Sometimes college students may take the freedom of being away from home too hard and too fast. In this blog, I will be discussing the decision of drinking which college student face each day living on campus and how this can affect your health. Not all college students drink. Actually on average 30% of college students binge drink. In this blog I am educating those who drink moderately on what alcohol does to your body. But mostly I will be addressing the population of college students who do binge drink. I'm not saying don't ever drink and I'm not saying to go crack open a beer right now, I am just hoping to educate people on how to be responsible with alcohol and what happens when you're not.
The major thing about alcohol that personally bothers me the most is people who go out and drink and drive. 2.1 million students were caught driving under the influence so far this year. If you have one or more drinks you should not be on the road. I know it sounds tedious and stupid but even that little bit does impair your judgement. I have heard of so many people who go out on Tuesday nights and then drive themselves and others home after being at a bar. I feel if you don't care about yourself or your friends enough to designate a driver or to call a cab at least care for the innocent people who you are putting in harms way and possibly killing by driving under the influence.
I found that the majority of people who do drink on campus go to parties and binge drink (drink to get drunk). By doing this they are completely destroying their GI system. When drinking alcohol in any amount it has to go through the stomach. In the stomach alot of the alcohol is absorbed however it may be getting absorbed instead of the vitamins that you need . If you take medicine and decide to drink alcohol, it could lead to serve irritation which may lead to stomach ulcers and bleeding.
Drinking red wine with one 8-ounce glass a day can help prevent heart attacks. However, many other drinks will affect the heart and most people who drink a lot are found to have high blood pressure. With binge drinking in college students I found that stroke and heart attacks are the disease they are most prone to with their hearts.
The brain can be attacked by alcohol by blocking the neurotransmitters. Also the liver is the main organ which is attacked by alcohol because it filters the blood which has the alcohol in it. Each year 25,000 Americans die from liver disease and about 70% of those deaths are caused from drinking alcohol.
- 31 percent of college students met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and 6 percent for a diagnosis of alcohol dependence in the past 12 months.
I hear a lot of people including some of my friends say " I'm a college student so I am not an alcoholic". If you are drinking so much that you are dependent on it or if you feel as if you need to drink just because its the weekend. You should recognize these signs and take into account what road you are heading down.
This link talks about the drinking eules of Westfield State College. Many of these rules are the same as the Massachusetts Law.
Did you know:
- A 12-ounce beer = 1 shot of 80-proof alcohol regardless if it is in a mixed drink or not
= 5 ounce glass of wine
- A shot of 80-proof alcohol is = to 100 calories ( think of how many other things you could have instead)
- An average 12-ounce beer has about 110 calories
- One in three 18-24 year olds are admitted to the emergency room are there because they are intoxicated
-It takes 3 hours to eliminate just 2 average drinks
-The more tolerance you gain from alcohol the more serious the GI problems you are obtaining.
I've been in the situation and I'm sure others have too where you don't want to drink but anyone and everyone keeps asking you why your not drinking. The people who are drunk may not comprehend that just because you're not drinking doesn't mean you're an outcast.
1.) Drink juice or soda out of a cup, no one will ever know its not alcohol
2.) Avoid situations where alcohol is present
3.) Say you just finished a drink and yo're taking a little bit of a break
Again, I am not here to tell you to drink or not to drink. I am just educating you on what the consequences are if you do decide to drink and why college students are at risk.
