Alcohol consumption is the act of ingesting alcoholic beverages. Alcoholic beverages are drinks that have ethanol in them, which is a psychoactive drug found in booze. It causes short-term effects to the drinker including impaired judgment, motor control, and reaction time. Drinking too much has long-term effects on the body, including liver diseases like cirrhosis and cancer, fetal alcohol syndrome, high blood pressure, heart disease, digestive problems, nerve damage, poor diet, lack of exercise. Alcohol is also addictive. Alcohol is usually consumed orally.
Alcohol can also be inhaled through the nose or mouth to cause intoxication through inhalation just as it can be ingested by drinking it. Alcohol can even be applied topically to the human body by rubbing it into some area where there are skin or mucous membranes present; though this method isn’t likely to make someone intoxicated unless they consume some of the substance during this process (fingertips on aftershave lotion). Sometimes people drink more than one type of alcoholic beverage at a time (a mixed drink). This is called “poly-drinking. “
One method of consumption is drinking, in which the alcohol is extracted from the source beverage by breathing air into their mouth over the drink. Alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water; thus the composition of alcoholic beverages range between 40–90% ethanol (CH3CHOH) and 10–35% water. This leads to very cellular-poisoning concentrations of alcohol when it’s concentrated for drinking by this method. Alcohol can be consumed orally in foods or used as a solvent to dissolve ingredients in some mixed drinks, but care should be taken since this process can also lead to its concentration and poisoning due to vaporization.
There are many different types of alcoholic beverages have been produced through both historical and prehistoric times. The distillation of alcohol requires its conversion from a fermented liquid to an alcoholic beverage through distillation. Alcohol is the most commonly used recreational drug in America and has been for decades, with approximately half of Americans age 18 or older consuming alcohol at least once within their lifetime and one in six (or 15. 1% in 2010) considered “binge drinkers” (consuming over five drinks in a single setting on at least one occasion in the past month).
Fewer than 10% of all serious long-term problems related to alcohol consumption are typically seen in women, though this percentage is increasing as more women begin drinking heavily throughout America and other western countries like France and Australia. Alcoholism reduces a person’s life expectancy by around ten years and alcohol use is the third-leading cause of early death in the United States.
Excessive alcohol use resulted in approximately 88,000 deaths for around 2. million years of potential life lost each year between 2006 and 2010, shortening the average American’s life expectancy by about three months. An estimated 16 million children under age 18 live in households with at least one alcoholic parent and 1. 2 million teenagers ages 12–17 drink alcohol in dangerous amounts (binge drinking). About half of all driving fatalities involve alcohol each year, and when a higher blood alcohol content is involved it increases this percentage to four out of five such fatalities.
According to research from 2010, 29% of people admitted to hospital emergency rooms in America because of excessive drinking were aged 16–24, despite this age group comprising just 13% of the US population. Alcoholic drinks are also popularly used as ingredients in cocktails and cooking recipes. Alcohol is often consumed socially, especially while eating or after finishing work on a weekend or at home with friends on weeknights. Around 33 million American adults say they drink alcohol to relax each day and another 17 million do so frequently – about 2/3 of American adults who have ever consumed alcohol.
The names for various “drinks” that people order around the world can be very distinctly different from one country to another, but may taste very similar due to similar ingredients being used by their respective manufacturers. In many cultures around the world mixed drinks are specially prepared to celebrate a holiday or special events, such as Christmas and weddings. Alcoholic beverages often bring out emotional responses in those who consume them. For example, people may feel relaxed and less inhibited as their judgment is impaired by alcohol’s effect on the brain.
Studies have shown that many women begin drinking alcoholic beverages at home during adolescence and follow the pattern of men when they start to drink: which is generally in their late teens and early twenties. Although there are some beneficial associations between moderate alcohol consumption and certain kinds of heart disease, liver cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus type 2, and possibly breast cancer risk (for more detail see Health effects below) there is also a higher risk of developing mouth, esophagus, throat, liver, and colon cancer.
Alcohol is a major contributing factor in the development of alcoholism, depression, suicide, under-performance at school or work, domestic violence and child abuse. Alcohol use by parents can affect their children even if they drink moderately; women who are pregnant should not consume alcohol at all because any amount may harm the baby according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Proponents of drinking assert that moderate to high amounts of alcohol have been shown to reduce heart attack risk for men aged 35–54 from 48% (men consuming one or less alcoholic drinks per day) to 25%. In addition, alcohol has been associated with a reduced risk for developing kidney stones. Consumption of small quantities of spirits such as beer, wine, and cider appear to reduce the risk of developing gallstones. Alcohol also has anticoagulative effects and can slow blood clotting, which can help prevent heart attacks that are caused by clots in the arteries.
These protective effects are particularly helpful for older people who are more susceptible to these well-known negative health risks. It is not entirely clear whether alcohol consumption improves overall health status or decreases cancer risk in people with chronic medical conditions because there has been research showing both beneficial and harmful relationships between different forms of drinking (such as quantity per occasion) and certain types of disease (Chan et al. 2009; Fillmore & Chikritzhs, 2011).
There is some to suggest that moderate drinkers might be more likely to have good health habits in general, when compared with both non-drinkers and heavy drinkers. One of the main problems with this is that it does not take into account people who are ex-drinkers because they have already turned to other forms of treatment for their medical conditions.
Alcohol consumption has been shown in many studies to be linked with anxiety disorders such as panic disorder, social phobia or depression. Some people believe drinking alcohol can ease symptoms in these types of cases but these effects may be due to simply reducing one’s own stress levels which in themselves could reduce feelings of anxiety. Alcohol abuse is described by a number of symptoms including irritability, agitation, insomnia, memory blackouts and tremors.
