ALCOHOL RELATED DISEASE ASSIGNMENT
By Angielyn Aran
Cerebellar Degeneration
Cerebellar degeneration is a process in which neurons in the cerebellum (the area of the brain that controls coordination and balance) deteriorate and die. Diseases that causes cerebellar degeneration can also involve other areas of the Central Nervous System. Cerebellar degeneration may be the result of inherited genetic mutations that alter the normal production of specific proteins that are necessary for the survival of neurons.
1. What are some of the short-term effects of alcohol?
A relaxing effect
Reduced tension
Poor concentration
Slow reflexes
Reduced coordination
Slower brain activity
Sensations and perceptions are less clear
2. What is BAC?
Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) is the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream. Basically, the more a
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person drinks, the higher the BAC is. However, two persons that drink the same amount of alcohol might have different result of BAC. This is due to a variety of factors including body size, whether or not they have eaten recently, percentage of body fat, whether they are male or female. 3. What are some of the long-tern effects of alcohol? Unintentional injuries such as car crash, falls, burns, and drowning Firearm injuries, sexual assault, domestic violence Loss of productivity Broken relationships Heart-related diseases Liver disease Sexual problems Nerve damage Permanent damage to the brain 4. How does the disease/illness affect the person who has it? • What physical changes occur in the body? The physical changes that occur in the body are bruise, vomiting, blurred vision and dry mouth and eyes. • How does it make the person feel? A person who has the cerebellar degeneration can have a severe abdominal pain, tremor, and impaired gait. 5. How does excessive alcohol consumption contribute to this disease/illness? Alcohol consumption can damage the brain in variety of ways. One of this is the cerebellar degeneration disease. This makes the person lacks thiamine that is an essential nutrient required by all tissues, including the brain. The human body cannot produce thiamine by itself, but must ingest it in diet. Cerebellar degeneration typically develops after 10 years of heavy drinking. In autopsy studies, 40% or more of alcoholics showed signs of this condition, which is characterised by shrinkage of certain regions of the cerebellum. 6. How does the disease or illness affect the sufferers’ quality of life? Cerebellar degeneration affect the sufferers quality of life by making the brain’s sensory nerves cells slow down and especially the shrinkage of the particular part of the brain that can cause death or another linking disease to the person who has it. 7.
What measures and Government initiatives have been put in place for people with a drinking problem?
The Australian Government initiated NBDS (National Binge Drinking Strategy) that aims to address Australia's harmful and heavy drinking culture, particularly among young people. The scheme aims on raising awareness of the short and long-term impacts of 'risky' drinking among minors over time.
The Department of Health is developing local solutions through strengthening partnerships between local governments, police, sporting organisations, and the non-government sector to influence the environments that shape the unhealthy culture of drinking among young individuals.
8. What would you do to prevent excessive consumption of alcohol?
To prevent excessive consumption of alcohol, I will learn how to say ‘No’ politely for myself because it’s a choice that only I could decide. For example, when someone invites me to a party, I do not have to drink when other people drink and also, I do not have to take the drink that is given to me. I will stay away from people who gives me a hard time about not drinking and make a better
choice.
Histological examination shows severe degeneration of Purkinje cells, reduction in the number of cells in the molecular and granular layers of the cerebellar cortex, severe loss of the number of cells in the pontine nuclei and olives, and demyelination of the middle cerebellar peduncle. The cerebellar nuclei are well preserved. The tegmentum of the pons, the corticospinal tracts, and the restiform body are also usually unaffected. In clinical cases involving extrapyramidal symptoms, degenerative changes in the striatum, espec...
For decades, certain people have been contemplating on how to go about the issue of underage drinking; people of the government, parents, and other individuals concerned in global affairs. The problem is, the issue of underage drinking and the nationwide ineffectiveness of the drinking age law of twenty-one isn't debated and discussed as much and as aggressively as it should be. And the main components of discussion ought to be the matter of binge drinking among teenagers and college students, drinking issues and statistics in foreign countries, and finally, possible solutions for this problem. The main point is that the states of our country can only attempt to enforce the law rather than try approaching the problem in any other way. So for that reason, states should be allowed to figure out and experiment on possible ways to solve this matter on their own without government interference.
were drinking to get drunk than their counterparts a decade earlier, and one recent study reported an increase, just since 1994, in the number of students who drink deliberately to get drunk? (Smith 1). I interviewed my friend Shelly Mitchell who recently turned twenty-one and asked her how she felt about finally being legal to drink. She quoted, ?It is not as exciting to drink anymore, I mean I still like to go out with my friends to bars, but the fun is all over, in high school and college it was so exciting trying to get alcohol by using a fake ID.? All of these factors could be changed by lowering the drinking age to eighteen. In a study done by the Harvard School of Public Health, binge drinking is defined as five drinks in a row for boys and four drinks for girls. And when they did a survey they found that 44% of the students attending Harvard binge drink (Jeffrey Kluger 1).
