Celebrating a victory?

Days leading to the end of the year are demanding. Plans, strategies and timelines to achieve the following year’s objectives need to be drawn so one hits the ground running on the first day of the New Year. Yesterday was one of such days. I therefore came home very tired with supper on my mind. Just when I finished dinner, I heard my phone ringing, as though the person calling knew I was done with dinner. The truth is I had forgotten about my phone all day but not my packed lunch and snack. While I placed my lunch and snack at a place where I would easily see to remind me to re-fuel my system (body), I just left my phone unattended to in my bag. I got to my bag only after the call has dropped and realized it was from one of my girlfriends. Before I could call back, her message came through, this only required an SMS reply from me.

After replying her message, I switched on my laptop to check and reply the emails, Facebook messages and comments I have received. And it was in the process of doing these activities, I got reminded of the return leg of the World Cup 2014 Africa qualifiers between the Black stars of Ghana and the Pharaohs of Egypt through Newaccra. Who else but Newaccra to blog (Ghana vs Egypt),  and post on this match to remind me? And truly they tell the African story in a beautiful way. 

The Newaccra post however got me thinking of how supporters of each team will be celebrating should the victory go in their favour. If what I have seen in the past is anything to go by, then expect the drivers to be hooting their horns, music being played on the highest volume, the drinking spots (pubs) full with bottles of alcoholic drinks being empty among others. The drinking of alcohol, which is mostly exceeded by people in celebrating their team’s victory, got my public health nutrition head worried throughout the night; I could not sleep but to write this post to ask how you celebrate a happy event. Do you also empty bottles of alcoholic drinks exceeding your alcohol intake to celebrate an event?

A happy event might be once a while and exceeding your alcohol intake on such occasions should not be a big deal, many might say but I also know that, little drops of water make a mighty ocean. This therefore means developing a behaviour of regularly exceeding your alcohol intake will be in the pipeline (like it is mostly said in Ghana, just that this pipeline is likely to be short), putting an individual at risk of liver diseases, reduced fertility, high blood pressure, increased risk of various cancers and heart attack among others. 

These risks are not only associated with exceeding alcohol intake regularly as the recommended amount of drinking alcohol by a person does not imply, an individual is safe from alcohol-related problems. Drinking the recommended amount of alcohol only put you at a lower risk of the alcohol-related problems mentioned in the previous paragraph as drinking alcohol is never completely safe. Drinking the recommended amount of alcohol only minimize your risk of alcohol-related problems. As I mentioned the recommended alcohol intake in my previous post on alcohol, I will not bore you with a repetition of it. If this your first visit to this blog or you might have forgotten, click on this "I watched him the entire night" to read. 

The harmful effects of alcohol are often hidden and only emerge after some years. Unfortunately by then, serious health problems could be developed, which is most likely going to prevent you from enjoying life to the fullest, living it to the longest as well as preventing you from contributing effectively to the economy of your society. 

Let’s cut down on our alcohol consumption and if possible avoid it, as the harmful effect of alcohol depends on how much we drink.

May the best team win.

Posted in: Alcohol, Alcohol consumption, Black Stars, Egypt, Ghana, infertility, Liver problems, Pharaohs, Wellbeing, World Cup 2014