Dangers of Alcohol Must Be Addressed

Most people in our community consider it chassidish to make a L’chaim at various occasions. Whether it’s an engagement, wedding, bris, yortzeit, farbrengen or gathering of any type – it’s an occasion to have a drink.

To take an occasional sip to be social is natural and to be expected. But alcohol has a very calming affect: it could be a mood enhancer, it can take our fears, phobias and anxieties away. At the same time it is addictive, it can make one abusive, it can remove ones sensible decision making processes, and can lead to risky behavior which is very threatening to our frum life style.

Alcohol usage in this community is not taken seriously, as one looks at all the Shabbos shul gatherings, farbrengens, kiddushim, and sees various “Rabbonim” slumped over and drunk on the benches and tables. People may be shocked when they hear about drug use in the frum community, but do they realize that this is another form of a dangerous addiction? This habit can be a prelude to drugs and abusive behavior, which can ruin the shalom bayis for an entire family.

Let’s look at the importance of our liver and its life giving functions. Our liver has many functions, but the major ones are:

1. It cleanses our blood stream from the digested foods materials that are no longer needed in our body. This is cleaned out by our liver and then put into our bowels which we eliminate on a regular basis.

Can you imagine what would happen to our blood if these waste products would not be filtered out by our liver? Well for one thing, our skin would turn yellow or jaundice by the poisonous toxins that would be circulating throughout our body. Our skin would become itchy, and last but not least, our brain cells would be killed out from the impurities.

2. Our liver puts a thickening agent into our blood which keeps our blood thick. This viscosity allows our blood to circulate throughout our entire circulatory system delivering oxygen to all our vital organs. If Chas-V-shalom our liver would not be working properly, it would not be able to keep our blood thick. This could cause thinning of the blood, which could lead to immediate hemorrhage throughout our entire body and can result in death.

Yes, there are many cases on college campuses and at alcoholic binging parties where young participants are found dead, laying in a pool of blood which is coming out of their eyes, ears, nose, mouths, and from every opening of their body. You see, large amounts of alcohol ingestion can shock the liver so drastically, that the blood will not be thickened enough to flow through our vital organs. This can cause the person to bleed to death on the spot. Some of these victims were new to alcohol, so their death had nothing to do with constant lifelong drinking.

I would like to bring this article to a close, but not before I ask every one of my readers these soul-searching questions: Are you doing anything positive to prevent your family from excessive alcohol consumption? Are you allowing your under-aged sons and daughters access to beer and mashke? Do you realize that you are not allowed to host a farbrengen containing liquor or alcoholic beverages for anyone under the age of twenty one, and if you are caught you can be heavily prosecuted? Can you imagine if a participant at such a gathering would become ill and need medical attention? the parents who allowed this to happen can be fined and sued for damage to the child’s health.

Let us all help keep a safe and healthy environment for our family and loved ones by educating them about the dangers of alcohol consumption.

For more information, and to arrange lectures geared to Yeshiva aged children, contact me at nursetzippy@hotmail.com

Tzipporah Clapman is a Registered Nurse with a Masters Degree in Family Medicine. She runs School Clinics for the Government, and has a private practice in her home by appointment only.