Does Alcohol Consumption Affect Heart Attack Rates - Research Paper Example

 Does alcohol consumption affect heart attack rates? Abstract Alcohol is consumed by all classes of a society. Some take it as a symbol of status, some are addicted to it, and others consume it because everyone else is consuming it. Alcohol affects health, money and even the social circle of an individual. Its consumption has increased ever since its availability in different ranges of price. In the past, alcohol was considered as the drink only the elite class consumed. Now all classes of society are utilizing it regardless of its adverse and unfavorable affects. High level of alcohol consumption has destroyed more lives, broken apart more families, caused more diseases, and contributed to more deaths than any other drug. Does alcohol consumption affect heart attack rates? This paper will be deliberating the affect of alcohol consumption on heart attack rates. The major concepts that will be discussed are the attitudes of different classes of society towards the consumption of alcohol and the relation of alcohol consumption and heart diseases. Alcohol causes so many and various medical problems. Most people do not consider alcohol as drug; but it is a drug. Every year, the fatalities due to alcohol are much greater when compared with the deaths due to other drugs. Alcoholism not only contributes to deaths but also cause diseases and makes people do absurd things. The causes of alcoholism are unknown, but like heart diseases, there are both controllable and uncontrollable risk factors. Uncontrollable factors may include alcoholic parents, while the controllable factors could comprise an individual who is stressed, lonely, angry or poor etc. These factors can lead to an alcoholism risk but they can be controlled. When full attention is given to the patients of alcoholism, there are more chances of the risk factors to lower and they can be controlled. Heavy alcohol consumption increases risk of heart attack and strokes in both men and women. In the past few years, multiple studies have revealed an association between alcohol intake and cardiac risks. This study confirms that the consumption of both the genders of more than one or two drinks per day causes a net increase in these risks. Taking in more than three drinks a day has a direct and deadly effect on the heart. Heavy drinking can damage the heart and lead to high blood pressure, alcoholic cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart), congestive failure and strokes. Several studies have indicated that light usage of alcohol may help protect against cardiac diseases (Dougherty, 2010). However, because alcohol causes so many medical problems and because for many people it is hard to limit alcohol to light usage, it was recommended by Heart Association that people who do not drink it, should not take up alcohol in order to benefit the heart. In a research, it was proved that people who consume alcohol have a death rate l than the people who don’t take alcohol. Researchers from Boston studied 1835 patients admitted to the hospital with heart attacks and recorded the amount and frequency of their alcohol consumption for the year prior to their heart attack. Specifically they recorded whether patients consumed at least three drinks within a two hour period during the past year, which they defined as “binge drinking”. After their heart attacks, patient who had done any binge drinking during the previous year had a death rate that was 73% higher than patients who did not do any binge drinking. The type of alcohol consumed (beer, wine, liquor and champagne etc) didn’t make any difference. This research proved that the consumption of alcohol does affect the heart attack rate. A little alcohol can be moderately beneficial and cardio-protective, a little more can be dangerously harmful (Fogoros, 2008). The two main questions that arise, when alcohol and heart attack are reviewed, are firstly, does alcohol intake increase the risk of heart attack and secondly, is moderate intake of alcohol protective? A major problem concerns the varying definition of moderate and heavy drinking. The amount that is moderate for one individual is not necessarily moderate amount for the others as well. Researchers are still trying to prove that the moderate intake is cardio-protective. In many researches it is shown that moderate intake can be beneficial for preventing heart diseases. But the limit of moderate intake is still under debate. When anyone starts drinking to protect himself against heart diseases, he automatically indulges himself in danger of alcoholism. People’s attitude towards alcohol consumption varies. The alcohol consumption also varies with the gender, age, geographic location, society, culture and religion. Social Attitude towards Alcohol Consumption: A socio-demographic analysis suggests that gender and socio-economic status are the most relevant factors in alcohol consumption. Significantly, more men than women drink alcohol. Respondents who have studied to an advanced level as well as managers claimed to have consumed alcohol more often than other groups. In contrast, a higher proportion of house persons, people with low level of education and those aged over 55 appear to refrain from alcohol in general. Young adults start alcohol consumption in college or universities. In all societies, alcoholic drinks are used as a powerful and adaptable symbolic sign to manipulate the social value. In every culture, the alcohol representation varies. The three main symbolic uses of alcohol among varying cultures are: label defining the nature of social events, sign of social status and gender differentiator (Mongan, 2010). The symbolism may also differ among different groups of society. For some it may be a sign of status, while for others it may be for imitating the elite class or to socialize themselves. Europe is the continent where per capita alcohol consumption is the largest. 