Why is alcohol consumed so often?

Despite the fact that alcohol is a drug and a depressant, alcohol usage is still very prevalent in many cultures across the world. A survey published by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism states that 86% of Americans over the age of 17 have at least tried alcohol at some point in their lives, and that more than half reported that their last alcoholic beverage was consumed within the last month. One of the reason’s alcohol use is so common is likely because of it’s stimulant effect. Some of the main simulatory effects that people desire when drinking alcohol are talkativeness, increased confidence, improvements in mood, and a feeling of euphoria. Additionally, alcohol is universally associated with celebrations; it is used in many different festivities in all cultures. Alcohol has played an integral part, on an almost universal scale, throughout human evolution. Wine and other spirits are often included in religious ceremonies and customs. Since alcohol has been so ingrained in the development and evolution of all human cultures, alcohol continues to plays a major role in society. Similarly, humans are a social species and, for a lot of people, alcohol is a very common and normalized part of socializing. Finally, the alcohol industry is extremely lucrative; it accounts for billions of dollars of the U.S. economy. In the graph below, it is evident that both the Americas, Europe and Australia have very high beer and liquor consumption rates. On the other hand, spirits are consumed everywhere, but are most common in Asian countries. Similarly, wine is enjoyed across the world, but most common in European and Asian countries.

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Drinking has become so much of a social norm that it seems more unusual for people to complete abstain from drinking. Drinking alcohol has become synonymous with going out, partying, having fun and relaxing. For example, many people like to relax or unwind with a glass of wine or have a fun night out during weekend that is centered around drinking alcohol. While most people that drink have experienced some negative symptoms, like a next hangovers or nausea, these symptoms are not severe enough for people to stop drinking or think they have a problem. Drinking is more common among younger (legal or nearly) people in terms of frequency and amounts.Younger people tend to have less severe hangovers and are able to recover from hangovers faster than older people. Drinking is especially dangerous for underage people. Underage people are subject to negative brain effects from drinking alcohol since their brain is still developing, and the same can be said for negative liver, growth and endocrine effects.Binge drinking is excessive drinking that results in a person’s blood alcohol level reaching 0.08g/dl or above. This is usually accomplished by having five or more drinks within a two hour time period. Binge drinking has become more common in the last few years, especially among the younger crowds. Binge drinking is most common among adults between the ages of 18 - 34, which is supported by the data plotted below. The data in the graph below comes from a 2019 survey of about 70,000 Americans. Over 40% of Americans between the age of 21 and 25 binge drink. Binge drinking is the most dangerous type of drinking because it can result in serious side effects like alcohol poisoning, violence, miscarriage, stillbirth, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, cancer, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, memory and learning problems and, of course, alcohol use disorder.

Benefits of Alcohol

There are some known benefits that go along with drinking alcohol. For example, alcohol does have some medicinal properties. In the past, alcohol was been used as a pain reliever and antiseptic. Some medical professionals still recommend including a moderate amount of alcohol to their diet to promote certain types of health. The key to getting medical benefits from alcohol is only drinking in moderation, and being healthy in other aspects of your life. As mentioned earlier, drinking too much alcohol puts you at a higher risk for developing heart disease, but drinking moderately makes you 25%-40% less likely to have a heart attack, stroke or hardened arteries. Similarly, moderate drinkers are up to 41% less likely to have kidney stones, but heavy drinkers are an increased risk for kidney stones due to the dehydration caused by excess alcohol. Additionally, for people with type 2 diabetes, moderate alcohol consumption may help reduce symptoms. A study by the Catholic University of Campobasso also linked moderate drinking to a longer life. Finally, alcohol can make you feel happier, more social and help with mental health. In the plot below that beer, wine and spirits all have a positive trend with alcohol consumption. This is likely due to the fact that alcohol is most commonly consumed during festivies or other social gatherings when people feel happy. So people that live in happier countries have more reasons to drink. Simiarly, alcohol consumption is more common amgonst people with higher education and higher income levels, and these people also tend to be happier than people with lower education levels and lower income.

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The plot below contains information about pure liters of alcohol consumed per person over the age of 15 and the average life expectancy in different countries. This data supports the claims of many previous studies claiming that moderate consumption of alcohol can result in a longer life. On average, alcohol consumption over the year has not changed drastically; however, on average, life expectancy has increased across the world. It is clear that the moderate drinkers, that fall between around 7 - 12 liters of alcohol per year have the longest life expectancies.

