Contents:

1. The Medical Effects of Alcohol
2. Alcohol, Crime and Violence
3. The Long-Term Effects of Alcohol
4. The Social Effects of Alcohol are Cultural
5. UK Trash Culture Institutionalizes Alcohol
6. How to Reduce Societal Alcohol Over-use
7. Misc
8. Benefits of the Light Drinking of Alcohol, Especially Wine
9. Conclusions

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The Medical Effects of Alcohol

In the Immediate Term:

Immediately, alcohol makes you react slower, make less good decisions and impairs the ability to perform accurate tasks. In harsh conditions, you fare much less well; to drink when very hot or very cold is suicidal. It makes you less alert.₃ Alcohol makes you feel warm because it causes your capillaries to allow more blood to the surface of the skin; but this also increases the rate that you lose heat through your skin. You think you are warmer, but you are actually losing heat quicker. Alcohol simultaneously makes you more confident but less capable of acting and thinking.

In the Short Term:

An Army publication, relying on expert medical data, finds that alcohol has the following effects:

“

• Interferes with fitness; heart and lungs work less efficiently
• It damages muscles
• It can lead to increased weight
• It increases the risk of accidents and injuries
• It damages the immune system, making you more prone to infection
• It increases the time needed to recover from injuries and illnesses
• It causes dehydration, making exercise dangerous and unpleasant

”

"Alcohol And Drugs", British Army Publication [3]

Even a moderate drinker gets ill more, has more accidents and is less fit. Certainly, no sportsman wants to be anything but a light drinker!

In the Long Term:

• Alcohol effects the brain in various ways, "but two effects seem most important":

  “First, alcohol kills nerve cells - but in a highly selective fashion. In the January 30, 1981 issue of Science, Charles Golden and his associates report that alcohol tends to destroy brain tissue primarily in the dominant hemisphere. The behavioural changes associated with chronic drunkenness tend to support Golden's findings. For example, the slurred speech, the inability to think logically and to plan effectively, and the emotional outbursts shown by many alcoholics all suggest that alcohol disrupts the dominance normally shown by the left hemisphere. Indeed, Golden and his colleagues believe these symptoms result from the right hemisphere's attempts to take over the functions lost through destruction of tissue in the left hemisphere.”

  "Understanding Human Behavior" by McConnel, James V, p79

• Chronic liver disease. Deaths from cirrhosis have increased in the UK - by 900% from 1970 to 2000. The primary cause of cirrhosis is too much drink₁.

• Early death₅.

Alcohol, Crime and Violence

• "Almost half of all victims of violence report that perpetrators were under the influence."₁

• "The role of alcohol in combination with other drugs should not be ignored. Violence seems to be more closely linked with excessive intake of alcohol than with many illegal drugs [...] - though there is room to argue that this is a culturally mediated effect rather than a necessary effect of alcohol."_{2, p12}

• "In the Army 75% of violent offences are alcohol related. Time and resources are also wasted treating those who have injured themselves or made themselves ill through the misuse of alcohol"₃

• "Over 50% of men convicted of sexual assault and rape had been drinking prior to the attack. An equally high proportion of victims of rape had themselves been under the influence of alcohol at the time of the attack"₃

There was one allusion above to the fact that the social effects of alcohol are cultural. This is discussed next.

The Long-Term Effects of Alcohol

“Because alcohol provides calories [...] heavy drinkers often reduce their intake of food. But the calories provided by alcohol are empty; they do not supply the nutrients essential for health. Alcohol also contributes directly to malnutrition by impairing the digestion of good and absorption of vitamins.

In older chronic alcohol abusers, a deficiency of B-complex vitamins can cause amnestic syndrome, a severe loss of memory for both recent and long-past events. These memory gaps are often filled in by reporting imaginary events (confabulation) that are highly improbable. [...]

Other common physiological changes include damage to the endocrine glands and pancreas, heart failure, hypertension, stroke, and capillary hemorrhages, which are responsible for the swelling and redness in the face, and especially of the nose, of chronic alcohol abusers.

