Youth and Alcohol
Some scientists believe that any amount of alcohol heightens one's sexual desires, frequently taking away inhibitions. Many an act of unchastity, fornication, and adul tery is committed by people who are under the influence of alcohol. Many criminals in penal institutions will admit that they committed these terrible deeds following con sumption of alcohol. Liquor exerts its most serious problem on the nervous system affecting the function of seeing, feeling, moving, thinking, and self control. We have sadly observed an individual "liquored up" and how loud and obnoxious he be comes. He starts to shout at the top of his voice. The reason is be cause he does not hear so well and as a result he talks louder to com pensate for it. No wonder there are so many accidents on our high ways when the eyesight as well as other nerves are so affected. Such information is conclusively shown from repeated scientific tests and is factual. Actions and reactions begin to slow down to a very no ticeable extent. This is why drivers with beer or liquor in them find it more difficult to move their foot from the accelerator to the brake. Despite all the warnings by law enforcement officials, hundreds of people are killed every year as a result of alcoholism. Alcoholism disturbs all the im portant normal body functions, slowing down actions of important organs, such as the brain and the liver often causing disease and de generation. The liver has often been referred to as the chemical labora-
While conducting a Christian conference I was confronted by a teenager who honestly asked, “Really 'Doc/ while I do not drink, it has been a great temptation at school because the crowd does. I have been taught one should not and so I have not. But actually, what is wrong with a friendly glass of beer?" I made it a point to spend a little time with this young man starting with some of the basics, such as the science of alcohol. It is one thing to tell our youth, “No," and it is quite another to fortify them with some positive guide lines to help them in times of temptation. Children do need to know "why." In the Lord's ser vice, as good fathers and mothers, we should become conversant, hav ing knowledge in these areas, so that we might properly instruct our children. I pointed out to this young man that there are many things accom plished in our world today because alcohol is an excellent chemical. The problem comes when alcohol is misused. Alcohol dehydrates, taking the moisure out, and it dis solves. In the human body the nerves are coated in a fatty substance called lipoid. When alcohol enters the body the first thing that hap pens is that it dissolves the nerve coatings affecting the brain. The protoplasm at the heart of the nerves is much like the white of an egg. Alcohol acts like a stove, cook ing or dehydrating this substance. This is what accounts for all the physiological limitations and weak nesses that result.
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