Alcoholic Beverage - Alcohol and Health

Alcohol and Health

Short-term effects of alcohol consumption include intoxication and dehydration. Long-term effects of alcohol include changes in the metabolism of the liver and brain and alcoholism (addiction to alcohol). A ISCD 2010 study ranked the levels of damage caused by drugs, in the opinion of drug-harm experts. When harm to self and others was summed, alcohol was considered the most harmful of all drugs considered, scoring 72%.

Alcohol is a known carcinogen when consumed; "there is no doubt that alcohol can cause seven types of cancer" (mouth, pharyngeal, oesophageal, laryngeal, breast, bowel, and liver cancer) even at level far short of intoxication.

Drinking small amounts of alcohol can offer some protection for people at risk of heart disease, but large amounts can increase the risk of stroke, high blood pressure, and other conditions.

Scientifically, ethanol (ethyl alcohol, drinking alcohol) is a psychoactive drug and it is the main psychoactive ingredient in alcoholic beverages. In countries with drinking culture, the social stigma cause many people to not view it as a drug because it is an important part of social events in their cultures. As a result in these cultures, many young binge drinkers prefer to call themselves hedonists before binge drinkers (or recreational drug users) and undergraduate students often position themselves outside the categories of 'serious' or 'anti-social' drinkers. However, about 40 percent of US college students could be considered alcoholics in 2012 according to new criteria introduced in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5, officially published in May 2013.