Alcohol-use quiz: Drinking too much carries high costs

Small amounts of alcohol may help protect against diabetes, some types of cardiovascular disease and even gallstones. However, heavier drinking could wipe out those beneficial effects and create greater risks. Drinking more than a small to moderate amount of alcohol can increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, liver disease, pancreatitis, osteoporosis and a variety of cancers, such as breast, gastrointestinal, liver, oral, larynx, throat and esophageal.

Moderate drinking is considered, in general, to be no more than two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women.

It may seem unfair, but women and men do respond differently to alcohol. Even after factoring in weight differences, women are more affected than men after drinking the same amount of alcohol. That's why drinking recommendations differ, depending on whether you're a man or a woman.

One reason for the difference between men and women is that women's bodies have less water than men's bodies do. The alcohol that you consume mixes with your body's water content. If you have less water, the alcohol concentration is accordingly higher. Women also have less of an enzyme that helps break down alcohol, and women's fluctuating hormone levels may affect the rate at which alcohol is metabolized.

If you're a woman and you're drinking, don't try to keep up with the guys just to prove you can do it. You'll set yourself up for major health risks.

You don't need to experience social, legal or other problems in order to have a problem with alcohol. You can engage in excessive drinking and face alcohol-related health problems even though you're not dependent on alcohol and don't lose control after drinking. In that case, you may have what's known as alcohol abuse. Both alcoholism and alcohol abuse can be dangerous to your health and well-being — and to those around you. Although not everyone who abuses alcohol goes on to develop alcoholism, many do.

Some signs and symptoms of alcoholism and alcohol abuse include:

• Drinking alone or in secret
• Not remembering conversations or events
• Feeling an urge to drink
• Irritability if alcohol isn't available
• Hiding or hoarding alcohol
• Building up a tolerance to alcohol so that you need an increasing number of drinks to feel its effects

The good news is that effective treatment is available for alcoholism and alcohol abuse. Counseling, medications and self-help measures can all be of help.

Even though all states have a minimum drinking age of 21, that hasn't stopped underage drinking. Many people under 21 have tried alcohol and many under 21 report binge drinking.

This isn't merely harmless adolescent experimentation. Alcohol use in young people increases the risk of:

• Unintentional injuries, including car crashes and drownings
• Unintended pregnancies
• Getting into fights or into trouble with law enforcement
• Participating in unprotected sex, possibly contracting a sexually transmitted disease

Worse, more than 40 percent of underage drinkers report binge drinking at least once during a typical month. Binge drinking can also be a problem on college campuses, where students often turn it into a game, sometimes with deadly consequences.

Talk to your children about the dangers of underage drinking, such as alcohol poisoning and drinking and driving. Raising the minimum drinking age hasn't been enough on its own to stop young people from drinking.

Alcohol continues to play a major role in crashes. About 15 percent of U.S. adults admit to driving under the influence of alcohol over the course of a year. The results can be disastrous. Some 17,000 people die a year in alcohol-related crashes, accounting for 40 percent of all traffic-related fatalities.

In addition, despite so-called zero tolerance laws that make it illegal in all 50 states for people under 21 to drink any amount of alcohol and drive, many young people aren't heeding the law. Some 21 percent of people ages 16 to 20 say they've driven while under the influence of either alcohol or drugs, putting themselves and others at risk of death or serious injury.

Talk to your children about the dangers of drinking and driving, and practice what you preach.