75% of the European citizens claim to have drunk alcoholic beverages, only 25%, a quarter of the total population, however, appears not to have consumed alcohol at all. In the UK, alcohol consumption and related problems appear to be comparatively lower in black and minorities and ethnic communities than in the population at large. For example, findings from the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic minorities in England and Wales regarding the frequency of alcohol consumption suggest that total abstinence rate ranges from 40% in Chinese to 60% in Indian and over 90% in Muslim population compared to just 13% in the white population. Differing intake patterns appear to be reflected in diverse attitudes towards alcohol, and individuals with strong religious beliefs generally drink comparatively less. Alcohol consumption appears to be relatively low in South Asian groups because of their religious beliefs and because they haven’t seen their forefathers doing so (Heim, Hunter and Ross, 2004). The determination of alcohol use, throughout human development, suggests that drinking must have had some significant adaptive benefits, although this does not imply that the practice is constantly beneficial. From the earliest recorded use of alcohol, drinking has been a social activity, and consumption has been subject to self-imposed social controls. In some societies (such as the UK, Scandinavia, US and Australia), alcohol is associated with violent and anti-social behavior, while in others (such as Mediterranean, some South American cultures and some Asia) drinking behavior is largely peaceful and harmonious. There is large cross-cultural difference in the way people behave when they drink This variation cannot be attributed to different levels of consumption or genetic differences, but is clearly related to different cultural beliefs about alcohol, expectations regarding the effects of alcohol and social values regarding drunken behavior. The findings of both cross-cultural research and controlled experiments indicate that the intake of alcohol is primarily determined by social and cultural factors, rather than the chemical actions of ethanol. Socio-Economic Status and Alcohol Consumption: Socioeconomic status (SES) is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person’s work experience and of an individual’s or family’s economic and social status relative to others based on education, income and occupation. When analyzing a family SES, the household income, earners, education and occupation are examined, as well as combined income versus an individual income. SES is categorized as high, middle and low. According to the total measure of the family income, that particular family is labeled as one out of the three categories. Families with high socioeconomic status often have more success in preparing their children for school because they typically have access to a wide range of resources to encourage and support young children's development. They are able to provide their young children with high-quality child care to encourage children in various learning activities at home. Also, their education helps them in easily accessing the information regarding their children's health, social, emotional, and cognitive development. Families with low socioeconomic status often lack the financial, social, and educational supports that differentiate them from the families with high socioeconomic status. Families with low socioeconomic status also have limited access to resources that promote and support children's development. Parents lack skills for activities such as reading to and with their children, and information about childhood nutrition and health (Kraus and Keltner, 2008). In general, a lower socioeconomic status (SES) is related to a lower health status, more health problems, and a shorter life expectation. SES and alcohol consumption has a direct relation. The people with lower SES tend to be more alcoholic because of their less education and knowledge. Abstinence decreased significantly by increasing educational level for both sexes. For men, excessive drinking is more prevalent in the lowest educational group. For women, no significant relation between educational level and frequency of excessive drinking is established. During the last decade, much research has been done on the relation between socioeconomic status and health. Casual relation between SES and health are still largely unclear and vague, but lifestyle factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption and diet habits plays an important role. A research conducted by Medical council on Alcoholism concluded about the SES and its impact on the risk behavior of the people. In the research, it was suggested that individual from different socioeconomic groups have a different attitude toward risk behavior. It was also suggested that individual with higher SES are more aware of their health and consequences of their behavior. So they are concerned to make healthier choices. They don’t adopt habit of smoking or consuming alcohol. Other findings suggest that the possibility of alcohol consumption is due to lower income and lower educational level. According to the research, the occurrence of drunkenness among men was higher in intermediate educational groups. For women, prevalence of suggestive drinking was higher in the lowest educational group. Prevalence of problem drinking was not related to educational level in either sex. Hence, it was concluded that differences exist between educational levels with respect to abstinence, but only limited differences were found with respect to excessive drinking. Furthermore, there