Alcohol

What is wrong with an alcoholic drink?

Nothing at all as long as it doesn't get out of hand. If your drink is more than a small amount and it becomes a regular feature in your life then you could be heading for trouble. Drinking too much alcohol or even a little at the wrong time can cause problems. Not just hangovers but accidents at home, at work and on the road. It can also seriously damage your health, your family and your self-esteem, not to mention your pocket.

What Happens when you drink?

• By drinking more than the safe levels of 14 units per week for women and 21 units for men,
  health can be seriously damaged, affecting the throat, liver, heart, pancreas, reproductive organs and stomach.
• Drinking dehydrates your body and lowers the levels of sugar in the blood resulting in a hangover. Low blood sugar levels produce the feeling of drowsiness, weakness, trembling, faintness
  and hunger.
• Alcohol is a depressant drug. It can act as a tranquilliser reducing stress for moderate drinkers. However, heavy drinking can increase stress when the drinker becomes tolerant to the effects.
• Alcohol can stop the body absorbing and using vitamins, resulting in stress on the brain, liver and other organs, affecting appearance and your ability to fight off infection.
• Messages take longer to travel along the nerves to the brain, resulting in the dulling and slowing down of the brains responses and reactions. Thought and co-ordination also suffer.

Drinks are high in calories:

Results of Heavy Drinking

The following problems can occur due to heavy drinking:

• Alcohol dependency
• Vitamin B deficiency
• Rise in blood pressure
• Obesity
• Increased tendency of strokes
• Increased risk of developing cancer of the throat, mouth, stomach and lungs
• Road traffic accidents
• Pneumonia
• Suicide
• May cause death if combined with tranquillisers, sleeping pills and marijuana, etc.

How to Reduce the Impact of Your Drinking Habits:

• Try to plan how much you will drink and stick to it.
• Sip your drink slowly and make it last longer, do not gulp it down.
• Always dilute drinks if possible; top up spirits with mixers.
• Try to do some other activity whilst drinking, e.g. eating, talking.
• Do not keep alcohol in the house.
• Do not drink everyday, aim for 3 or 4 alcohol free days each week.
• Do not drink alone.
• Alternate alcohol with alcohol-free or low-alcohol drinks.
• Try to drink single measures of spirits or half pints of beers.
• Work out how much money you spend on drink and when you have cut down assess the savings, then reward yourself with a fitness membership, and enjoy the NEW YOU!

EVERYONE CAN DO IT IF THEY REALLY WANT TO!!! LET US HELP YOU...