Alcohol is often regarded with much distaste primarily because of its bad reputation brought about by alcohol-related deaths (such as accidents with drunk drivers) and alcoholism. However, like everything else, alcohol has both positive and negative effects to the body. Unfortunately, people have been traumatized by the negative effects of alcohol for them to take notice of the good things alcohol consumption brings.

The positive effects of alcohol
As much as a lot of people doubt it, there are certain benefits to drinking alcohol at controlled quantities. Here are two of those benefits:

1.Relaxing Qualities
This is one of the most common reasons why people drink – to relax themselves. In controlled amounts, alcohol can help people to wind down after a hard day’s work. It helps remove the stress from work and loosen up the body.

2.Loosens Inhibition
It serves as a medium for socialization. It helps people become more comfortable with themselves and the surrounding to be able to socialize, strike up a conversation, and make new friends in situations where they normally couldn’t.

3.Health Benefits
Doctors advise drinking a certain amount of alcohol everyday (red wine, beer) to prevent heart diseases. A moderate amount of alcohol in the body is said to help increase good cholesterol in the body, reduce blood clotting, promotes clot dissolving, reduces artery spasm from stress, increases coronary blood flow and increases insulin sensitivity. The maximum amount of alcohol consumption in a day is around two to three glasses of red wine or beer for men, and one to two glasses for women.

The negative effects of alcohol
The hazards of alcohol consumption only come when it is abused and drunk excessively. The following are the adverse effects of excessive alcohol consumption:

1.Alcohol dependency or alcoholism
Alcoholism is the preoccupation with or compulsion toward the consumption of alcohol and/or an impaired ability to recognize the negative effects of excessive alcohol consumption. It is characterized by heavy alcohol consumption done over a long period of time.
2.Alcoholic liver diseases
These are liver conditions that resulted from excessive alcohol consumption over a long period of time. These diseases are caused by the liver’s eventual breakdown after continuously processing excessive amounts of alcohol in the bloodstream. Examples of alcoholic liver diseases are fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, liver fibrosis, and cirrhosis.
3.Heart diseases
The more alcohol a person consumes, the more triglycerides his liver produces. A high amount of blood triglyceride, paired with unhealthy living habits and other risk factors, can increase a person’s chances of developing heart diseases like heart attacks and hypertension.
4.Other health concerns
Too much alcohol in the system may lead to other medical conditions like sleeping disorders, sexual problems, infection of the esophagus, infection of the stomach, infection of the pancreas, premature dementia, Korsakoff's syndrome, and various forms of cancer.

There are many health articles about alcohol on the Internet. It is there for people to access freely to better understand alcohol and the different effect it has on the human body.