is evidence for higher occurrences of alcohol-related problems in lower educational levels, after controlling for differences in drinking behavior, in both sexes (Bongers et al., 1999). The type of alcohol consumed by the lower socioeconomic status people is the one with more alcohol and cheap in cost. All the beverages have some amount of alcohol in them. There are three main categories of alcoholic drinks namely beer having 3.5% to 25% of alcohol, wine have 6 to 9% of alcohol, spirit have 15% to 65%. A 12 ounce of beer, 5 ounce of wine and 1.5 ounce of spirit contains almost same amount of alcohol. The most widely used alcoholic beverage is vodka because of its taste and less artificial addition of ingredient, but it is consumed by the rich and elite class. Beer is mostly consumed by the lower classes of society because it has less alcohol and price is very less. The consumption varies between different countries as well. Beer is preferred in some countries of Europe and Africa. Wine is preferred in the wine producing countries of Europe. Spirits are preferred in Eastern Europe, Asia and some island states. The amount of consumption has changed since the early 60’s. The average consumption of alcohol by adults has ranged from 4 to 6 liters per person per year. Consumption increased from 1961 until the early 1980s and then decreased to a stable level of around 5 liters per person per year. Consumption in Europe, Africa, and the United States of America peaked around the same time, in the early 1980s. Consumption in Europe has been much higher than in any other region, ranging from about 17 liters per person per year during the peak years down to a little more than 10 liters per person per year in the late 90’s. America is the second highest consumer, followed by Africa and the Western Pacific regions, while the South-East Asian and Eastern Mediterranean regions show the lowest level of consumption. Alcohol intake is generally increasing with increasing economic development (Green Facts, 2009). The buying habits of people who buy alcohol differ. Some researchers say that the type of alcoholic drink consumed by an individual also affects the food buying habits. In a research conducted in US, Denmark and France it was concluded that people who buy wine also buy healthy food like fruit, vegetable, milk, cheese etc. and the beer drinker mostly buy junk food. This research was conducted on information gathered from more than 3.5 million transactions at the local super markets and type of items consumed in these transactions (Johansen, Friis and Skovenborg, 2006). Observation Alcohol consumption can have adverse social and economic effects on the individual’s immediate environment and society as a whole. Indeed, individuals other than the drinker can be affected, for example by traffic accidents or violence. It has an impact on society as a whole in terms of resources required for criminal justice, health care and other social institutions. Alcohol consumption can affect work performance in several ways for example absence, accidents on the way to work, reduced efficiency and productivity at work and unemployment. All these factors can also lead to heavier drinking. Drinking can impair how a person performs as a parent, a partner as well as how he contributes to the household functioning. It can have lasting effects on their partner and children, for instance through home accidents and violence. The impact of drinking on family life can include substantial mental health problems for other family members, such as anxiety, depression and fear. Research shows that many adolescents start to drink at very young ages. In 2003, the average age of first use of alcohol was about 14, compared to about 17 in 1965. People who reported starting to drink before the age of 15 were four times more likely to be alcohol dependent at some point in their lives. In fact, new research shows that the serious drinking problems typically linked with middle age actually begin to appear much earlier, during young age, adulthood and even adolescence. Other research shows that the earlier younger children and adolescents start to drink, the more likely they will be to get engaged in behaviors that result in harming themselves and others. For example, frequent heavy drinkers are more likely to engage in risky behaviors, including using other drugs such as cocaine, having intercourse with more partners, and gain low grades in school. The individuals having alcoholic family can have this habit genetically.  Many scientific studies, including research conducted among children of alcoholics, have shown that genetic factors influence alcoholism. These findings show that children of alcoholics are about four times more likely to develop alcoholic problems than the general population. Children of alcoholics also have a higher risk for many other behavioral and emotional problems. But alcoholism is not determined only by the genes the individuals inherit from their parents. In fact, more than one–half of all children of alcoholics do not become alcoholic. Research shows that many factors influence risk of developing alcoholism. Some factors raise the risk for example depressed parents; parents who are alcoholics and the families have violence at home. These factors provoke an individual to adopt alcoholic behavior (Schuckit and Smith, 2000). Family history with alcohol usage motivates the individual in changing his behavior and starts indulging him in this habit. This is same for both the lower class and the upper class. The lower ones have their family or parents as an example and they tend to do what they perceive and observe. While the upper classes witness this at their homes and also in some cases, the individuals are the neglected child; this motivates them to take on drugs and alcohol. The