Prolonged use of alcohol appears to damage brain cells, especially those in the frontal lobes, causing cortical atrophy and other changes in structure (Parkins, 1975). Alcohol also reduces the effectiveness of the immune system, resulting in increased susceptibility to infection and cancer.

Heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy is the leading known cause of mental retardation. The growth of the fetus is slowed, and cranial, facial and limb anomalies are produced. The condition is known as fetal alcohol syndrome. Even moderate drinking can produce less severe but undesirable effects on the fetus, leading the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to counsel total abstention during pregnancy as the safest course.”

"Abnormal Psychology" by Davison & Neale, p300

Cirrhosis of the liver is a disease in which some liver cells become engorged with fat and protein, impeding their function; some cells die, triggering an inflammatory process. When scar tissue develops, blood flow is obstructed. This disease is the ninth biggest cause of the death in the USA (1990), and is primarily caused by alcohol overuse₁.

The Social Effects of Alcohol are Cultural

Whether people become 'addicted' to alcohol or not is partially dependent on genetics; but upbringing and choice play a larger part.

“The evidence presented [...] demonstrates clearly that physiological and biochemical responses to alcohol and drug use are at least in part inherited. A wide range of evidence, from adoption and twin studies to the identification of biological markers for responses to drug and alcohol use, have supported the findings that certain traits associated with use are inherited.”

"Chaos and Intoxication" by Alan Dean, p20

Our behaviour when drunk is a function of our character and our expectations about 'how drunk people act'. In cultures and paradigms where alcohol-fuelled violence (such as fighting in a pub or attacking the spouse) or crime (such as street vandalism and destructive behaviour), is not seen as the result of alcohol, then, drunk people do not behave in that way. In other words, to prevent petit crime associated with alcohol you could simply educate people, and get them to internalize, the truth that drunken behaviour isn't intrinsically violent. They could then learn to control themselves whilst drunk. This shows that alcohol-inspired drunken behaviour is psychosomatic. A series of experiments in the 1970s provided supporting evidence.

“It appears that some of the short-term effects of ingesting small amounts of alcohol are as strongly related to the drinker's expectations about the effects of the drug as they are to its chemical action on the body. For example, alcohol is commonly thought to stimulate aggression and increase sexual responsiveness. Research has shown, however, that these reactions may not be caused by alcohol itself but by the drinker's beliefs about alcohol's effects. In experiments demonstrating these points, participants are told that they are consuming a quantity of alcohol when they are actually given an alcohol-free beverage with its taste disguised. They subsequently become more aggressive (Lang et al., 1975) and report increased sexual arousal (Wilson & Lawson, 1976). People who actually drink alcohol also report increased sexual arousal, even though alcohol makes them less aroused physiologically (Farkas & Wilson, 1976). Once again, cognitions have a demonstratably powerful effect on behaviour.”

"Abnormal Psychology" by Davison & Neale (1997)₇

The 1980s saw further research complement and reinforce the evidence that expectation and assumption about drunken behaviour is an important cause of that behaviour:

“In the 1980 book Advances in Substance Abuse, G.A. Marlatt and D.J. Rohsenow report that most of the "social effects" of alcohol may be due to people's expectations about the drug. Subjects who drank tonic water but thought it was alcohol showed most of the 'classic' symptoms of intoxication, while subjects who drank alcohol but thought it was tonic water failed to get "high". [...]

Marlatt and Rohsenow also tested alcoholics by giving them tonic water but telling them it was vodka. The alcoholics experienced the same "craving" for more alcohol after drinking the tonic water as they typically did when consuming alcohol. They did not report this craving after drinking vodka they thought was tonic water.

Marlatt and Rohsenow conclude that the setting in which alcohol is consumed and the drinker's expectations are even more influential in determining the drinker's reactions than are the physical effects of the alcohol itself.”

"Understanding Human Behavior" by James V. McConnel, p80-81

From the 1990s, the Home Office Drugs Prevention Office has been investigating the behaviour of drugs and alcohol users. They comment that:

“The role of alcohol in combination with other drugs should not be ignored. Violence seems to be more closely linked with excessive intake of alcohol than with many illegal drugs [...] - though there is room to argue that this is a culturally mediated effect rather than a necessary effect of alcohol.”

