More than a year ago I wrote a post where I debunked a common misconception that it’s okay to consume alcohol when it’s cold beacuse it gives warmth, when in fact it sucks the heat right off of you.

I don’t think alcohol should be consumed by anyone, and I’d go as far as to call for probation. The WHO made a statement that “there is no safe amount of alcohol that does not affect health”

Here are a couple reasons why. I’m not going to be citing any scientific references for the claims I make, but all of them are easliy verifiable. Look it up online and please stick to reputed websites eg Healthline, MayoClinic, WHO or even better directly read the scientefic literature.

1. REM sleep disruption

REM (Rapid Eye Movement) is the part of your sleep where you dream. It is also when neural connections responsible for making memories, learing and creative reasonsing are reinforced. So drinking alochol will result in significantly lower levels of REM sleep and in turn affect memory formation and your ability to do creative tasks.

2. Destruction of grey matter

Alcohol (along with caffine) is probably the most misused toxic substance. Not only does it destroy cells in your liver, where the primary neutrilization of the toxin occurs, but once in the blood stream, it can reach your brain and destroy the grey matter cells. It is litrally shrinking your brain.

3. A little wine is good. Right?

Wrong. There is no evidence that red wine is benificial. There is a common misconception that a substance present in red wine (Resveratrol) has an anti ageing properties. Well it is true that Resveratrol has anti ageing properties, but the amount of red wine you'd have to consume to see any benifit would be in liters. You'd certainly die if you do that. You're better off having grapes (which also has Resveratrol).

4. Social harm

I don't think there's any need to belabour this point. Drunk driving kills tens of thousands of people every year. Most murderers are intoxicated while commiting the crime. Most cases of sexual assult involve the consumption of alcohol by atleast one side.
One might argue that individuals are free to consume what they want at their own risk. To that I ask, why are narcotic substances illegal?