There are no fixed notions of the aftermaths of alcohol as there have always been mixed reviews about the adversities of alcohol on the health. While some call it ‘poison’, many doctors refer to it as a medication for physical ailments. While one can get highly addicted to alcohol, there are some health benefits associated with it that can accelerate the healing process in the body. Let us know whether alcohol is good or bad for your health but before that let us try understanding on what makes people drink alcohol.
Why Do People Indulge in Drinking Alcohol?
Alcohol is a fermented and brewed version of wheat, barley, rice grains with sugarcane and yeast. Even certain fruits like apples, cashew and grapes have proven essential ingredients in making alcohol – for example wines and Fenny. Fermented overnight due to bacterial reaction or years of brewing in wooden caskets underground – alcohol contains an intoxicating element called ethanol. Colorless, flammable and volatile in nature, ethanol numbs your conscience causing you to feel slow and works as a depressant. There is a reason why people prefer drowning their sorrows in a glass of whiskey or rum. It leaves you nauseous and makes you carefree. Hence, it is rightly said “A glass of wine sipped is appreciation, gulped is alcoholism”.
So is alcohol really good or bad for your health? If you are trying to weigh the pros and cons of alcohol, here are a few points that prove why alcohol is good for health and how it can also be bad for health.
Is Alcohol Good for Your Health?
Alcohol works as a companion in days when you are alone. While it can help you sink in your sorrow to develop good thoughts, sometimes too much can be a bit harmful. However, talking about its positive side here is what makes alcohol good for health:
Alcohol can be an Antidote to Reduce Stress
Closing a stressful week with a glass of wine or a pint of beer has fetched solace to many troubled souls across the world. And where there is trouble, there is immense stress spoiling your mood and causing high blood pressure. This is the time when alcohol works like medicine where it mellows down your feelings and keeps you grounded as opposed to stressed. In fact, moderate consumption of alcohol is a good remedy for anxiety as you feel rested and get good sleep.
Being a Moderate Alcohol Drinker Can Make You Socially Acceptable
Alcohol has always worked as a good ice breaker especially when you are trying to interact with people whom you do not know. While it mellows down the nerves, it accelerates a kind of adrenaline rush which makes you more of an extrovert and social. Filling you with positivity and happiness -friends are made over the clanking of glasses.
Alcohol is Good to Curb Overload of Iron Proportion in the Body
While iron is good for the body, some people are already loaded with a high proportion of iron and need not intake more of it. If you are suffering with hemochromatosis – a disorder which makes the human body a high absorber of iron from food; alcohol curbs this motion cutting down on the iron properties in foodstuff like red meat and balances out the proportion in your body.
While these are just few of the positive points, the negative pointers however overshadow the benefits.
Is Alcohol Bad for Your Health?
Anything consumed in excess will always have a harmful effect. Alcohol is one such drink when consumed in excess can turn out to be bad for your health. Let us know how alcohol can be bad for your health.
Consuming Alcohol Can Become an Addiction
While alcohol does instill a lot of positivity and can be suggested as a good remedy for certain health issues, considering it features ethanol which is a drug – the toxic liquid can get be addictive. Starting from a glass a day can land you gulping down pegs overnight which can affect your stomach, liver, digestion and also cause cancer. Hence, even when someone suggest you to take a tablespoon of brandy during winters, ensure it is a just a tablespoon and not a glass however good you may feel.
Consuming Higher Amount of Alcohol Can Cause Bad Hangovers
Nothing can be worse than a bad hangover when you wake up with a headache not knowing what happened the night before. While a hangover causes dehydration, it may also make you restless or might cause loss of sleep and acute indigestion. Sometimes due to indigestion, the body faces internal stress causing a vomiting sensation or bleeding.
Consuming Alcohol Can Be Carcinogenic?
Alcohol can cause your stomach to become inflammable, the ethanol when reacting with the enzymes secreted by your liver can form a cancer cell that’s what leads to cancerous tumors inside the stomach or liver. The ethanol in alcohol consumed acts as an agent which drives toxic ingredients, creating dozens of such cancer cells inside the intestines.
Alcohol Can Damage Your Liver
The high level of sugar in alcohol causes the liver to dysfunction fat oxidation which increases the level of fat inside the liver, causing swelling.
How Alcoholism is Bad for Diabetes?
Alcohol can lead to diabetes. Considering spirits like rum, wine, vodka and whiskey contain high proportion of sugar in them, the insulin level drops and increases the sugar which accelerates diabetes. Hence, people suffering with diabetes are requested to avoid consuming alcohol and even a glass is poison for their health.
Consuming Alcohol Can Get You Agitated
Just as we said, alcohol accelerates an adrenaline rush in an individual, while it may work in some case giving you a happy high, many a times it can act differently. It can make you this agitated individual who is not worth meeting socially, picks a fight at the drop of a hat or makes one abusive and violent. There have been instances where too much alcohol has been the reason of anti-social crimes like murder, rape, torture or even assault. Hence it is best you keep it low or move out of the space before you get violent enough to cause any of such adversities due to alcohol intake.
Points to Note before Consuming Alcohol:
While the pros and cons are surely addressed, here are few ways one can consume alcohol:
- Prefer sipping on it than gulping your alcohol
- Avoid over-indulging as too much of anything is bad for your health.
- Complement your alcohol with some delectable food preferably carbs and proteins.
- Avoid driving when drinking.
- Drink to celebrate not to obscure.
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