What is Alcohol & Alcoholism?

Alcohol: Any of a series of volatile hydroxyl compounds that are made from hydrocarbons by distillation.

Alcoholism : Habitual intoxication; prolonged and excessive intake of alcoholic drinks leading to a breakdown in health and an addiction to alcohol such that abrupt deprivation leads to severe withdrawal symptoms.

Is Alcohol good or bad?

Alcohol has been used for centuries in social, medical, cultural, and
religious settings. We know alcohol is used in medicine, cosmetics, drinks etc. Most Americans believe alcohol can be used responsibly by adults for social and religious purposes. However, alcohol can also be used to excess resulting in health, social, legal, and other problems. Alcohol causes various problems in the society and it also causes serious diseases in our body.

Alcohol used products

o Beer The process of making beer defines the finished product. Beer involves a short (incomplete) fermentation process and a short aging process (a week or two), typically resulting in an alcohol content of 4%6% ABV. Beer is a naturally carbonated beverage.

o Wine Wine involves a longer (complete) fermentation process and a long aging process (months or years) that results in an alcohol content of 9% 16% ABV. Sparkling wine is made by adding a small amount of sugar before bottling, which causes a secondary fermentation to occur in the bottle.

o Spirits Spirits contain at least 20% ABV. Liqueurs are characterized by the way in which their flavors are infused and typically have high sugar content.

Calories in Alcohol

It's just a question of maths! Approximately 3,500 calories will produce one pound of fat. Alcohol is full of calories, so, two or three G&Ts a day for four weeks will fatten you up by about 4lbs.

Drink

Number of calories

1 pint of beer or lager 1 vodka and orange 1 gin and tonic 1 whisky and dry ginger

180 - 300 140 140 145

1 rum and coke 145 Even 1 glass of white wine 45 worse news is that alcohol has no essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals.

How long does alcohol stay in your system?

Alcohol is broken down by the liver at the rate of approximately one
unit per hour (a pint of normal strength beer being two units). Consequently, it is possible to still be under the influence the following morning if you have drunk excessively the night before. To exercise caution, the following alcohol calculation can be used to estimate your level of risk after having drunk the night before. 1 Unit of alcohol = Pint ordinary strength beer or... o 1 standard glass of table wine or... o 1 standard glass of sherry or... o 1 single measure of spirits.
o

This simple formula will help:

Number of units drunk - Number of hours since last drink = Alcohol content.

For example: A person drinks 6 pints of an ordinary strength beer (12 units) finishing drinking at 11pm. They start work at 8am the following day. (9 Hours later). 12 Units - 9 hours = 3. In this scenario, the person could still have 3-4 units of alcohol left in their body whilst driving to work the following day.

Bad sides of Alcohol

There are many bad sides of alcohol which have no end. It curses our society, family life and national life. Bad sides are mentioned below o Alcohol is a drug that depresses the brain o Alcohol used drinks damage our body o It is the main reason of accident in many countries
o o o

It is one of the root causes of crime It may kill the addicted person It breaks family bonds A person loses his/her common senses etc.

o It breaks friendship
o

Some Statistics related to Alcohol

Here some alcohol related statistics are shown below In the USA alone, alcohol is responsible for over 17,000 deaths on the roads due to drink, which is 41% of all USA road accidents.

Last year one in seven people admitted to Accident and Emergency departments across the UK for alcohol related health issues were under 14 years old - a total of over 2239 cases. Alcohol related diseases in the UK are killing nearly twice as many women as at the start of the 1990s. Spain, France and Ireland still consume more alcohol per person than the UK, but deaths from alcohol-related diseases are much lower. In fact, as many as 17% of the young motorists surveyed admitted regular use of Cannabis. Over 40% felt fine to drive their vehicles after using illegal drugs and 31% found it acceptable to drive after consuming alcohol. When driving and as a result 8% had already been involved in an accident while under the influence, with a further 11% admitting a near miss.

New research about alcohol

According to some research studies, a moderate alcohol intake (one
drink per day) is associated with less risk of heart disease. This applies to all forms of alcohol and not simply to red wine, as is popularly
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believed. So, should someone start drinking just to reduce the risk of heart disease? This question is commonly posed to doctors. The answer is still no: there are many ways to powerfully reduce the risk of heart disease, and alcohol should probably not be used as a medication. However, this is an important individual issue and one should discuss it with your GP. Researchers also believe that all types of alcohol reduce the risk of coronary heart disease (at least in part) by reducing serum levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol. Alcohol also raises the HDL (good) cholesterol, which could play some role in protecting against heart disease. And, red wine is thought to have some beneficial antioxidant properties - but again, this is a topic of some debate.

Conclusion
At last according to the discussion I can say that alcohol is a curse for humanity. It causes several serious problems in our life. Some experts say that alcohol is a disease. Others say that it is the only disease that is sold in bottle that brings a huge profit for the government that causes accident and breaks family bonds. According to Islam it is not a disease, it is the hand work of evil.
References

1. www.drug-aware.co.uk 2. www.wikepedia.org
3. www.sitestat.com

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