When Does it Become a "Problem"?

       Distinguishing when drinking is starting to become a problem is difficult for some people to say. It is only considered an actual problem when it affects someone's personal life, career, or has absolute zero control over how much and how often they drink. Understanding how it is decided, then being able to distinguish a problem or not is easy. Drinking socially is MUCH different than having a drinking problem. Just don't let it turn into a problem!

        There are ways to determine whether or not you're a moderate or heavy drinker too. Moderate drinkers can have one to two drinks a day depending on gender and people who are 65 years and older cannot have more than one a day. Although drinking moderately can still cause problems. If someone is considered a moderate drinker, drinking alcohol too fast can cause health problems later in life. Yes, staying within low risk levels is VERY healthy and should be followed, but other aspects of how you drink needs to be thought of just as much as the amount. For women, heavy drinking is considered seven drinks per week, while men can have up to fourteen drink per week. Heavy drinkers have a higher risk of developing alcohol problems.

         Binge drinking is where the real danger is at. In just two hours, for women, having four or more drinks and five or more, for men, is considered binge drinking. Though binge drinkers can go days without drinking anything, once they start they can't stop. They have a HUGE risk of becoming dependent on alcohol and abusing it. They are much more likely to develop a drinking problem, due to the amount they drink. Often counseling and letting the drinker talk about the issues at hand helps; medication can also help. 

          A lot of people actually don't even fit the criteria for having an alcoholic problem. This is just to get all of you thinking and understanding how to safely avoid having any issues in the future.

Thinking About Drinking. (n.d.). Retrieved October 09, 2016, from http://thinkingaboutdrinking.msu.edu/index.php?option=com_content

Drinking & Grades

      Do you ever go out on a weekday instead of studying for a big test the next day? Well next time, rethink that decision! According to a study done at Penn State the relationship between alcohol abuse and a student's GPA is a poor one. The study began in 2008 and consisted of 28,000 students across the country. The students reported in the study were all students who had gone to a university counseling center.
       Students who had gone to seek help at the counseling centers had admitted to binge drinking or the abuse of alcohol. Though the study doesn't really tell us any details it does clearly show a correlation between the two. More than 15,000 students responded to questions about binge drinking. That's more than half of the entire study! The study was a two-week long period, they had to answer questions about about how many drinks they had and had to reflect on what they had done both weeks.
        The study showed an average of what students had received. Those that had not gone out received a 3.19, while those who had gone out received a 3.11. But, students who had gotten into trouble more than once received even lower. The study showed that the more incidents the binge drinking students had gotten into, the lower their GPA was. The lowest GPA found was a 2.95 and those students had gotten into trouble 10 or more times!
         Yes, the GPA's might not seem very low, but this is the reason we come to school to help be successful here and in our future! It's not just affecting their grades, but their health too. Everyone should go out and have fun, but we also need to be thinking about other aspects of our college career!


http://news.psu.edu/story/172329/2009/11/16/study-inverse-relationship-between-alcohol-abuse-and-college-gpa

Future Effects of Excessive Alcohol Use

          Being a college student, we need to understand what effects of excessive alcohol use has on us. Blackouts, impaired judgement, and slurred speech aren't the only effects alcohol has on someone's body. Brain damage, Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome, and liver disease are some of the major effects of drinking. It is important to understand what effects of excessive drinking can cause to try to prevent future reactions and take as many precautions as you possibly can.

           A consistent amount of excessive drinking can cause thiamine deficiencies and can develop serious and persistent changes within the brain. If someone doesn't get a brain deficiency at first they can still get one from liver damage. Thiamine in the brain is a necessity for tissues throughout the body. Studies have shown that women have a higher vulnerability to damages throughout the body than men do (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2004). Although females have shown greater vulnerability, both genders have shown approximately the same amount of brain shrinkage. 

            Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome has two diseases within it. If someone gets Wernicke Syndrome, they are more likely to get Korsakoff Syndrome. People with this disease are more likely to not remember very much and are usually alcohol abusers. They cannot pay attention to much of what is going on and have a hard time being interested in life; they are indifferent about much going on in their life (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2004). Having a deficiency in thiamine is a major cause of obtaining the disease. The disease plays with the the person's mind and even how their eyes react. 

             You would think that cirrhosis would be one of the first liver diseases that comes to someone's mind, but oddly, it is not. Most excessive drinkers do not think about actually having this problem. People mostly just think about general liver damage, but cirrhosis can also affect the brain and how it performs. Hepatic encephalopathy can be caused by cirrhosis due to damaged liver cells effecting the brain cells. Hepatic encephalopathy can cause depression, effect someone's attention span and coordination, amongst other things (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2004). There is treatment one can have their doctor issue, such as, using a liver-assist device to get rid of the toxins within the body. Liver transplant is also an option although there are always waiting lists the patient must be on before actually receiving the organ. 

                It is important to understand diseases and future problems that come along with excessive alcohol use so we can try to prevent these things from happening. Yes, we are in college and it is our time to be adults and have fun, but we also need to be healthy not just for now, but in our future, too. All of this hard work and money put into our schooling would go completely to waste if we constantly had severe health problems throughout our lives and couldn't even enjoy them then! What would be the point of going to school then? Nothing. We need to put our body's first and keep ourselves healthy. 

Reference: ALCOHOL'S DAMAGING EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2016, from http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa63/aa63.htm

Introduction

I am Maria and I am a sophomore and have chosen the excessive alcohol use topic. I chose this topic, because being in college it is very easy to see excessive alcohol use in students. Everyone is probably familiar with what happens, generally, but I would like to learn specifics and to share them with the rest of the class. I think understanding what the excessive use can do to a person is important to understand for our future health.