Is alcohol beneficial
Alcohol is harmful, fatal and is one of the most abused drugs known to man. ... Many studies have been done and are presently being conducted to find out what kinds of positive effects that consuming a moderate amount of alcohol can have on a person’s everyday life and on there future encounters and endeavors. We all know that alcohol has many side effects and consequences including alcoholism, liver disease, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer, ect. ... I intend to discuss the history and beneficial aspects of moderate alcohol consumption, in individuals and college age and older, in their everyday lives and situations. ... Medicinally, alcohol has been used to relieve pain and to increase the appetite, and in many cultures it is still considered an essential ingredient for good health and a well-balanced meal. However, most cultures employing alcohol had rigid guidelines as to what constituted responsible drinking. ... These cultures, along with most present societies with guidelines for responsible drinking and a cultural opposition to drunkenness, have encountered few problems associated with alcohol abuse. ... Research has revealed low incidence of alcoholism or alcohol abuse among cultural groups who use alcohol as part of their daily lives. ... In America, our puritan settlers vastly enjoyed alcohol. ... The responsible use of alcohol can be socially, psychologically, and physically beneficial if it is in fact used responsibly. Selden Bacon, a founder and long-time director of the Yale (then Rutgers) Center of Alcohol Studies, remarked on the strange public health approach to alcohol taken in the United States and elsewhere in the Western world: “Current organized knowledge about alcohol use can be likened to. ... [What is missing are] the positive functions and positive attitudes about alcohol uses in our as well as in other societies. ... “The view of alcohol as beneficent is ancient, as old as the idea that alcohol produces harm. The Old Testament describes alcoholic excess, but it also values alcohol. ... From the ancients to the present, many have valued wine and other beverage alcohol for either their ritualistic benefits or their celebratory and even licentious aspects. The value of alcohol certainly was appreciated in colonial America, which drank freely and gladly, and where minister Increase Mather termed alcohol the "good creature of God".