The Risks of Drinking Too Much - Essay Example

The topic of the article is the health risks associated with binge drinking. The title of the article is, “The risks of drinking too much.” The source of the article is mentioned in the “works cited” section. The author argues that drinking too much does not mean that an individual is an alcoholic; he/she might just have consumed more than the recommended level of alcohol for years. Alcohol’s effects on health take years to show up. The article classifies drinkers into three types depending upon the units of alcohol they consume daily or weekly; lower-risk drinkers, increasing-risk drinkers, and higher-risk drinkers. The health risks increase as we move from lower-risk drinking to higher-risk drinking. Health problems caused as a result of drinking can vary from behavioral issues like depression, argumentation, and irritation to physical issues like sexual problems and liver damage.

I consent with the author that the risks posed to health and relationships by alcohol increase with the volume of alcohol that is consumed. There have to be different recommended levels for men and women considering their biological differences and their bodies’ reaction and response to alcohol. Although the article contains detailed information about what level of alcohol consumption makes an individual a lower-risk drinker, an increasing-risk drinker, or a higher-risk drinker, yet it does not say anything about the risks associated with switching from a lower-risk to a higher-risk or an increasing-risk drinker. I find this article very informative since now I know, what the recommended level of alcohol consumption for me is. However, since the author says that it cannot be said with utmost objectivity that one would only experience the said health risks with the consumption of a certain level of alcohol, it is better to consume no alcohol at all. I find that the safest and thus would not consume any alcohol at all.

For the most part, the information contained in the article supports what we have read in the course. The author of the article says, “There's no guaranteed safe level of drinking” (“The risks of”), and our textbook also declares alcohol as the most problematic substance that is consumed in our society (193). The article declares it a dangerous practice to be drunk even mildly before swimming or driving whereas the textbook gives alarming statistics of the number of students that lose their lives because of drinking every year by indulging in the same or similar practices. However, the textbook is obviously more detailed in information as it tells the general trends of alcohol consumption across different races and age groups and many more things about alcohol that are not covered in the article like factors causing alcohol consumption and its health risks, though the article adds to the information covered in the textbook, thus providing a reader that has also read the textbook with a greater insight into the topic of alcohol and the issues associated with it.