economic consequences of alcohol consumption can be severe, particularly for the poor. Apart from money spent on drinks, heavy drinkers may suffer other economic problems such as lower wages and lost employment opportunities, increased medical and legal expenses, and decreased eligibility for loans. The financial costs of alcohol purchase and medical treatment, as well as lost wages can leave other family members penniless. When men drink it often primarily affects their mothers or partners who may need to contribute more to the income of the household and who run an increased risk of violence or HIV infection. In a survey it was shown that 7% of the total drinker’s alcohol expense exceeds their income. This not only causes depression but also provokes other family members in different types of psychological problems. Impact of Religion on Alcohol Consumption: Studies have shown that marital and socioeconomic status influences the extent to which persons engage in health compromising behaviors. In this portion the paper focuses on the impact of religion on alcohol consumption. Some religions, most notable Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and some sects of Christianity forbid, discourage, or restrict the drinking of alcoholic beverages for various reasons. Over the past decade, considerable research has emerged that demonstrates the benefits of religious practice within society. Religious practice promotes the well-being of individuals, families and the community. Of particular note are the studies that indicate the benefits of Religion to the poor. Regular attendance at religious services is linked to healthy, stable family life, strong marriages, and well-behaved children. The practice of Religion also leads to a reduction in the incidence of domestic abuse, crime, substance abuse, and addiction. In addition, religious practice leads to an increase in physical and mental health, longevity, and education attainment. All these factors refrains one from alcoholism. Adolescents, psychiatric patients and recovering addicts all show lower rates of alcohol abuse the more frequently they engage in religious activities. For adolescents, higher levels of religious practice by their mothers are related to significantly lower rates of alcohol abuse (Fagan, 2006). Conclusion: Alcohol is not an ordinary commodity. While it carries associates of pleasure and sociability in the minds of many, harmful consequences of its use are diverse and widespread. From a global perspective, in order to reduce the harm caused by alcohol, policies need to take into account specific situations in different societies. Average volumes consumed and patterns of drinking are two dimensions of alcohol consumption that need to be considered in efforts to reduce the burden of alcohol-related problems. Avoiding the combination of drinking and driving is an example of measures that can reduce the health burden of alcohol. Worldwide, alcohol takes an enormous toll on lives and communities, especially in developing countries. Particularly worrying trends are increasing in the average amount of alcohol consumed per person in countries such as China, Malaysia, Denmark and India and the more harmful and risky drinking patterns among young people. Alcohol intake contributes in medical problems like heart diseases specifically heart attacks and strokes, liver diseases, and also psychological problems like depression, anxiety and unease. This instinctively leads to death or suicidal death. The people who start alcohol consumption due to the socioeconomic status, however, stimulate themselves in the risk behavior. Whether they are from the high SES or low SES, both should have knowledge about the drawbacks of alcohol consumption. They should not take it as a fashion or habit; rather they should ponder over its affects on health and impact on their economical condition. National monitoring systems need to be developed to keep track of alcohol consumption and its consequences, and to raise awareness amongst the public. The thing that should be highlighted in this awareness programs should be the impact of alcohol consumption on the health, children and society. It is up to both governments and concerned citizens to encourage debate and formulate effective public health policies that minimize the harm caused by alcohol. References Bongers, I., Van Oers, J., Van de Goor, L. & Garretsen, H. (1999), Alcohol consumption, alcohol-related problems, problem drinking, and socioeconomic status. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 34. Dougherty, N. (2010), URMC study finds moderate drinking is good for you, Rochester Business Journal. Fagan, P. (2006), Why Religion Matters Even More: The Impact of Religious Practice on Social Stability. Retrieved 21 November, 2010 from http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2006/12/why-religion-matters-even-more-the-impact-of-religious-practice-on-social-stability#_ftn2 Fogoros, R. (2008), Heavy Alcohol Consumption increases risk of heart attack and strokes, Heart Health Center. Green Facts, (2009), Scientific Facts on Alcohol. Retrieved 21 November, 2010 from www.greenfacts.org/en/alcohol/index.htm Heim, D., Hunter, S. & Ross, A. (2004), Alcohol Consumption, Perceptions Of Community Responses And Attitudes To Service Provision, Oxford Journals, 39(3). Johansen, D., Friis, K. & Skovenborg, E. (2006), Food buying habits of people who buy wine or beer: cross sectional study, BMJ, 332. Kraus, W.& Keltner, D. (2008), Signs of Socioeconomic Status. Psychological Science, 20(1). Mongan, D. (2010), Attitudes towards alcohol, Health Research Board, 34. Schuckit, M & Smith, T. (2000), The relationships of a family history of alcohol dependence, a low level of response to alcohol. NCBI, 61. 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