| Straight Facts About Alcohol and Smoking
About Alcohol Alcohol abuse is a pattern of problem drinking that results in health consequences, social, problems, or both. However, alcohol dependence, or alcoholism, refers to a disease that is characterized by abnormal alcohol-seeking behavior that leads to impaired control over drinking.
Short-term effects of alcohol use include:
- distorted vision, hearing, and coordination
- altered perceptions and emotions
- impaired judgment
- bad breath; hangovers
- Long-term effects of heavy alcohol use include:
- loss of appetite
- vitamin deficiencies
- stomach ailments
- skin problems
- sexual impotence
- liver damage
- heart and central nervous system damage
- memory loss
How Do I Know If I, or Someone Close, Has a Drinking Problem?
Here are some quick clues:
- Inability to control drinking--it seems that regardless of what you decide beforehand, you frequently wind up drunk
- Using alcohol to escape problems
- A change in personality--turning from Dr. Jekyl to Mr. Hyde
- A high tolerance level--drinking just about everybody under the table
- Blackouts--sometimes not remembering what happened while drinking
- Problems at work or in school as a result of drinking
- Concern shown by family and friends about drinking
If you have a drinking problem, or if you suspect you have a drinking problem, there are many others out there like you, and there is help available. Talk to school counselor, a friend, or a parent.
About Cigarette Smoking
Although many people smoke because they believe cigarettes calm their nerves, smoking releases epinephrine, a hormone which creates physiological stress in the smoker, rather than relaxation. The use of tobacco is addictive. Most users develop tolerance for nicotine and need greater amounts to produce a desired effect. Smokers become physically and psychologically dependent and will suffer withdrawal symptoms including: changes in body temperature, heart rate, digestion, muscle tone, and appetite. Psychological symptoms include: irritability, anxiety, sleep disturbances, nervousness, headaches, fatigue, nausea, and cravings for tobacco that can last days, weeks, months, years, or an entire lifetime.
Risks associated with smoking cigarettes:
- diminished or extinguished sense of smell and taste
- frequent colds
- smoker's cough
- gastric ulcers
- chronic bronchitis
- increase in heart rate and blood pressure
- premature and more abundant face wrinkles
- emphysema
- heart disease
- stroke
- cancer of the mouth, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, lungs, pancreas, cervix, uterus, and bladder
Cigarette smoking is perhaps the most devastating preventable cause of disease and premature death.
Smoking is particularly dangerous for teens because their bodies are still developing and changing and the 4,000 chemicals (including 200 known poisons) in cigarette smoke can adversely affect this process.
Cigarettes are highly addictive. One-third of young people who are just "experimenting" end up being addicted by the time they are 20.
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