April is Alcohol
Awareness Month. While alcohol is obviously legal for those 21 years of age
and older, consuming it requires some background knowledge. Here’s what I mean.
Alcohol consumption is anything but safe. The list of people
who have died from excessive drinking reads like a Who’s Who of world famous
figures. Unfortunately, all of them died “before their time”. From performers (Amy Winehouse and Janis
Joplin) to Presidents (Franklin Pierce), writers (Dylan Thomas and Jack
Kerouac) to rockers (Jim Morrison), famous actors (Richard Burton) and athletes
(Mickey Mantle), all could not avoid becoming dependent and then dying from alcohol.
Alcohol directly causes nearly 75,000 deaths and another
40,000 alcohol-related car crash deaths each year in the U.S. And think about
this. The risk of alcohol poisoning causing death rises when a drinker’s
blood-alcohol level goes above .25 %.An understanding of alcohol’s impact on the body is important. When alcohol is consumed, it very quickly begins to impact the brain by slowing reflexes and restricting judgment. The liver and stomach interact with the alcohol, the stomach digesting the ethyl alcohol and the liver metabolizing it. Depending on your gender and weight, it takes an hour for your body to break down the ethyl alcohol from 1.5 ounces of ”hard liquor” . This is the same amount as in 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer, or one mixed drink. Drinking more alcohol than one drink, or beer or glass of wine, the equivalent of a “binge drinking” event quickly begins to compromise your health.
While heavy alcohol consumption is often associated with younger men, new research is discovering a growing epidemic of binge drinking among women. Binge drinking is defined as consuming 5 or more drinks at one time. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports 24% of women between 18 and 24 admitted to at least one binge drinking episode in the last month, with an average of 3.6 episodes in a month: nearly one each week. For about half of those young women, it was an “underage” drinking episode.
What can be done to slow or halt this tragedy? Many things actually: Parents can talk to their teenage children about why waiting until they are legal is the right decision; why drinking and driving is potentially lethal; as is combining alcohol with other drugs like prescription medication; and, supporting alcohol-free prom, post-prom and graduation parties is not only safe but necessary due to “social host” laws. The most important first step is to have that conversation before it’s too late.
