect of alcohol’s effects on health. First let me define both moderate consumption and abusive consumption. Moderate consumption is defined by American medical researchers as 2-3 drinks of alcohol for men and 1-1.5 drinks for women. Both of these guidelines pertain to what medical researchers call average-sized people. They define average bodyweight for a male being 190lbs and average bodyweight for a female being 130lbs. A drink of alcohol is defined as 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer, or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor. Any consumption of alcohol beyond the 2-3 drinks for men and 1-1.5 drinks for women is considered abusive consumption. The benefits of regular, moderate consumption of alcohol as compared to abstinence and heavy consumption are really quite surprising. They include overall better health, increased longevity, a reduced chance of having heart attacks or strokes, a reduced chance of suffering from hypertension or high blood pressure, peripheral artery disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and the common cold. Moderate consumption of alcohol appears to be beneficial to reducing or preventing Angina Pectoris, bone fractures, Diabetes, digestive ailments, Duodenal Ulcer, Erectile Dysfunction, gallstones, Hepatitis A, kidney stones, liver disease, Macular Degeneration (blindness), Pancreatic Cancer, Parkinson’s Disease, poor cognition and memory, poor physical condition in elderly, Rheumatoid Arthritis, stress and depression, and Type B Gastritis. There are numerous scientific studies that support these claims as opposed to the fraudulent claims by the officials representing the federally funded agencies whose goals seem to be to prohibit alcohol altogether instead of educating the public.

Here is some of the information and conclusions from scientific studies I found on the World Wide Web concerning Alcohol and its effects when taken in moderation. Alcohol has been used medicinally throughout recorded history; its medicinal properties are mentioned 191 times in the Old and New Testaments. As early as the turn of the century there was evidence that moderate consumption of alcohol was associated with a decrease in the risk of heart attack. And the evidence of health benefits of moderate consumption has continued to grow over time. A review of research evidence from 1900 to 1986 found a strong, consistent relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and reduction in cardiovascular disease in general and coronary artery disease in particular. This is important because cardiovascular disease is the nu