Alcohol Use and Abuse

Spiritual disease might be religion..D. Sohial.

It is really funny how some people deliberately take controversial position by putting a negative spin to even simple statements. When the author was comparing alcohol in west and east, he was merely mentioning the difference between the way its usage is perceived in two contrasting cultures. To actually blame the poor author for “glorifying� West and putting it in the best light is somewhat unfair as this is primarily an informative article. The author is not taking a pro west position and in fact has discussed the problem of alcoholism, its effects and possible cures in the light of what he has witnessed in the West. That alone absolves him of ignoring the harmful effect of alcohol usage in the West.

Re: # 5
dear dr b_banth...thank you for your detailed informative feedback. i am glad you are helping people in your clinic in murry pakistan. as a doctor i understand when you say...bio...psycho...social disese...i am not clear when you say...spiritual disease...can you explain? thanks...sohail

“Be clear about “drinking� and “Alcoholism�. Drinking is neither character of defect nor a disease. However alcoholism is a disease. Both can be differentiated observing consequences. Satisfying news is that alcoholism is curable�

Drinking and alcoholism go side by side. Both are products of drinking culture. Simple molecular make up of alcohol create potential for easy access to brain cells. At low doses universe being perceived as splendid creature and person feels jazzed, jubilant, talkative and euphoric. As soon as he increases intake, natural deterrent alarms and nausatic feelings emerge.

Alcoholic’s liver is no more effectively functional and converts alcohol into a toxin, called acetaldehyde. This metabolic error leads to accumulation of acetaldehyde in blood. You know acetaldehyde is a poison.

Here are important things to remember about alcoholism:

• Alcoholism is a Bio, Psycho, Social and Spiritual disease. Its start in the body affects the mind and destroys life. Psychological damage is the result and not cause of alcoholism.
• It left untreated, it progress and become fatal.
• At some point, the drinking pattern begins to diverge; those who are destined to become alcoholic start to drink more and more often.
• Alcohol is very rich in calories too. These calories can not be stored and are to be consumed at once. So, the energy “kick� is it’s most deadly characteristic.
• In early hidden stage of alcoholism, the only visible difference between the alcoholic and the non-alcoholic is improved performance in the alcoholic when he drinks.
• People often ask what the diagnostic criterion of alcoholism is. The short and simple answer is: when you see a finger pointed at somebody’s drinking, it is alcoholism.
• In alcoholics up to 2/3 of the total energy requirement of the body may be fulfilled by alcohol. That is why alcoholics often neglect food and are malnourished.
• There is nothing special why alcoholics drink? The short answer is: they drink for all the reasons others do. If you keep exploring alcoholism all the mysteries will unfold.
• The alcoholism teaches all the tricks to its victims to make them excellent story tellers, so as to trick their families. It also sings melodious lullabies for them, so they can’t hear any wake up calls.
• Those who drink and never fall prey to alcoholism are spared by chance. As a class drunkards never fall short of any human virtues. They are wonderful people per se.
• An alcoholics mind is miraculously powerful. It would do anything to stop painful feelings. Even when alcohol barely helps an alcoholic feel better, excuses never let him down.
• There is a lethal depression at the climax which some physicians treat with antidepressants. This depression is in fact secondary to alcoholism and can be treated only by quitting.

And by the way, this new web 2.0 look of chowk is simply disgusting. As if, they were given the task to make this website horrible.

e.g. articles and comments are not on the same page. So much stuff is crammed in one place, giving me an irritating feeling. Font sizes have gone small. Ads are taking too much space on the right side. Everything is in narrow columns, there's no 'width' I felt comfortable with.

May be its only me....

Dr. Sohail,

Nice informative article.

When I came across your article, without giving a careful look, I thought it would be discussing the enigma of Pakistani people in their dealing with alcohol. I think a lot can to be said about how alcohol was demonized slowly after the gora left our country, putting 'taboot mein aakhri keel' in Zia's era, so that people like me were raised knowing that it is the worst thing in the world a person could use. I think such a demonized view of alcohol (which is just a simple chemical) affects children's psychology in Pakistan in a very destructive way, espcially in the way they judge people (or nations) who have something to do with alcohol.

So, how about an article about that?

The author writes "for the first 20 years of my life, most people I met had a moralistic and judgmental attitude towards alcohol as they considered consuming even small amounts of alcohol immoral,illegal and sinful. For them there were either teetotalers or alcoholics. They did not approve of social and recreational drinking, and a rational discussion about alcohol was conspicuous by its absence. On the other hand in the West where I have lived for the last 30 years of my life, attitudes towards alcohol use and abuse are based on science, psychology and cultural traditions,"


Another disgraceful article by the Mohammed Gill's co-conspirator, a mass-producer of tape-recorderesque articles whose purpose is to show the West in the best light possibe even when it involves a disease that of alcohol and alcoholism that is destroying their society. In order to sanitize it, he terms it "science and psychology". There is no science and psychology behind alcohol consumption in the West, most people know sh** about the science behind alcohol, they consume it for its euphoric and or social benefit effect, those that consume it, be it socially, most have abused it at some time or the other. With addictive substances like alcohol whose "harms far exceed any benefit" it might provide as a beverage, it is certainly an all or none, scenario, so the people you are berating are actually very smart thanks to the Quran.

