Alcohol has been in the center of a lot of research in the past few decades for a lot of reasons. While nobody with a sane sense of mind questions the vices of smoking, the sensible drinkers have hotly contested the alcohol debate. Let us analyze whether there is any wisdom in alcohol drinking.So why do people drink? Most drink in the hope of havinga good time. Alcohol removes inhibitions of an individual making the person loosen up and be more talkative. Many people use alcohol to escape from their problems, or to change their personalities. But are all these desirable? Do we want to loosen up in front of friends and family and at times strangers and behave weirdly or even misbehave? Is there any way to deal with problems but to face them? Would escape help? Obviously no.After years of consumption- and this is the dangerous part- manyareunable to control their drinkingand may suffer problems at work or in school. This loss of control over drinking is perhaps one of the greatest social menace especially for children of an alcoholic parent. It is estimated that 6.6 million children under the age of 18 live in households with at least one alcoholic parent.Medically speaking, alcohol causes damage to the liver and kidneys. Even a small amount starts the problem. The system considers alcohol as a poison and works really hard to remove it from the vicinity. This overworks the liver and kidneys and prevents them from doing their primary job of metabolizing food. This is one of the major reasons how alcohol causes obesity.Alcohol causes health hazards when some medicines are taken. For instance a combination of aspirin and alcohol can provoke bleeding from the stomach. Taken with long usage of analgesics, it can damage the liver.Imbibing alcoholic beverages may get you in trouble with the law. Some people become mean and unreasonable. All they want to do after taking a drink is fight.Alcohol consumption is a major factor promoting obesity as explained above. In fact we at BMI- our one stop center for Obesity Management at Belle Vue Clinic- we discourage patients to have alcohol especially if they are to undergo Bariatric surgery (surgery for severe obesity). Eating high calorie snacks, little activity and smoking often go together with a drinking session, which compounds the problem as each on their own have been linked to weight increase. 
If the family and friends of an alcoholic are concerned about the problem, the alcoholic should be too. Sadly most of the times, the alcoholic does not even realize he or she has a problem. That makes remedial measures even more difficultTo the proponents of sensible drinking, I have to say that alcohol consumption is analogous to the proverbial
