6 Side Effects of Drinking Wine?
- Side effects of drinking wine
- The ‘too’ elements are to blame
- Excessive use is to blame
- Prolonged overuse is to blame
- Addiction is to blame
- Chemicals are to blame
Let’s start at the top.
The prank wine
Half the evening had passed smoothly and their gathering was in full swing; only that, there was one thing missing yet, wine! The five friends had spent a great time together the whole evening; they had talked, listened to music, danced, and had even told jokes; but now they were starting to get tired, and if they wanted to survive the rest of the evening, they needed a booster; and what could be better than wine? They were now sitting around the room on the two sofas, leaning back and one could tell their energy levels were running low. It was in between their talks when Jane leaned forward. “Let me tell you what happened to Pan the other day,” she said enthusiastically, in an effort to cheer up the group. They all got quiet and listened to her telling a boring story, which was intentionally prolonged, maybe to distract others for a few more minutes. She was Mike’s girlfriend after all and Mike was on everybody’s mind now. The story was over and there was short-lived quiet laughter around the room. Boredom could clearly be sensed.
“What happened to Mike? Is he dead or something?” said Bob as soon as the room was quiet.
“He called and said he’s coming,” said Jane immediately.
In fact, Mike had promised to bring wine to the gathering and he should have arrived some two hours earlier but he was still missing.
Jane got up to go to the kitchen “let’s fix something”.
She was almost finished with her sentence when the doorbell rang. You could sense an implicit excitement in everyone.
“Oh it’s Mike I guess,” said Jane in excitement and then went over to open the door.
It took a minute for Mike to enter the room with a big bag. “Hey guys,” he said as came in. he went straight to the table in the middle and took the three bottles of wine out of the bag and carefully placed them on the table. They were beautiful tall bottles of red wine and they shone on the table. The others brought their seats around the table and sat down. Two dragged the sofa on the floor and placed it right next to the table. Barely had a minute passed that everything was ready on the table; chips, steak, wine glasses, and everything. Mike was in charge of pouring the drink and he did so.
“To our friendship,” said Mike, raising his glass. Then everyone clinked their glasses against each other. It was now time to pick up on their talk. Two, three sips, and bodies started to warm up. The anger they felt at the mike was almost fading away.
“Look guys,” said Bob in a loud voice “I’ve got to make an announcement”. Everybody got quiet all of a sudden and they were all ears. He swallowed and was about to utter the first word when Mike suddenly fell off his seat and hit the floor. His eyes were closed and he was choking. His legs were moving frantically and he was making some muffled sounds. Everyone was flustered and Jane started screaming. Two hurried to him and kneeled beside him not knowing exactly what to do. Bob held Mike’s face and just flanked at it and moved it up and down.
“Let’s take him to a hospital,” said Bob looking back at everybody; his forehead was wet with sweat. “Call an ambulance, come on Jane” shouted Mary and Jane hurried to her phone.
They were all looking at Mary when a loud sharp laughter broke the silence. They were once again shocked and it took them a second to know where the sound was coming from. They looked down and saw Mike lying on the floor holding his belly with both hands and guffawing. It took them some moments to know what had happened. They were now gradually realizing that they were pranked.
“Holy shit! You a**hole” said Bob, not knowing whether to be angry or happy.
“Gotcha. Gotcha” Mike got up and was still laughing, looking at all his friends’ blank faces.
Does drinking wine have any side effects? Well, the answer is a flat ‘No’! You might wonder why. One might say that anything in this world has some side effects and there is a negative side to anything. You are right but you must remember that ‘side effect’ is a word and any word finds its meaning in its own context; and in this case, ‘side effects’ must be defined this way: the word ‘side effect’ comes from human perception of life and their interpretation of it. It actually implies that there is nothing perfect in this world; so when there is a problem and a solution comes along that is unique and is said to work and solve the problem, human perception considers it ‘too’ good, and anything above the ordinary, anything that stands out must have a downside to it, hence there are definitely some side effects; some effects that are negative but marginal to the main effect. Therefore, now we can realize why this word is commonly used in the context of medicine and drugs. A drug is, or at least the human mind considers it to be, a unique solution to a problem which otherwise wouldn’t have any other solutions, and therefore has some side effects as well.
So in light of what was discussed previously, wine does not appear to have such qualities; it is not and it has never been a unique solution to a problem, or the cure for a specific disease. It has never been considered ‘too good’ for that matter. Wine has coexisted with humans for as long as there has been a written record of human history. It has been part of rituals in many religions. It has accompanied us in thick and thin. So talking about ‘the side effects of wine’ I believe is somehow out of context. Talking about wine’s side effects is like talking about the side effects of ‘bread’, for instance. Yes, there could be side effects to ‘bread’ but only if you have a disease and one of the ingredients of bread is harmful to your body and your physician tells you to go on a bread diet! Or if you have a disease and the carbohydrates in bread can harm your health. Or maybe you are obese and your nutritionist gives you a diet which is devoid of any kind of bread. Would you consider any of these the side effects of bread? Certainly not!
