Alcohol and Your Body (1995)
Audience: Grades 9 - 12, Adult
30 Minutes

Alcohol is the world's most widely abused drug. Society and beverage manufacturers promote drinking as a harmless social activity, but the reality is dramatically different. Even in moderate amounts, alcohol seriously impacts virtually every system of the body. This program supports health units on alcohol and drug education, behavioral choices, and personal health. Student understanding of the effects of alcohol on the nervous, circulatory, digestive, urinary, reproductive and muscular/skeletal systems is reinforced.

The correlation between risky behavioral choices and physical well-being is strengthened, as the link is revealed between alcohol consumption and such ailments as alcoholic pancreatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, fetal alcohol syndrome, and several common cancers. Recovering alcoholics candidly share their experiences, describing peer pressure as an early behavioral influence. Dr. Ernest P. Noble, genetic researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, presents information on the genetic basis of alcohol addiction. Medical information presented has been authenticated by top health care providers and researchers, several of whom appear in the program.