Alcohol

Among Jewish people in Bible times, social and religious customs mandated never serving unmixed wine, especially if it was fermented. The Talmud (a Jewish work that describes the traditions of Judaism from about 200 BC to AD 200) discusses in several tractates the mixture of water and wine (e.g. Shabbath 77a; Pesahim 1086). Some Jewish rabbis insisted that unless fermented wine was mixed with three parts of water, it could not be blessed and would…

A study now suggests that young people who seem most in control may be at greatest risk for alcoholism in the long run. Over a 10 year period, men who initially showed a high tolerance for alcohol were more than 4 times as likely to become alcoholics as more susceptible drinkers who also had an alcoholic parent, the risks were even greater – nearly 60% of that group became alcohol abusers after 10 years. Between…

Did you know? * Alcohol is the most abused drug in America? * Alcohol kills at least 86,000 people a year? * Alcohol contributes to 70% of all sexual abuse? * Alcohol contributes to 50% of spouse abuse? * Alcohol contributes to 38% of all child abuse? * Alcohol contributes to 52% of all rapes? * Alcohol contributes to 50% of all traffic fatalities? * Women’s bodies deteriorate faster than men’s from alcohol abuse? *…

We drink for joy and become miserable. We drink for sociability and become argumentative. We drink for sophistication and become obnoxious. We drink to help us sleep and awake exhausted. We drink for exhilaration and end up depressed. We drink to gain confidence and become afraid. We drink to make a conversation flow and become incoherent. We drink to diminish our problems and see them multiply.

An alcohol-related crash kills someone in the US every 22 minutes. At any minute, one of 50 drivers on the road is drunk and every weekend night, one out 10 drivers is drunk. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, there are more than 105,000 alcohol-related deaths annually in the US due to drunken drivers and such diseases as cirrhosis of the liver. Using 1987 figures, researchers calculate that those deaths represent…