Consider some of these facts:

---
Copy paste from my article on Alcohol, http://www.geocities.com/sociohistory/alcohol.htm


1) 60-70% of all crime involves alcohol and/or other intoxicating drugs. Almost 50% of all violent crimes involve alcohol. Twenty-four percent of Federal inmates and 49% of State inmates reported that they were under the influence of alcohol or illicit drugs at the time of their current offense. 36.3% were under the influence of alcohol alone. Federal research also shows that more than 40% of convicted murderers being held in jail or State prison, had alcohol as a factor in their crime. Extensive data is available to show the relationship between violent crime and alcohol. In the United Kingdom, the British Medical Association, advised the Parliament that alcohol is a factor in: • 60-70% of homicides • 75% of stabbings • 70% of beatings • 50% of fights and domestic assaults. According to the Seventh Special Report to the U.S Congress on Alcohol and Health, "In both animal and human studies, alcohol more than any other drug, has been linked with a high incidence of violence and aggression."

Alcohol temporarily increases brain serotonin function, but after that temporary rise, levels of serotonin fall below the normal level. This reduced serotonin level is linked to a heightened vulnerability to depression, increased risk of violent suicide, aggressive and impulsive behavior, and a tendency to further abuse alcohol, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Alcohol consumption in any amount leads biologically (through serotonin) to a tendency to abuse it. There is no such thing as “responsible� drinking on a society-wide level.

"…Alcohol, the oldest and most prevalent cause of addiction, is by far the most prolific activator and deactivator of brain centers. Nothing else comes close. Not cocaine, not heroin, not nicotine…Using PET scanners, University of Chicago scientists studied the effects of alcohol on the brain. Since alcohol affects the pleasure centers of the brain (the limbic network in the mid brain), it is directly responsible for compulsion, addiction and craving." (Kotulak 1997:111)

"But to modern scientists, the discovery of alcohol's ability to turn on the brain's reward system is the key to understanding how alcohol creates a craving so intense that it makes emotion rule over reason. When a person slips into dependence, alcohol craving becomes a drive as powerful as the need for food, water, sleep and sex."(Kotulak 1997:116)

2) Nearly 50% of Automobile fatalities in the U.S. are linked to Alcohol (one death every 11 minutes according to 1990 estimates). Forty percent of all fatal motor vehicle crashes involve alcohol. Drunk driving is the nation's most frequently committed violent act. In 1990, 22,083 people died in car accidents involving alcohol. This is equivalent to three fully loaded 747s crashing three times a week, every week for a year. About two in every five Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related car crash sometimes in their lives. (http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/3121/statistics.html).

3) Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) results in mental and physical retardation of the newborn. The incidence of FAS in the United States is 1.9 cases per every 1000 births. Birth defects other than FAS linked to alcohol use are 1 in every 100 births. Statistically these numbers are huge. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the net rates for FAS are 1 in 500 for US, Canada, Europe and Australia combined. In 1991, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) is the leading known cause of mental retardation in Western Civilization (see http://come-over.to/FAS)

4) As many as half the young offenders appearing in provincial court may be there because their mothers drank (alcohol) during pregnancy, says Royal University Hospital psychologist Josephine Nanson. (See, http://www.treefort.org/~tjk/fas/zakreski.htm).

5) Almost 78% of all assaults, most of them involving men beating women, are committed under the influence of alcohol. In the United States, a man beats a woman every 15 seconds. Two-thirds (75%) of partner abuse victims in the US report that alcohol had been a factor. For spouse abuse victims, the offender was drinking three out of four times (See, http://www.tf.org/alcohol/ariv/reviews/dvrev5.html)

6) Alcohol causes permanent damage to the brain, liver and most internal organs of the consumer. It is a poison, which the body tries to get rid of the moment it is consumed. An enzyme in the stomach, alcohol dehydrogenase, tries to neutralize the ethanol content in alcoholic beverages, treating it as a poison. Since women have a higher proportion of body fat and less water in their bodies, this means that alcohol will be less diluted and have a greater effect on them compared to men. Also, the enzyme in the stomach that neutralizes ethanol, alcohol dehydrogenase, in women is 70-80% less effective than it is in men. Alcohol, therefore, causes even greater harm to women. In women that drink heavily, cirrhosis of the liver sets in within 13 years compared to the 22 years for men (see http://www.alcohol.or/nz).

7) Alcohol acts as a "stepping-stone" for other "higher" drugs like Marijuana, Cocaine and Heroine. Those who don't do alcohol don't experiment with other drugs (Siegel, Sienna 1994). This is in contrast to “stimulants� like caffeine, which don't figure out in this “stepping stone�.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), treatment data suggests, “Increasing proportions of persons treated for alcohol problems also have drug problems.� Thus, the “drug war� can never be won without outlawing alcohol.

8) According to NIDA, the economic cost to society of alcohol was estimated at $148 billion in 1992. When adjusted for inflation and population growth, the cost increases over 12.5% every year. (See http://www.nida.nih.gov/EconomicCosts/Index.html).

Acha it’s interesting to note I was a social drinker during my early teens and crossed benchmarks (as far as consuming alcohol) courtesy of our bootlegger but somehow when I went to England for further drinks somehow I found alcohol to be disgustful. Could anyone explain?