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Pancreatitis can be a short-term (acute) condition that clears up in a few days. But prolonged alcohol abuse can lead to chronic (long-term) pancreatitis, which can be severe. Cirrhosis, on the other hand, is irreversible and can lead to liver failure and liver cancer, even if you abstain from alcohol. If alcohol continues to accumulate in your system, it can destroy cells and, eventually, damage your organs. But when you ingest too much alcohol for your liver to process in a timely manner, a buildup of toxic substances begins to take a toll on your liver. Your liver detoxifies and removes alcohol from your blood through a process known as oxidation.

Why Do Legal Drinking Ages Vary?

drinking age world map

This is the case for Denmark, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, among others. Restricted means that homosexuals may face discrimination or have restricted freedom of expression. Imprisonment means that homosexuality is illegal and can lead to jail time. In some Muslim countries death penalty is the punishment for homosexual relationships.

Deaths from excessive alcohol use

This category includes metrics such as historical landmarks, museums, and archaeological sites. Education is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes through formal or informal means. This category includes metrics such as literacy rates, enrollment rates, teacher-to-student ratio, and educational attainment. Other metrics like education spending, curriculum quality, and technological readiness are also included. The predominant religions in the Middle East tend to view alcohol consumption in a negative light, evident in the regions significantly low consumption levels. This map is based on the data from the International Trade Union Confederation’s Global Rights Index 2020.

  • Assessing the risks and benefits of alcohol consumption remains an active area of research that may lead to major changes in official guidelines or warning labels.
  • Alcohol use disorder ranges from mild to severe, depending on the number of symptoms a person experiences.
  • The design and symbolism of flags can reflect a place’s history, culture, and values, and can also have a significant impact on national identity and international relations.
  • Modern states take a variety of approaches to curtail or regulate the drinking of alcoholic beverages by young people.
  • There are only slight differences by race/ethnicity, education and income.

What Does Alcohol Do to Your Body? 9 Ways Alcohol Affects Your Health

Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to several health complications. Arguably most serious are the possible adverse effects on the heart, including high blood pressure, stroke, arrhythmias, and cardiomyopathy. Alcohol can also cause or contribute to liver steatosis (fatty liver), alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis, and cirrhosis.

  • The primary reason for setting minimum drinking ages is to reduce harm from alcohol use among young people.
  • This category includes metrics such as gross domestic product (GDP), inflation, unemployment, and international trade.
  • ‘Mother’s life’ means that abortion is illegal in all cases except to save the mother’s life.
  • Across Europe, for example, more than two-thirds do in most countries.

Minimum Legal Age for Drinking Alcohol around the World

Alcoholic beverages are a staple of nearly every culture on Earth, save those whose religion restricts alcohol consumption. These limitations make it hard to know how much to rely on studies that find health risks (or benefits) to alcohol consumption. In addition to its effects on the brain, alcohol also affects the peripheral nervous system, which comprises the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. Alcohol-related damage to nerves may also cause heart arrythmias (irregular heartbeat), postural or orthostatic hypotension (a drop in blood pressure due to a change in body position), diarrhea, and erectile dysfunction.

Data on the prevalence of binge drinking by age and gender in the UK can be found here, and trends in heavy and binge drinking in the USA can be found here. This pattern of drinking is often termed ‘binging,’ where individuals consume large amounts of alcohol within a single session versus small quantities more frequently. When we look at gender differences, we see that in all countries, men have a higher alcohol consumption than women.

Some countries face challenges in controlling the supply of alcohol to minors, especially where cultural norms are permissive or enforcement resources are limited. The balance of federal and state or regional powers influences drinking age laws. To give an idea of how quirky some of the laws are, when examined up close, take a look at England and Wales.

This article provides an overview of the legal drinking and consent ages across different parts of the world, drawing on a variety of examples. In the chart, we see data across some countries on the share of people with an alcohol use disorder who received treatment. This data is based on estimates of prevalence and treatment published by the World Health Organization (WHO). Both are measured in terms of pure alcohol/ethanol intake rather than the total quantity of the beverage.

Before 2019, liquor ranked last in popularity, while the proportions preferring wine and beer varied, but with beer usually leading.

Both are part of the United Kingdom, where laws over who can supply alcoholic beverages and who can purchase alcoholic beverages vary from place to place. If you are a Malay citizen who is Muslim, your ID will specify this, and it will be illegal to sell you any alcohol. The particular effects of booze, which can range with dosage from a mild high to acute poisoning and even death, mean that excessive alcohol consumption ranks among the highest problem-areas of young people. Population refers to the demographic characteristics, including size, composition, and distribution of its inhabitants. This category includes metrics such as population growth rate, age structure, gender balance, and urbanization. There are also articles covering factors such as migration, fertility rates, and healthcare.

Social drinking or moderate alcohol consumption for many is pleasurable. Current alcoholic beverage labels in the US warn of the risks of driving under the influence of alcohol, adverse effects on general health, and risks for a developing fetus — but there’s no mention of cancer. “Current research points to health risks even at low amounts of alcohol consumption, drinking age world map regardless of beverage type,” its website says. In reality, there’s no evidence that drinking beer (or your alcoholic beverages of choice) actually contributes to belly fat.