"Drugs Misuse and the Criminal Justice System" by Prof. Michael Hough, p12

Placebo experiments in the 1970s on the effects of fake alcohol consumption, in the 1980s on the psychology of expectation and in the 1990s on criminal behaviour have all found that peoples' reactions to alochol are partially determined by what they think the effects of alcohol should be, especially when it comes to crime and aggression. To curb street violence, increased education on what the effects of alcohol really are is required, and so is changing the nature of the environment in which alcohol is drunk (and especially where binge-drinking occurs). Both of these things require a change of the basic, common drinking habits of those who frequent pubs.

UK Trash Culture Institutionalizes Alcohol

As a result of the dominance of trash culture, the UK has the most developed pub culture of all modern countries. Socializing does not occur in restaurants or at milliard social occasions, as it does now in most developed countries, but in pubs. Pub culture is based around drinking relatively strong beer in a (once) smoky, noisy environment that is devoid of any intelligent conversation. It serves as the place where social groups all default to meet in, where businessmen network, where all go to relax. In trash culture the home is not a primary place to entertain friends: the pub is. Home cooking in the UK has quartered, fast food, eating-out and take-away consumption have experienced long-term booms. Once a proud nation of kitchen-socializers, our fitness and health is plummeting to the same fast-food standards of the USA. Pubs are centers of youth violence, shrines to football and sport and most pubs show frequent football games on a variety of large and small screens. Alcohol over-use has become institutionalized, and not just in labour industries. Professional meetings are frequently held in restaurants and pubs and involve after-discussion binge-drinking. Feminist groups have complained that this pub & alcohol 'circle' around work meeting discriminates against women (who drink less).

Per-capita consumption of alcohol in the UK has doubled since the late 1950s, whilst in other developed countries such as France and Italy, it has more than halved₁. The cost of alcohol, in real terms, is half what it was in the 1970s₁. Between 1995 and 2001, binge drinking increased by 35% in the UK₁. Despite government efforts to reduce excessive drinking, according to the NHS "hundreds more" children are admitted to hospital after drinking [in 2005] than five years ago, diagnosed with alcohol poisoning and "behavioural disorders because of excessive drinking"₆. Death rates from cirrhosis, primarily caused by excessive drinking, "the increase is reflected in rising death rates from chronic liver disease, the primary cause of which is too much drink. In the 30 years between 1970 and 2000, death by cirrhosis for people aged 25 to 44 rose an astonishing 900%, from about 80 cases a year to more than 700".₁

“The social knock-on effects of such heavy drinking patterns is huge. We have discussed above the long-term effects of heavy alcohol use on the mind and body, and also the alcohol-related crime and accidents. Together, this makes alcohol by far the biggest social problem that British society faces. Alcohol, irresponsible behaviour, crime and all the other factors of trash culture are all inter-related.

Sociologists sometimes classify households according to the wages of the principal income earner of the house; "lower social groups tend to smoke more, drink more, take less leisure, fewer holidays and participate less in voluntary work"₄. There is an association between poverty and drinking, but also between drinking and smoking, and between drinking and all the other aspects of trash culture, as we shall see.”

"Trash Culture and Alcohol" by Vexen Crabtree 2003

How to Reduce Societal Alcohol Over-use

We have seen that light drinking can have some beneficial medical effects on the body. Unfortunately, many people drink far too much daily or weekly, and binge drink, which is then related to alcoholism, violence, crime, sexual offences, ill-health, mental disease and wider social problems.

“There's no mystery about how to curb this kind of boozing. In Alcohol - No Ordinary Commodity, a book part-funded by the World Health Organisation, [it is argued] that we know what policies are likely to be most successful. [...] Top of the pile, they conclude, are increasing the price of booze and limiting its availability. [...] In the UK today, alcohol costs roughly half in real terms what it did in the 1970s [...]. Governments everywhere have shown a serious reluctance to keep taxes on alcohol in line with inflation, let alone use them to temper soaring rates of drinking.”