Negative Effects of Alcohol

Drinking alcohol involves many risks that are exasperated by excessive drinking. Some serious risks of drinking are liver disease, impaired brain function, depression, obesity, digestive issues, weakened immune system, heart disease, cancer, birth defects, addiction and death. Alcoholic liver disease occurs when the liver cannot clean out the toxins from alcohol fast enough. This first appears as fatty liver, which is just an increased amount of fat inside liver cells. Alcoholic liver disease can cause liver cells to die and get replaced with scar tissue, which becomes much more serious and even deadly. Alcoholic liver disease was by far the leading cause of alcohol related deaths in the UK in 2018. Alcoholic liver disease took the life of 5723 people in the UK in 2018. The second leading cause of alcohol related death in the UK was mental and behavioral disorders caused by alcohol. This is a very board category that encompasses a variety of things including mental illness related deaths, deaths caused by impaired decision making, or any other mental/behavior issue that resulted in death that was originally brought on by alcohol.The third leading cause of alcohol related death is alcohol poisoning. Alcohol poisoning occurs when a person drinks too much too quickly. It starts by slow and irregular breathing, decreased heart rate, dropping body temperature and blue or pale skin and can lead to either a comma or death. Someone with alcohol poisoning can be saved with medical attention; hence, deaths caused by alcohol poisoning are preventable.

Another serious danger with alcohol is drunk driving. Drunk driving is something that can easily be avoided, especially now due to applications like Uber and Lyft. However, many people still unwisely choose to get behind the wheel after drinking. Drinking and driving puts the driver, passengers and any other people on the road at serious risk. Drunk driving often results in deaths and/or severe injuries. In the UK in 2018 alone, there were 8680 deaths caused by drunk driving, which were caused by almost 6000 car crashes. This does not even include the number of severity of injuries sustained from drunk driving.

There are also non-deadly, but still negative side effects of alcohol usage. For instance, many people with depression and anxiety use alcohol to cope, but in the long run alcohol usage makes depression and anxiety worse. Additionally, alcohol is high in calories and has been linked to weight gain. Alcohol is very dehydrating, and can cause stomach issues. Acid reflux, vomiting and diarrhea are very common side effects of drinking. Also, alcohol can cause Birth defects and fertility issues. Alcohol should never be consumed by a pregnant woman because if it is the baby will likely have development, growth, intelligence and behavioral issues. Male fertility is also heavily impacted by alcohol usage. Drinking causes lower testosterone levels, shrinking testes, decreased ejaculation and less healthy sperm. The plot below displays data about women’s fertility and how it compares to their drinking habits. The biggest issue with the dataset is that there is only one person that drinks everyday and one person that drinks several times a day. These two people happened to have no fertility issues, but this tiny sample size is not a good representation of the real world. Ignoring the last two categories, we can see a steady increase in the percentage of people with fertility issues as the frequency of drinking increases. Hence, it is likely that this trend would continue and the people that drink even more frequently would be even more likely to have fertility issues.

Student Drinking

There are a multitude of articles and studies that claim that students that drink are less likely to do well in school. As a group, college students are some of the heaviest and most frequent drinkers. Binge drinking occurs more often among people with household incomes above $75,000 and those with higher education levels. Binge drinking is especially dangerous among students because students are mostly underage and inexperienced. Hence, students that are drinking may not pick up on signs of alcohol poisoning or fully understand the dangers of drinking. Binge drinking or any kind of drinking can cause lingering cognitive deficits for up to 48 hours after drinking, which consists of concentration, memory and attention issues. Additionally, alcohol temporarily impairs some key brain receptors that are used to created long-term memories as well as disrupting sleep cycles, which also interferes with long-term memory formation. For these reasons, drinking can make studying and/or learning much more difficult. These factors are further exasperated in college and high school student because their brains are still developing. Similarly, hangovers can cause students to miss class or forget to complete assignments. Apart from grades there are also risks of injury and becoming a victim of assault. For most students, college is the first time students are living completely on their own. Alcohol causes people to lose their balance and lower the inhibitions, which can be especially dangerous on a college campus due to the high levels of assault.Based on the plots below, the medium number of absences for each drinking level increases as the drinking level increases for both weekend and weekday drinkings. This supports the idea that drinking does impact students ability to attend all their classes. The medium number of class failures is the same, zero, for all drinking levels and both weekday and weekend drinking levels. However, for weekend drinking the 75th percentile is basically zero for every drinking level except five, where it spikes up to two and a half. For weekday drinking levels the 75th percentile, two, three, four are all around one. Again, this data supports the idea that drinking makes it harder for students to achieve highly in school. When looking at average grades and weekend drinking, the median grade decreases as drinking level increases. For weekday drinking levels that holds true as well, except for the highest drinking level, which surprisingly has the highest median.

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Conclusion

Alcohol has more negative effects than positive effects. However, in moderation, alcohol is not a bad thing. In moderation alcohol can actually be good for us, and be a nice way to celebrate. On the other hand, excessively drinking has so many dangerous and even deadly side effects. Even the non-deadly side effects of heavy drinking are harmful enough to severely negatively impact a person’s life. In conclusion, the best way to enjoy alcohol is not to cut it out completely, but to only use it in moderation. This will allow you to both benefit from alcohol and avoid the scary side effects. It is the best of both worlds!

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