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Alcoholic beverages are imbibed across the world. For some
they serve as a uniting commonality for socializing, while others partake in
tasty alcohol-containing drinks to reach altered states of consciousness, or to
get drunk. The paradox of enjoying alcoholic beverages is that it comes with
benefits and risks not just to your physical health but also other significant
domains of your life, including work and relationships. The key to staying on
the side of gleaning the advantages of alcohol use resides in safe, moderate
consumption.
Advantage: Heart Health
The cardiovascular system includes your heart, circulatory
and neurological systems, and cardiovascular disease is the primary killer of
American men and women. Cardiovascular diseases can impact your arteries and
heart, blood vessels leading to major organs or your brain, and include damage
to any of these systems that can lead to stroke or heart attack. People free of
cardiovascular complications actually can protect this system with moderate
alcohol consumption. According to Harvard Health Publications, moderate alcohol
use raises the high-density lipoprotein, or good cholesterol, level in your
bloodstream, which plays a role in reducing the risk of clots in your blood
vessels.
Disadvantage: Heart-Health Risk
Moderate alcohol consumption in healthy adults can be
cardio-protective, but excessive alcohol consumption or alcohol use if you have
existing heart disease increases your risk of heart complications. Continued
alcohol use if you have high blood pressure can lead to blockage in the
arteries from the brain, causing a sudden or severe disruption in the brain
blood supply, or stroke. Excess alcohol consumption also increases the chance
of chronic high blood pressure, which impacts the functionality of your heart.
Advantage: Other Health-Risk Reduction
Type 2 diabetes, a form of chronic metabolic disease due to
poor insulin production, can result from differing contributing factors, like
poor diet, pancreatic complications or obesity. Studies indicate that the risk
of developing diabetes is reduced with regular, moderate alcohol consumption,
but the exact benefit of alcohol on blood glucose management warrants ongoing
research. Gallstones develop in the gallbladder and can result from too much
cholesterol in the diet. Alcohol might minimize the risk of cholesterol
accumulation that leads to gallstones. Consequently, excess alcohol consumption
also can cause complications in blood glucose management if you have diabetes
and poor liver functions that increase the risk of gallstones.
Disadvantage: Abuse and Alcoholism
The psychological impact of drinking alcohol presents with a
wide-range of consequences depending on your drinking pattern. Alcohol abuse
occurs when you engage in drinking that is unsafe and harmful to others. Binge
drinking is a form of alcohol abuse. Blackouts or alcohol poisoning resulting
from over-consumption are serious residual effects of alcohol abuse. Alcoholism
develops over time as you require more beverages to achieve the intoxicating
results, when you experience withdrawal symptoms when you do not drink, and
when you engage in unsafe behaviors that impact yourself and others. Alcoholism
and abuse often result in loss of relationships, loss of employment, vehicular
accidents or violence.
Moderate Alcohol Consumption
A standard alcohol beverage is one 12 oz. beer, one 5 oz.
glass of wine, or one 1.5 oz. glass of 80 proof distilled spirits, notes
MayoClinic.com. Moderate alcohol consumption for a man equates to no more than
two standard drinks a day and for women it is the equivalent of one standard
drink a day. If you do not currently drink alcoholic beverages, do not start,
because you can obtain heart healthy benefits through other dietary means. If
you have a problem with drinking alcohol, seek professional help to prevent
long-term health and psychological complications.
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