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So, I'm in college, and I don't drink at all, and my reasoning is very simple. I don't like the taste of it, and its not healthy, so why bother? The thing is, I keep hearing that alcohol will make you gain weight, its not healthy because of this and that, etc. but a lot of the people I know that drink heavily (by heavy I mean go out partying a lot) seem to be doing just fine and the ones that work out/are serious athletes are probably even fitter than me.
Therefore, I'm kind of curious if the effects of heavy alcohol drinking takes place when one gets older (some people have told me that they start feeling the problems at around 30), or if a lot of the consequences are a lot of hoopla. Regardless, I probably won't start drinking because just a sip of that stuff makes me feel like vomiting, but any thoughts? I'm just curious.
MODS: This topic is better suited for the Health and Wellness forum than the Exercise and Fitness forum. Has nothing to do with exercise or fitness but plenty to do with health and wellness.
OP, try posting in the other forum. There may be some folks there who have first hand knowledge of long term alcohol abuse and could help you there.
Actually, if you're discussing the physical effects of heavy drinking, it does take a while. But, alcohol can have various impacts upon other aspects of life. Generally, a person is "in trouble with alcohol" when any of 6 key areas of life are affected. How much trouble depends. Let's say a person drinks a lot one night, their first night ever, gets drunk and has an accident, killing someone. There life is seriously affected forever. They might go to prison; but they will certainly feel the impact financially - which is one area. Let's go the other way, and take a college student with very limited funds who spends the rent money - or travel expense budget - on alcohol. Now he either gets evicted or cannot get back and forth to campus. I'd say there's been several effects: financial, social, health, and probably family. But these effects can all be reversed - he can get a part-time job or borrow from parents.
There's a lot to think about - for more information, there's a good book written by Alan Willoughby, The Alcohol Troubled Person. For more information about health issues, there's a study by several authors, among them Wayne Velicer (of the Univ. of RI). If you google either of those 2 names, you'll come up with a lot of books/studies to do your own research.
Jumpman, everything is cumulative. You can't drink like a fish for many years and still expect your liver to be pristine, for example. How long it takes for the abuse to show outwardly depends on many factors. How healthy is the rest of a person's lifestyle? Do they eat junk food or plenty of fruits and vegetables? Are they a couch potato, or do they exercise? Do they party once a week, or drink every night? And then there are good old genetics. Some people don't show any outward signs of alcohol abuse for a long time, into their late 30s or early 40s. I wouldn't exactly call them lucky, though.
Staying away from alcohol sounds like a great plan! I've never seen the point of partying to the point of getting falling down drunk, either. Then again, I grew up with two alcoholic parents, so it was never interesting - just annoying and somewhat scary.
My uncle was a 1/5 of vodka a day drinker for years and years. Social side affects were he couldn't hold a job for more than a couple years, lived with my grandpa until he died then moved in with my aunt. He has a son he barely knows due to his extreme alcoholism. The doctors told him about four years ago when he almost died from cirosis (sp?) of the liver that he had the heart of an eighty year old, he was 52 at the time. He has had episodes where he has had to feed through a tube, and a week ago had a stroke, probably attributed to alcohol and drug abuse, and was moved out of the hospital today into a nursing home. A nursing home at age 56.
I unfortunately have struggled with a nasty alcohol addiction myself since I was 16 and getting drunk twice a day, once at lunch break at school, then again in the evening. I'm only 21 yet was diagnosed as a chronic alcoholic myself when I had to go to an evaluation due to an enhanced DUI I got. I blew .327, the catch was it was 6 pm in the afternoon and I was on my way to work. I hit a car in the parking and got arrested at my restaurant. Needless to say I lost my job and spent 30 days in jail.
Alcohol use can be controlled, but for some people it is a bad idea. At 21 I've already had some physical side effects such as sore kidney's, dehydration and swollen puffy face. In spite of all this everyday I fight the urge to get sloshed, and I probably would every day still if I wasn't being urine tested by my probation officer with the threat of going back to jail and wearing an alcohol monitoring bracelet. Its a hell of a habit to kick.
I wonder how a powerful drug like alcohol can be legal while other more harmless herbs are treated as a plague.
I think people who drink look TOTALLY different from freshmen year. The only ones that don't are the people who are athletic. But they seem to take breaks and eat better in general. (the ones that look good still) Everyone that parties like that also usually ends up quite the chunky monkey around 25 and look prematurely aged by 30.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,309 posts, read 38,774,074 times
Reputation: 7185
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jumpman023
So, I'm in college, and I don't drink at all, and my reasoning is very simple. I don't like the taste of it, and its not healthy, so why bother? The thing is, I keep hearing that alcohol will make you gain weight, its not healthy because of this and that, etc. but a lot of the people I know that drink heavily (by heavy I mean go out partying a lot) seem to be doing just fine and the ones that work out/are serious athletes are probably even fitter than me.
