Alcohol Basics
If you are a college student, it is important to know the basics about alcohol. Whether or not you choose to drink, chances are you will encounter friends, acquaintances, or fellow students who do. Thus, in some way, alcohol is bound to affect you during your college experience.
Drinking Facts
Alcoholic beverages supply calories but few nutrients. Heavy drinkers are at risk of malnutrition because alcohol contains calories that may substitute for those in nutritious foods. If you choose to drink, it should be in moderation and with meals to slow alcohol absorption.
1,400 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes (Hingson et al., 2002).
500,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are unintentionally injured under the influence of alcohol (Hingson et al., 2002).
Excess alcohol use alters judgment and can lead to dependency
31 percent of college students met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and 6 percent for a diagnosis of alcohol dependence in the past 12 months, according to questionnaire-based self-reports about their drinking (Knight et al., 2002).
Taking more than one drink per day for women or two drinks per day for men can raise the risk for social and psychological problems, cirrhosis of the liver, inflammation of the pancreas, damage to the brain and heart, motor vehicle crashes, other bodily injuries, high blood pressure, stroke, violence, suicide, certain types of cancer and even death.
More than 150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health problem (Hingson et al., 2002) and between 1.2 and 1.5 percent of students indicate that they tried to commit suicide within the past year due to drinking or drug use (Presley et al., 1998).
Even one drink per day can slightly raise the risk of breast cancer.
Research shows that moderate consumption provides little, if any, health benefit for younger people.
Risk of alcohol abuse increases when drinking starts at an early age.