New Scientist, 2004 Aug 21 [1]

Raising the price of alcohol, they have shown, also reduces alcohol-related dangers such as car accidents, liver disease, violence and crime. "What's more, younger kids with less money are the most sensitive to price hikes. 'A key finding is that increases in prices are effective in reducing not just drinking, ' says Chaloupka, 'but binge drinking, especially in kids.' That's especially good news because younger drinkers tend to be more influenced by group behaviour".₁

Other methods to reduce alcohol use, apart from raising alcohol taxes, are: restricting hours or days of sale, lowering the blood alcohol limits for driving and restricting density of retail outlets"₁. Despite the positive effects of reducing the legal limit for drivers, "the UK has the highest legal limit for drivers' blood alcohol in Europe"₁ (which is 80mg of blood alcohol)₃. It seems, perversely, that the UK has the most problems with alcohol and the least safe road laws!

Some methods that do not work at reducing binge drinking are: School education, voluntary advertising codes and alternative entertainment. The results of market manipulation are far more effective than education.

Misc

• Men are five times as likely to become alcoholic as women_{[Myers, p183]}.

• Alcoholics are more likely to be Catholics. Catholics comprise 12-13% of the population, but are over-represented amongst alcoholics, up to 25-25%; this correlation between Catholicism and Alcoholism exists in a similar way in all Western countries_{[Smoker, p80]}.

• "Binge drinkers are 14 times more likely to drive while impaired compared to people who drink sensible amounts"₁.

• Children of alcoholic parents have polarised reactions to alcohol:

  “The findings by Valliant (1983) that children who grow up in households with an alcoholic parents are as a group on average as likely to become teetotal as develop alcohol problems. [...] Crabbe and Goldman (1992) concluded that: 'As children growing up in alcoholic households have an increased risk of becoming either alcoholic or abstinent, it seems that increased risk of alcoholism depends partly on how a person reacts to his or her environment”

  "Chaos and Intoxication" by Alan Dean, p21

• Do you have a problem? You do if you: [3]"
  1. Believe you have to drink in order to have fun
  2. Always turn to alcohol to relieve uncomfortable feelings
  3. Drink more and more to get the same effect
  4. Forget what happened when you were drinking
  5. Can't predict whether or not you will get drunk
  6. Have trouble [at work] due to hangovers
  7. Need a drink in the morning as an 'eye-opener'
  8. Keep making promises to yourself or others that you will stop getting drunk
  9. You are regularly involved in public or domestic fights when you have been drinking
  10. You drink alone, or hide your drinking from others
  "

• 40 000 deaths per year in the UK are alcohol-related and 15% of all fatal road accidents involve alcohol.₅

• Genetic inheritance::

  “Data also indicate that problem drinking in human beings runs in families, suggesting a genetic component. Several studies have shown that relatives and children of problem drinkers have higher than expected rates of alcohol abuse or dependence. Twin studies have revealed greater concordance for alcohol abuse [...] in identical twins than in fraternal twins, pointing again toward a possible role of heredity.[...] Adoption studies add further supports for the importance of a genetic diathesis in both alcohol and drug abuse.

  Some ethnic groups, such as Asians, may have a low rate of alcohol abuse because of their physiological intolerance, which is caused by an inherited deficiency in an enzyme that metabolizes alcohol. About three-quarters of Asians experience unpleasant effects from small quantities of alcohol. Noxious effects of the drug may then protect a person from alcohol abuse.”

  "Abnormal Psychology" by Davison & Neale, p318

• In Salt Lake City, USA, irrationalism has led to a suppression of drinking throughout the city "thanks to a Mormon-dominated city council, drinking laws are finicky. If you want to booze without eating, you can either buy extra-watery beer or join a private club"₉.

Benefits of the Light Drinking of Alcohol, Especially Wine

“Research has indicated that people who regularly drink very modest, sensible amounts of alcohol tend to live longer, and enjoy better health, than either abstainers or those who abuse alcohol. Drinking more than the recommended limits can drastically reverse those benefits and greatly increase the risks of disease and death.”