Therefore, I'm kind of curious if the effects of heavy alcohol drinking takes place when one gets older (some people have told me that they start feeling the problems at around 30), or if a lot of the consequences are a lot of hoopla. Regardless, I probably won't start drinking because just a sip of that stuff makes me feel like vomiting, but any thoughts? I'm just curious.
Check out some pictures of people at their high school graduation and at their 10 year reunion.
I was a college athlete and did everything I could to put on weight. I ate three meals each day at the training table and then would order a pepperoni and bell pepper pizza from Papa John's and down a half gallon of whole milk with it at least three times a week as a pure calorie supplement. I gained 5 pounds that semester and probably took in an average of about 7000 calories per day.
Around 26 my body started to want to carry some reserves around the midsection and shrinking down wasn't as easy as it had been.
I'm in better shape at 31 than I was at 28, but I really have to work at it now.
It starts creeping up on you in ways you don't even know or understand and perverting your mind. You start isolating yourself because nothing matters but that plastic bottle and that magical liquid. You might have long term health effects or you might get really drunk one day and fall off the porch and die. I am shocked that never happened to my husband as he would drink himself to a lethal dose night after night and survive like only a chronic drunk can do. It started to sicken me to and I just started to accept that he would be passed out with drunk every single night and he would have pissed himself. Tthis was normal to me. His doctor would prescribe him large amounts of valium that my husband would give me to shut me up so I could try and pretend that this wasn't happening. For now he is sober but the anxity is still with and I am haunted by the hollow drunk look that I saw in his eyes for years and years followed by the anger. Sometimes you know a drunk man could kill you in a moment and not even know or care.
Location: Prescott Valley, Az (unfortunately still here)
2,543 posts, read 4,885,027 times
Reputation: 1521
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jumpman023
So, I'm in college, and I don't drink at all, and my reasoning is very simple. I don't like the taste of it, and its not healthy, so why bother? The thing is, I keep hearing that alcohol will make you gain weight, its not healthy because of this and that, etc. but a lot of the people I know that drink heavily (by heavy I mean go out partying a lot) seem to be doing just fine and the ones that work out/are serious athletes are probably even fitter than me.
Therefore, I'm kind of curious if the effects of heavy alcohol drinking takes place when one gets older (some people have told me that they start feeling the problems at around 30), or if a lot of the consequences are a lot of hoopla. Regardless, I probably won't start drinking because just a sip of that stuff makes me feel like vomiting, but any thoughts? I'm just curious.
Let me commend you and say congratulations for not starting! That's great! Don't ever drink...It's not good and will eventually make you real sick.
I was just a weekend drinker, but at times I had drank so much, I had become (what experts call) a binge drinker. I would be bloated by the next day and took a long time to get rid of it. But now, I've been 90 days sober and I lost my "alcohol belly" (is what I call it). I, too, can't stand the taste of it anymore. The smell gets to me also. That's why I don't go out to bars anymore. I feel like vomiting too, when I take a whiff of it.
It does cause a bloating to the belly, face, and most cases the arms and legs. But it will go away when you quit for a few days or so.
Prolonged drinking (like drinking everyday), will cause a permanent bloat that will never go away. But it's due to an expanding liver. It's a sign of liver problems (or liver disease). And can cause very bad liver spots on the skin (prolonged drinking).
Location: Prescott Valley, Az (unfortunately still here)
2,543 posts, read 4,885,027 times
Reputation: 1521
Quote:
Originally Posted by jufrbo
My uncle was a 1/5 of vodka a day drinker for years and years. Social side affects were he couldn't hold a job for more than a couple years, lived with my grandpa until he died then moved in with my aunt. He has a son he barely knows due to his extreme alcoholism. The doctors told him about four years ago when he almost died from cirosis (sp?) of the liver that he had the heart of an eighty year old, he was 52 at the time. He has had episodes where he has had to feed through a tube, and a week ago had a stroke, probably attributed to alcohol and drug abuse, and was moved out of the hospital today into a nursing home. A nursing home at age 56.
I unfortunately have struggled with a nasty alcohol addiction myself since I was 16 and getting drunk twice a day, once at lunch break at school, then again in the evening. I'm only 21 yet was diagnosed as a chronic alcoholic myself when I had to go to an evaluation due to an enhanced DUI I got. I blew .327, the catch was it was 6 pm in the afternoon and I was on my way to work. I hit a car in the parking and got arrested at my restaurant. Needless to say I lost my job and spent 30 days in jail.
Alcohol use can be controlled, but for some people it is a bad idea. At 21 I've already had some physical side effects such as sore kidney's, dehydration and swollen puffy face. In spite of all this everyday I fight the urge to get sloshed, and I probably would every day still if I wasn't being urine tested by my probation officer with the threat of going back to jail and wearing an alcohol monitoring bracelet. Its a hell of a habit to kick.
I wonder how a powerful drug like alcohol can be legal while other more harmless herbs are treated as a plague.
cirrhosis.
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