I was washing my car this morning when I was told my very
good friend and neighbor passed on yesterday. He works for a federal agency
like mine and we usually discuss about life. When we saw a day to his death, he
was telling me to be prepared for salary this week. Abdullahi was a friend
indeed.
His death was sudden quite alright but was not a surprise! I
have never seen him sober! He is always drunk or at the joint to get drunk. He
collapsed yesterday and never regained consciousness. Alcohol is very very
dangerous.
It is common to see people hold drinks with high level of
Alcohol(spirits) and they finish the bottle alone. I’ve heard people talk to me
about the need to get high and believe me, alcohol consumption has not reduced
despite the harsh economic situation, people don’t see the risk in alcohol
consumption. News of death after alcohol consumption is all around but nobody
cares?
How dangerous is alcohol consumption really? Just imagine
how many lives have been cut short just like that of my friend Abdullahi. Why is
Alcohol a leading cause of death?
Alcohol gets absorbed through the stomach and straight into
the blood stream. Alcohol effect is sudden and immediate and the body usually
reacts to this. Alcohol in itself is a drug whose abuse is the most common. It is
important that Alcohol should not have dangerous impurities like methyl alcohol
which is poisonous to the human system. Once you ingest alcohol with such
components, it is a direct poison to your system and hence immediate death is
inevitable.
Another reason alcohol is dangerous is the break down of
alcohol in the body with a dangerous carcinogenic substance known as
acetaldehyde! Believe me, you don’t want this toxic substance in your system
for one minute. Many of you that have hang overs with headache and vomiting should
watch it, it is actually a sign of more poisonous materials in your system. Drinking carbonated alcohol/mixing carbonated
drinks with alcohol is basically dangerous and puts you at more risk of higher
absorption.
Let me leave the part of organ failure and liver cirrhosis
for my medical friends to discuss but of course you stand a higher risk of that
through alcohol abuse.
One of the basic courses you learn as a food scientist is
how to make alcohol and how important alcohol is both to the body and the
industry at large. Alcohol is one of the best solvents in the industry that is
consumable. In fact, I was taught by a Professor who takes a bottle of stout
for lunch. As food scientist, we are aware of the tremendous advantages you can
get from it. However, we were also taught why you must never advocate the use
of alcohol as a food Scientist. Dr. M.M Ige explained that you have no control
over alcohol limit and abuse, therefore, never recommend alcohol consumption no
matter the case as a food scientist.
If you have a friend who likes to drink a lot or your
husband drinks every night hanging out with friends, you may as well know that
they are losing their lives gradually through poisonous breakdown of Alcohol in
their system. OH, did I mention that women are at a higher risk than men when
they take alcohol? Lets discuss that another day.
Farewell to my friend Abdullahi, and to everyone still
abusing alcohol, the best time to stop is now!
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