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The ‘too’ elements are to blame
Besides, based on the connotation that the word bears, ‘side effects’ come along with phenomena that have a ‘too’ element in them, that is, too good, too positive, too useful, etc.; however, there is nothing in wine that is too much; in fact, part of the popularity of wine comes from its moderation in everything; its alcohol level specifically. The alcohol level in most wines is way less than many other types of liquor, and that’s why many people prefer drinking wine to other types of spirits, or that’s why many people who have some underlying medical conditions and are not allowed to have alcoholic drinks turn to wine. They do it to both enjoy the feeling of drinking and escape the negative side effects of too much alcohol. In fact, such people take the good and avoid the evil of drinking by opting for wine. Therefore, the moderation in wine will rule it out of the list when talking about the side effects of something.
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Excessive use is to blame
By further exploring the meaning elements of the word side effects, we hit upon another occasion where this word is used for excessive use. A phenomenon can have side effects if it is used to excess. When you use even the most useful ‘anything’ to excess, you will definitely suffer the consequences; hence, side effects. Drink 10 gallons of water every day and tell me that you will not feel sick the next day. Eat too much fruit and you will go to the hospital, if not deadly. Similarly, drink too much wine and I assure you, you will truly feel the meaning of the word ‘side effects’ to your bones afterward. Drinking too much wine could seriously damage your health. Having too much of this ‘nice’ drink can lead to serious health conditions such as going unconscious, poisoning, and some other serious health issues. So be a moderate drinker and don’t suffer the consequences.
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Prolonged overuse is to blame
Another phenomenon in life that could have side effects is prolonged more-than-enough use of almost anything, even if it is not excessive, but only if it is more than enough. As an example, if your daily food diet contains fat levels a bit above normal, you are at the risk of obesity in 10 years’ time. If you are exposed to particles in the air you breathe in levels slightly above normal and in levels, which would have otherwise been harmless, you are susceptible to develop respiratory problems in the long run. Similarly, although being in moderate amounts, the alcohol in wine can have serious health repercussions if consumed more than enough in a prolonged time span. The excessive prolonged use of alcohol could develop liver problems, or cause the pancreas to malfunction. As a result, drink moderately and you will always be safe.
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Addiction is to blame
Do you want to know something else that could have side effects? Well, it is addiction. Addiction to anything could have serious consequences. In fact, you could call ‘addiction’ one of the modern-era pandemics that plagues human civilization, besides the Coronavirus of course. Addiction comes from a feat in humans that must have been useful at a time; it comes from ‘dependence’ and dependence can have many benefits; it can help you put up with difficult situations for instance. But there is a limit to anything and we must know when something good finishes and the danger reveals itself. It is when the evil in any habit reveals itself that addiction starts. So addiction is a danger that threatens us in any habit. Once you start to totally depend on anything, life goes astray. Therefore, many side effects that can be associated with wine, in fact, come from the addiction and not the wine itself. It is the addiction and not the wine that causes the side effects, and more often than not, this addiction is in fact over-dependence on the alcohol in the wine. Alcohol dependence can have numerous health consequences; it can seriously damage your liver. Besides, bringing this issue under scrutiny, more than the addiction itself, it is a bad habit that comes along with it that makes those addicted suffer. Addiction to anything will lead to excessive use of that substance and this is when the side effects start to show them. In the case of wine, once a person is addicted, they will start over-consumption of the drink and this means more alcohol and more problems. So we must now go back to the same piece of advice; moderation in everything, even when you are drinking Nik Pegasus Cabernet Sauvignon!
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Chemicals are to blame
In this part, we finally come to investigate another aspect of ‘side effects’ and its implications. If you look closely, you will realize that this word mostly applies to things that are NOT natural, things that are not organic, and things that are usually synthesized or are chemical, namely drugs. This is partly due to the fact that humans probably don’t trust their own inventions and the things that are made by technology and in a lab. It could also partly be due to the fact that we generally trust nature more than any other thing. In this case, we must again rule out ‘wine’ because there is no drink whose origins and process of creation is closer to nature than wine. In fact, among all types of liquor, wine is the closest to nature; it is almost purely organic. Therefore, I still believe that ‘side effects’ is not a suitable word to use for wine.
The final word
Finally, I should mention that when I intended to write this article, I ran a search to find out about the side effects of drinking and specifically drinking wine; however, the more health issues I read about in different sources and in websites that specialized in health the more I realized that the side effects are to do with the habits I already discussed in this article. You can run a search yourself and you will find numerous sources mentioning the names of serious diseases related to drinking; diseases that might scare you and that could scare you away from wine or any other type of liquor altogether, and that is partly useful; you need fear not to fall into the bad habit of heavy drinking. However, pay careful attention and you will realize that most of these issues are to do with one of the bad habits I discussed above; excessive use and addiction specifically.
So don’t worry, do anything in moderation and nothing can happen to you. Go to nikpegasus.com now and order a bottle of wine, but drink only one or two glasses and enjoy life!