"Alcohol And Drugs", British Army Publication [3]

“Tantalizing evidence suggests positive health benefits for some people. Light drinking (fewer than three drinks a day), especially of wine, has been related to decreased risk for coronary heart disease in both men and women.”

"Abnormal Psychology" by Davison & Neale (1997)₈

Conclusions

Fitness, physical health, mental health and long-term health all suffer as a result of medium- or heavy- drinking. The medical effects of alcohol is one of the most serious problems facing UK medical services. Deaths from chronic alcohol misuse have been rising for decades, and so has violence, abuse, vandalism and crime all associated with alcohol over-use, and alcohol-related crime commands the single biggest use of police manpower in the UK. Drinking modest, sensible amounts of alcohol, however, can be good for you. But socially irresponsible over-use of alcohol is inexcusable. The knack of moderation has been lost by far too many people, families and work cultures. The aggression and crime associated with alcohol in some Western countries infringes on the human rights of those who want nothing to do with such behaviour. UK holidaymakers and football fans abroad are bemoaned as the most drunken and most unruly of all foreign travellers. It disgraces the UK; we have seen above that other European countries such as Italy and France have no such problems.

Many of the social effects of alcohol are psychological and cultural; i.e., people don't have to behave criminally or destructively whilst drunk, it is a culturally learned behaviour. Experiments have shown that behaviour can be controlled: Those who do not wish to behave badly whilst drunk, will not do so.

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By Vexen Crabtree 2006 Oct 24

References: (What's this?)

Davison & Neale. "Abnormal Psychology" (1997 Hardback 7^th ed). Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Amazon link points to a newer edition that the one I've used here.

Dean, Alan. "Chaos and Intoxication" (1997 hardback 1^st ed). Alan Dean is lecturer in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Hull.

Hough, Michael Prof. "Drugs Misuse and the Criminal Justice System". Drugs Prevention Initiative, Home Office. Since 1990 Home Office Drugs Prevention Initiative has pilotted 20 small teams working with local communities, which was then expanded into 12 larger teams each covering a larger geographical area of the UK. Over 1500 drugs prevention projects were supported. The strategy: "to form new partnerships in the community, to bulid on past experiene and to generate new activities". The work of the teams is building up considerable experience of drugs prevention activity.

McConnel, James V. "Understanding Human Behavior" (1986 hardback 5^th ed). Originally published 1974. CBS College Publishing, Holt Rinehart and Winston, New York, USA.

Myers, David. "Social Psychology" (1999 6^th 'international' ed). First edition 1983. Published by McGraw Hill.

Secretary of State for Health. "Our Healthier Nation: A Contract for Health" (1998 Feb). Government consultation paper presented to Parliament (CM3852).

Smoker, Barbara. "Freethoughts" (2002). Published by G W Foate Ltd, London. 2002. A compilation of articles in the Freethinker. She was President of the National Secular Society from 1981.

Notes:

1. New Scientist, 2004 Aug 21 Vol.183 No.2461, Reed Business Information Ltd. Article on Binge Drinking p29+ by Alison Motluk.
2. "Drugs Misuse and the Criminal Justice System, results of the Home Office's Drugs Prevention Initiative" compiled by Prof. Michael Hough.
3. Alcohol And Drugs, British Army Publication AC 64243
4. "UK Health Care, The Facts" edited by Peter Orton and John Fry, 1995. Published in the UK by Kluwer Academic Publishers, Lancaster, p150. [Return to Text]
5. Secretary of State for Health, "Our Healthier Nation: A Contract for Health". 1998 Feb. Government consultation paper presented to Parliament (CM3852).
6. Metro UK newspaper, 2006 Nov 17. Front page article, "Hospitals swamped by young drinkers".
7. Davison & Neale (1997), p299. Added to this page on 2007 Apr 01, and I've posted this quote and some commentary to vexen.insanejournal.com entry "Drunken behaviour is related to expectations and the environment".
8. Ibid., p300. [Return to Text]
9. The Economist 2007 Dec 22 article "Mormons: From polygamy to propreity" p63-65. Added to this page on 2008 Jan 22. [Return to Text]