In the current world alcohol and smoking have led to addictions in many young people which in turn cause a lot of long term psychological and physical complications. Addiction to alcohol or heavy alcohol drinking normally impinges on judgment, reaction and the way of thinking. Alcohol consumption also triggers risky behaviors that can cause harm. Among other things alcohol abuse is related to unprotected sex, the shutting of the nervous systems causing instant death, drunken driving causing bodily harm in accidents and death and a lot of other severe health effects.
Smoking on the other hand has its fair share of detrimental effects on individuals; this is evidenced by Grey (2002) who shows that:
Smoking causes addiction, constant coughing, bronchitis, asthma, damage to your lungs, smelly hair and clothes, yellow teeth and bad breath. And those are just the short term effects. The long term effects include cardiovascular disease (heart attacks and strokes), lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, emphysema (a lung disease where a person has really hard time breathing), reproductive problems, and birth defects in kids (Grey, 2002).
Therefore this paper is going to focus on the negative physical and mental effects of long term alcohol abuse and smoking, show how the unhealthy lifestyles impact on people today and finally conclude by proposing a solution for curbing this situation.
High quantities of alcohol intake are interconnected with a high level risk of developing cardiovascular ailments, “malabsorption, chronic pancreatitis, liver disease and cancer. Central nervous system and peripheral nervous system damage can also occur from sustained consumption. Long-term use of alcohol in excessive quantities is capable of damaging nearly every organ and system in the body” (Lacoste, 2001). Lacoste also showed that “the developing adolescent brain is particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of alcohol”.
Constant alcohol usage and abuse has severe impacts on physical and psychological health. The following is a range of effects of heavy alcohol intake as shown by Lacoste (2001), they include:
Neuropsychiatric or neurological impairment, cardiovascular, disease, liver disease, and neoplasm that is malevolent. The psychiatric disorders which are associated with alcoholism include major depression, dysthymia, mania, hypomania, panic disorder, phobias, generalized anxiety disorder, personality disorders, schizophrenia, suicide, neurologic deficits (e.g. impairments of working memory, emotions, executive functions, visuospatial abilities gait and balance) and brain damage. Alcohol dependence is associated with hypertension, coronary heart disease, and ischemic stroke, cancer of the respiratory system, cancers of the digestive system, liver, breast, and ovary cancer. Heavy drinking is also associated with liver disease, such as cirrhosis (Lacoste, 2001).
Heavy intake of alcohol is seen to temper with normal brain development. Difficulties in information retrieval and visual performance were found in several studies carried out on people with a record of heavy alcohol consumption. “During adolescence for example critical stages of neurodevelopment occur. Binge drinking which is common among adolescents interferes with this important stage of development. Heavy alcohol consumption inhibits new brain cell development as well” (Taylor, 2005). Additionally heavy alcohol intake damages the development of the brain, these effects are caused by “brain shrinkage, dementia, physical dependence, increases neuropsychiatric and cognitive disorders responsible for distortion of the brain chemistry” (Lacoste, 2001).
Excessive drinking often leads to cardiomyopathy or “holiday heart syndrome.” This is supported by Sienkiewicz (2009), who shows that:
Alcoholic cardiomyopathy is characterized in a manner clinically identical to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, involving hypertrophy of the musculature of the heart that can lead to a form of cardiac arrhythmia. These electrical anomalies, represented on an EKG, often vary in nature, but range from nominal changes of the PR, QRS, or QT intervals to paroxysmal episodes of ventricular tachycardia. The path physiology of alcoholic cardiomyopathy has not been firmly identified, but certain hypotheses cite an increased secretion of epinephrine and norepinephrine, increased sympathetic output, or a rise in the level of plasma free fatty acids as possible mechanisms.
Another effect evident in alcohol abusers is anemia originating from several causes; alcoholics are also diagnosed with thrombocytopenia from through megakaryocytic noxious effects.
Psychological effects associated with alcohol are evident in the occurrence of high depressive disorder in alcohol abusers. Recent studies have now certified that high alcohol consumption is directly responsible for the increase of depressive disorders in many alcoholics. Consequently alcohol abuse is responsible for a lot of psychological disorders with “alcohol abusers having a very high suicide rate. A study of people hospitalized for suicide attempts found that those who were alcoholics were 75 times more likely to go on and successfully commit suicide than non-alcoholic suicide attempters” (Gitlow, 2006). Again as shown by Lacoste (2001) “long term use of alcohol can lead to damage to the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system resulting in loss of sexual desire and impotence in men”.
Fetal alcohol syndrome which is an impairment characterized by lasting birth defects is also a common effect resulting from alcohol consumption in pregnant mothers, as alcohol consumption is in a way responsible for the damage to the fetus.
Smoking on the other hand has toxic effects on human beings. While smoking, it is the respiratory system that gets most affected, the toxins in smoke flowing in the lungs is a formula for adversity. Pneumonia and bronchitis of chronic nature are some of the many ailments brought about by smoking. Smoking also brings about emphysema, a devastating disease of the lungs that is very fatal.
Other effects of smoking arise due to the extra work done by the heart and vascular disease. Smoking is also responsible for triggering coronary disease that in turn activate heart attack. Many types of cancers are brought about by smoking, “lung, mouth, throat, stomach, bladder, cervix and more. Due to the reduced blood flow to the body’s extremities like the legs and feet, vascular disease in these areas can cause painful ulcers that are often impossible to cure” (Grey, 2002). “Frequent smoking has also been linked to panic attacks and panic disorders in young people.” (Hales, 2010)
Heavy drinking and smoking are some of the major causes of death that can be otherwise prevented. Research reveals that heavy drinking and smoking are responsible for one in every thirty four deaths in the world. The research also shows that six percent of disability cases are as a result alcohol intake.
Therefore as shown in this paper heavy drinking and smoking have no positive impacts on the community and should be shunned at all costs. Countries should put up policies to regulate these behaviors and ban drinking and smoking especially in people under 21 years. When this is done the impacts of alcohol consumption and smoking can be regulated.
References
- Gitlow, S. (2006). Alcohol abuse and suicide. Journal of the effects of alcohol 53 (7), 104-122.
- Grey, B. (2002). Detrimental effects of smoking. New York NY: Oxford University Press.
- Hales, D. (2010). An Invitation to Health. Belmont CA: Wadsworth publishers
- Lacoste, L. (2001). Risks of high alcohol consumptions. International journal on the risks of alcohol consumption 24 (2), 62-69.
- Sienkiewicz, B. (2009). Alcohol and cardiomyopathy. South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.
- Taylor, B. (2005). Effects of alcohol consumption on brain development. Journal of the effects of alcohol 32 (1), 73-98.