Everyone who is above the age of 21 has the legal right to partake in the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Birthdays, holidays, work promotions, weddings and family reunions are all events where social drinking can occur. According to the Vaden Health Center of Stanford University, this involves drinking in a safe, legal and responsible manner while you socialize.
Significance
Drinking in excess can cause damage to your liver, brain and heart. It can also impair your judgment and make you more prone to get behind the wheel of a car, putting your life or someone else's life in danger. Safer social drinking can drastically reduce the incidence of all these unwanted circumstances.
Features
If your social drinking has started to get out of hand, there are several things you can do to get a handle on the situation. Do not drink by yourself. This defeats the purpose of social drinking, and it can lead to more consumption than wanted. Stay away from alcohol-related games that can cause you to drink in excess. Set a reasonable limit for yourself before you start to drink and stay disciplined to avoid going over it.
Size
Drinking in moderation is the key to keeping your intake to social levels. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, this comes out to one drink a day for women and anyone over 65 years old, and two drinks a day for men under 65. A drink is considered 12 oz. of beer, 1.5 oz. of 80 proof hard liquor or 5 oz. of wine.
Prevention/Solution
Alcohol gets absorbed into the blood stream quickly. If you are going to drink socially, you can make the experience safer by alternating alcohol-free beverages like water and non-alcoholic (NA) beer with your alcoholic drinks. This will also help prevent dehydration, which results from the diuretic effect of alcohol. You can also make up drinks with fruit juice and club soda that have no alcohol but still give you the satisfaction of drinking.
Benefits
The benefits of safer social drinking can be seen with your personal health, your family life and your career. When you drink at moderate levels, your risk for chronic diseases like cirrhosis of the liver, hypertension, cancer and stroke goes down. If you drink at lower levels, you will not become belligerent and cause problems in your relationships. Your job will also not suffer due to being hung over, fatigued and out of focus.
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