The alacrity and vehemence with which drinking has been accepted in our society during the last few decades is a phenomenon which needs studying. Ninety per cent of man drink alcohol, 40-50 per cent has temporary alcohol-induced problems and 10-20 per cent of man and 3 to 10 per cent of women develop pervasive and persistent alcohol-related problems. These are figures relating to foreign countries. This is what we are trying to achieve desperately.

Dangerous behavioral effects, tolerance and dependence on alcohol constitute a slow and body mechanism-aided phenomenon. Ethanol produces changes that, with persistent and increased usage, our body gets used to and adapts accordingly. The same way as Anna’s body adapts to fasting. It produces simultaneous changes in many neurotransmitters and also increases the fluidity of cell membranes. What the above statement means is that the body adapts to increased dosages of alcohol.

How does this happen?
First, after two weeks of daily drinking the liver can increase the rate of alcohol metabolism by as much as 30 per cent metabolic or pharmacokinetic tolerance. This disappears as rapidly as it develops. The second level is cellular or pharmacodynamic tolerance. This is by complex changes in brain chemistry and is known as cellular or pharmacodynamic tolerance. Third, this happens even at the same alcohol concentration level in blood. Organisms can learn to adapt their behavior so as to function better than expected under drug influence.

The body system that alcohol harms, depending on its intake, are:
Brains – Behavioral changes, blackouts, sleeplatency, peripheral neuropathy, and alcohol induced persisting amnestic disorders, progressive unsteady stance, cognitive problems manifested by the impairment of recent and past memory, severe anxiety and hallucination.

Pancreatitis – A life threatening condition that can be caused by binging.
Intestines – Gastritis, bleeding and a tear.
Liver – Hepatitis, sclerosis, cirrhosis and finally cancer.
Heart – Modest doses of alcohol can have both deleterious and beneficial effects on the heart. A maximum of one or two drinks a day over long periods may decrease the risk of cardiovascular death. Chronic heavy drinking causes hypertension, heart muscle disease and cardiomyopathy. Binging on alcohol on a holiday causes what is known as a holiday heart condition which can lead to paralysis of one side of the body.

This far and no further from what we all want to know. What is safe drinking a gentleman can do without phenomenally deleterious effects is two drinks every second day and four drinks on a particular day once in a month, considering all the known fats.

Sir Winston Churchill died on the pot at 91 years of age with nicotine and alcohol in abundance in his blood stream, after coping with dangerously high levels of stress while thin, with good non-imbibing habits, target-chasing CEOs of small and big firms flood the intensive coronary care units throughout the world.

Truly strange and mysterious are the ways of life. The larger your heart, the less vagaries it faces. Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in alcohol.