What Effect Does Alcohol Have on a Person's Health and Life Expectancy?

Nicola Cooper

Student No; cs329513

What effect does alcohol have on a person’s health and life expectancy?

The consumption of alcoholic beverages dates back to approximately 10,000 years ago when ‘viticulture’ (the selective cultivation of grape vines for making wine) is said to have originated in the mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas. (1) It is one of the most commonly used psychoactive drugs in the world. Alcohol interacts with gamma amino bultyric acid (GABA) receptors in the brain, this is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in humans and is synthesized from glutamic acid. (1a)

Since then the production of alcohol has flourished and evolved becoming a huge part of today’s society.

However, in recent years much research has been carried out on the effects that alcohol consumption is having on individuals with much of the resulting data being extremely negative. So what is alcohol doing to our society’s health, and is it having any effect on our life expectancy?

In recent years, especially since the introduction of ‘Alco pops’, there