Drinking Alcohol - Good or Bad?

Alcohol is Poison

Regardless of how much a fluid is adulterated, any amount of alcohol is just a poison ingredient added into a drink. 

Even pure alcohol is only partially the actual alcohol ingredient.

Depending on the other ingredients, the fluid may or may not be consumable for humans. 

At the bacterial level, alcohol replaces the water in a cell it contacts, dehydrating that cell, and killing the internal functions working in that cell and dependent on water to function.

Alcohol at Work

Many people drink alcohol in large volumes to induce a euphoric effect as the brain is one of the last organs to be affected by alcohol consumption. 

Until the alcohol reaches the brain on a cellular level, it causes mild damage and discomfort as the body attempts to reject the poison.

Basically, you are fighting your body by consuming a poison faster than your body can fight it off. 

When it finally begins killing brain cells at a high level, a euphoric, near-death experience is briefly confused for enjoyment, and soon followed by severe damage and poisoning.

Vomiting

When you vomit, as often is the case with over-consumption of alcohol, your body is essentially going into emergency mode and expelling anything it can because something inside is posing a dangerous threat to your health. 

Vomiting is a sign your body has been poisoned and is taking emergency action to avoid imminent death.

You lose almost all control of your brain and body when drunk, and often a personality shift is experienced where you do things you would never do sober, like getting into a fight with someone. 

Sure when sober we can all rationalize that there's always a way to avoid a fight, but when intoxicated by alcohol, the brain's ability to make rational decisions is impaired.

Drunk Driving

Drunk drivers kill a lot of people. 

That's a shame when it happens even once, but to be the largest cause of death in a vast country of many citizens, and it's an avoidable crime, makes the statistics especially alarming. 

We might not be able to decide not to have a heart attack or stroke on a given day, but those are no longer the leading cause of death statistically. 

On the other hand, taking a taxi or finding an alternate mode of transportation when you've had a few drinks is a decision that could change those numbers if made more often.

As a country strives to create a Utopian society, one of the indicators of successfully approaching that target will be the reduction of statistics like these that are caused by human error. And let's face it, driving under the influence of alcohol is an error, a mistake, a bad decision.

I'm neither promoting or denouncing recreational enjoyment of intoxicating substances but managing such activities responsibly should be taught rather than what my generation tolerated, which was preaching sessions attempting to turn taboo all forms of pleasures from tobacco and on. 

That methodology backfired, and years later, we all witnessed the college rush of teenagers engulfing kegs of cheap thrills to the point way beyond enjoyable on a frequent basis. 

In France, children are taught to have an occasional glass of wine with a meal and grow up thinking nothing of it.

Underage Drinking

I'm certainly not condoning the act of feeding underage people alcohol. That decision should be left at the discretion of the parents. 

What factors a parent considers when condoning or refusing their child to consume alcohol, whether as a child, a pre-teen, a teenager, or a young adult should be standardized among the people of a democratic nation, but the decision itself should be left in the hands of the parents. 

For example, to this very day, some religions believe that a teaspoon of wine is an appropriate elixir to offer a child or a baby only a few days old after a serious surgery is performed at that young age.

Other cultures believe it acceptable for teenagers to drink wine with any meal of the day they wish to enjoy with wine; that is to say, the decision is left in the hands of the child whether or not to drink alcohol. 

In a democratic society, a parent should feel secure that their religious or cultural beliefs are accepted and respected. 

To that end, it would make sense to allow for decisions to be made by parents while helping to ensure parents make wise decisions by teaching a standard of what factors should govern a parent's decision on their children's behavior.

Philosophy aside, drinking at a young age can in fact cause various issues to arise in children and young adults, whether it is from drinking beer or wine, or something more potent, such as vodka mixers or shots of whiskey, scotch, or bourbon. 

Other types of alcoholic drinks that are known to cause euphoric effects include rum, cognac, champagne, ports, gin (made from poisonous juniper berries), tequila, blends, and many more. 

Any of these various forms of alcohol ingested at a young age can cause issues while a child is still growing and damage to the brain and other organs as they continue their development processes.

Stunting Growth

The old wives' tale that it would stunt your growth is partially true. 

At a young age, alcohol consumption replaces the water in cells (at a cellular level of human anatomy). 

The water is replaced with alcohol, causing more frequent urination. 

The dehydration later known as a hangover, and the end of cells that were supposed to multiply to build up tissue. 

Because of the effect of water loss at the cellular level, the brain is effectively malnourished with dehydrating substance instead of the normally hydrating water. 

It begins as the early stages of approaching death, which we confuse for sensations of euphoria. 

You may notice that for a few days after a late night of drinks, your urine is a darker shade of yellow. 

That's because all the water was flushed out, and whatever's left is needed for the replacement cells of the ones the alcohol killed, and that means your fresh out of water to dilute the toxins your body normally expels on a daily basis. 

So, in summary, urine is more yellow. Clear-colored urine is a sign of health.

At a young age, children consuming alcohol experience losses at the cellular level far greater than adults in terms of the total percent of cells functioning per organ in the body. 

That is to say, the percent of cells damaged from alcohol is a higher percentage in children than in adults. 

As a result, the natural growth of cells from parent cells is significantly hindered, and some organs must struggle or work harder to ensure the organs grow as they would have if alcohol wasn't interfering with their natural processes.

Summary

So, to keep alcohol working effectively and enjoyable, drink responsibly and avoid drinking consecutively, like two or three days in a row. 

Even young bodies can't prevent the damage once too much alcohol is inside the body. 

As we get older, we learn to ingest alcohol responsibly in order to be able to continue enjoying it into the unforeseeable future. 

However, in some cases, we fail to ensure children and teenagers are taught the same valuable lesson of responsibly consuming alcoholic beverages in moderation despite the fact that we ourselves have learned that lesson, sometimes the hard way.

If a reduction in the number of preventable alcohol statistics is to be expected instead of the continual growth of those figures, then some societies need to reconsider the ineffective conservative regulations that attempt to govern with heavy-handed legislation, which seems to result in generations of escalating statistics on alcohol's impact, standardizing the regulations and normalizing its consumption. 

Legislation should follow the philosophy that empowers parents to have greater influence in their children's decisions, especially with respect to alcoholic drinks.