As teenagers reach maturity and start developing their social activities to the point where weekend-and often weeknight-parties becomes the regular occurrence, they are often looking for a means to escape soberness. They would to love put their hair down and drink alcohol as they socialize and or dance with their friends, a leisure that they have seen older siblings, parents, friends, television and ultimately society do over and over again. As they graduate from high school and move on with their lives-whether that be to college, a job or travelling-they will be exposed more and more to alcohol and inebriation. Yet if they were to take part in this recreation, they would in fact be committing a crime punishable by a court case and further action. Yet this legal aspect has very little practical effect, because the large majority of the 18 and over age group still drinks. In fact, a recent survey conducted stated that almost half (48%) of all college drinking has been attributed to those who are underage. Furthermore, underage drinking accounts for between 11-20% of all alcohol con...
"Young People's Drinking." International Center for Alcohol Policies Meetings & News Press Releases Welcome to ICAP. 2011. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. .
The Atlant Public School System intends to develop a health program that addresses the dangers of drinking alcohol through particial replication of two established preventive programs for te...
Alcoholism is an increasing problem, which has many objectionable consequences. "Excessive drinking involved in 70 percent of deaths from falls, 69 percent of drownings, 83 percent of fatal fire accidents, 40 percent of accidental deaths in the job, 50 percent of highway fatalities, 52 percent of spouse beatings, and 38 percent of child abuse." (Allan Luks, 13) So alcoholism causes many troubles. It can destroy a person's life: relationship with family and relatives, and even one's attitude toward life.
When society thinks about people drinking alcohol, the first assumption is that there is a drinking disorder occurring. There are thousands of ways to get help and for one to learn the correct way to drink alcohol. Society, however, doesn’t realize that there are steps and reasons alcoholism occurs within society.
Wechsler, H., Nelson T., & Weitzman, E. (February 2000). From Knowledge to Action. Change [On-line], Available: www2.gasou.edu/library/ (Galileo)(EBSCOhost)(Search=Alcohol Abuse).
The growing awareness of alcohol hazards has made people more cautious of their drinking habits, particularly young adults. At present young adults have the highest prevalence of alcohol consumption than any other age group. They also drink more heavily, experience more negative consequences, and engage in more harmful activities, specifically drunk driving. Although surveys have documented a decline in recent years, consumption rates remain highest from late teen years to the late twenties (Johnston1-3). Despite the long-term decline since 1982 in alcohol related traffic deaths, a 4 percent increase occurred between 1994 and 1995 among young adults age 21 and over (Hingson 4). As alcohol-impaired driving persists, legal and community initiatives intervene to help reduce the problem, as well as, continuing research on possible solutions.
Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking, this includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, 1,600 as a result of homicides, 300 from suicide, as well as hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns, and drowning’s. (Statistics as of 2006)
Alcohol is something that people use to help with multiply different things and some studies have shown that alcohol may help protect our bodies from cardiovascular disease. Alcohol does have side effects to our health the surroundings around us and can cause violence, vehicle crashes and even suicide. Alcohol does have an effect on people that many social drinkers may not realize. Many people usually have tried alcohol around 13 years of age and high school students consume more wine coolers that are sold in the U.S. and they drink more than 1 billion beers a year. To understand the effects of alcohol, it begins with the brain. It is a curiosity as to why people feel the need to drink and drive. The way the brain works while influenced with alcohol has always fascinated me. Drinking and driving is one of the biggest decisions that alcohol leads to. The National Public Services Research Institute (NHTSA) did a study on 600 people who admitted driving while under the influence of alcohol. They described in detail the decisions they made leading up to the occurrence of driving while impaired like whether to take part in a drinking event, how to get to the event, how much to drink, and how to get home. The people being interviewed revealed more than 2,000 individual decisions that led to alcohol impaired driving. The decisions were then broken down into several categories as shown on the graph attached. Little is known as to what leads people to continue to drinking and driving. But as research shows, people do think, prior to drinking, how they will get home. It’s after they have already had been drinking that they decide to get behind the wheel.
Less common definitions are based on blood alcohol concentration, for example, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines the term binge drinking as a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 percent or above. Heavy drinking or rapid consumption over a short ...
... Alcoholism is a serious problem in today's society. It is extremely important that the public, including the large groups of users and abusers of alcohol, gain as much knowledge as possible about the symptoms and effects of alcoholism if we ever want to see the reduction of statics involving fatalities, injuries, diseases caused from the use and abuse of alcohol. Education and realization of the effects alcoholism can have on the different aspects of a person's life are the best ways that we can help control the number of alcoholics in the United States.
The best way to avoid alcohol abuse, dependence, and addiction is to drink only moderate amounts, or not drink at all. Moderate drinking is no more than one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men. To avoid alcohol dependence: