Posts Tagged ‘Alcohol’

Binge drinking can be termed as an act of heavy drinking over a short time frame. People indulge in this sort of drinking normally drink continuously for three or four days. Binge drinking is quite harmful in nature as it can have a negative impact on your overall health and also it can cause long term serious side effects. If you are suffering from any medical condition, it is advisable that you do not get involved in this sort of drinking. Pregnant woman should also stay away from binge drinking.

Avoiding binge drinking is tough but not impossible. To accomplish this task, you just need to be disciplined and make sure that you follow a preset routine. Your friends and family members can help you immensely in this regard. Individuals that are mentally strong will face no problem in avoiding binge drinking. To increase your chances of attaining success, take one step at a time. As you start feeling comfortable, everything will fall in place.

Getting Rid of Binge Drinking Situations

• To begin with, make sure that you live in a dry state. When you are not going to find wine and beer in your neighborhood store, your drinking habits will be reduced automatically.
• Instead of purchasing big, buy small. There is no point making stock of alcohol as it will encourage you to drink more.
• You need to take the services of a helper. A helper can play a vital part in letting you know about your behavior and also how much alcohol you have already consumed. But until and unless, you show some discipline, there is going to be no improvement in your drinking habits.
• To get rid of binge drinking situations, you need to be honest. For long-term control, it is advisable that you interact with your friends and family members on a regular basis.

How Much You Can Drink?

The answer of this question depends on plenty of factors. It includes your gender, age, medical condition, body type, mood and kinds of medical drugs you are taking. If you are below the age of 25, you should not drink more as it can affect your kidney and lungs. People suffering from any serious medical condition needs to control their drinking habits otherwise there health can deteriorate. Stay away from alcohol when you are required to consume medical drugs on a daily basis. Your health care provider will tell you well in advance how much you can drink on a daily basis.

Use of Alcohol

You may not believe at first but it is true that alcohol has some medicinal properties and therefore there is not much of a surprise that it is used by the health care providers in various treatment routines. According to latest research, there is a strong connection between decrease in cardiovascular disease and moderate alcohol consumption. If the report of National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism are to be believed, moderate drinking is advantageous to heart health. This is significant as cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death in the US. According to one estimate, heart disease kills over one million Americans on a yearly basis.

Connection between alcohol and lifestyle

At this juncture, you may ask why drink to minimize the heart disease risk? After all, eating a healthy balanced diet with regular exercise is a much better option. But in reality this is not the case. Most of the experts are of the opinion that the moderate consumption of alcohol can be more effective in comparison to making modification in lifestyle with regard to reducing the risk of heart diseases. For individuals looking to reduce cholesterol by more than 30 points, it is of paramount importance that they follow a strict low-fat diet, get rid of salt from their diet and exercise on a daily basis.

Heart attack survivability

Apart from minimizing the risk of heart attacks, alcohol abuse also enhances the survivability. According to recent research, drinking moderate alcohol for a period of ten to twelve months before an acute myocardial infarction plays a significant part in minimizing the risk of dying afterward. It was found during the study that people who drink moderately had the lowest mortality rate.

When you drink moderately, there is a strong possibility that your tissue is not going to be damaged. Alcohol not only improves lipid profile but more importantly increases HDL. If experts are to be believed, alcohol also plays a pivotal role in minimizing platelet aggregation and fibrinogen. In some cases, it also increases fibrinolysis. Regarding fibrinolysis, it is a routine through which clots dissolve.

Moderate drinking during pregnancy generally does not have any adverse effects. Various studies and research reveal that there is no adverse effect on pregnancy as long as the pregnant mother does not consume more than one drink per day. Medical specialists are of the opinion that it is impossible to determine the time and amount of alcohol consumption that will not put the child under risk.

What is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or FAS is a health syndrome caused due to alcohol consumption by a pregnant woman and where the victim is the new born baby. This is completely preventable. Subjecting a child to FAS is no way less cruel than child abuse as the child is bound to suffer for life. Children affect with this syndrome normally have deformed facial features, short memories, smaller heads in proportion to their bodies, lack of coordination and abnormal limbs and joints.

The result is that these children normally tend to have inappropriate behavior, disruptive schooling, and severe physical and mental health related problems, addictive to drugs and alcohol, on the whole a horrible life time.

How Does Consuming Alcohol Affect Pregnant Women?

A number of studies and research have been conducted in order to get a clear picture about the alcohol and its impact on pregnant women. While browsing through the net for various articles pertaining to alcohol and pregnant woman I found an interesting article at ‘Alcohol Problems and Solutions’. The website offers you an in depth analysis into the details of Alcohol and its effects on individuals. It was indeed worth reading presenting some of it for your reading.

Women who tend to drink heavily during their pregnancies bore the risk of bringing forth children with smaller heads who had either mental or physical handicaps, when compared to those who drank occasionally or never according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Pregnancy and Alcohol – Is There Any Need?

Pregnant woman are warned of birth defects in their children where they tend to drink more than one alcoholic drink per day. Harvard’s Women Health Watch defines one drink as equal to consuming 12 ounces of beer, 1.5 ounces of spirit and five ounces of wine.

Consuming 2 drinks a couple of times in a week is said to cause no harm to the health of a pregnant woman, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist which is also consistent with the National Academy of Sciences.

Research has shown that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome occurs in children whose mother is an alcoholic; it also assures that there is no apparent risk found where the mother consumes not more than one drink every day.

Precaution to be taken by Pregnant Women to avoid Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Given to learn that consuming alcohol causes birth defects the safest choice will be to restrain from drinking. But the question of practicality and awareness crops up in dealing with the issue of alcoholism. Those who are light or occasional drinkers can as well stop drinking learning the dangers caused by alcohol abuse on their little ones. The point here is about dealing with heavy drinkers, who also consume illegal drugs without knowing the adverse effect it can have on their child. In addition to addictiveness, ignorance can cause more damage. Leave alone the efforts taken to stop a pregnant woman from consuming alcohol; is she aware that heavy alcoholic consumption puts her child under the risk of FAS for life time?

Following the safety levels of drinking is sure to help, but nothing like not consuming it at all, where you rule out even the remote chance of occurrence of FAS and also given that the effects of moderate consumption of alcohol is yet to be found.

Do you find drinking pleasurable, given that your child will suffer for her life?