Alcohol use involves drinking beer, wine, or hard liquor.

See also:

• Alcohol and diet
• Alcoholism
• Alcohol withdrawal state

Beer consumption; Wine consumption; Hard liquor consumption

People have been drinking alcoholic beverages since prehistoric times. The discovery of the distillation process during the 12th century made it possible to make drinks with higher alcohol content (hard liquor) than can be achieved by fermentation alone.

Alcoholic drinks have different amounts of alcohol in them -- beer is about 5% alcohol, wine is usually 12 - 15% alcohol, and hard liquor is about 45% alcohol.

Alcohol and caffeine are the two most widely used drug substances in the world. Alcohol use is not only an adult problem. Most American high school seniors have consumed an alcoholic drink within the past month, despite the fact that the legal drinking age is 21 years old in the U.S.

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Review Date: 03/30/2010
Reviewed By: David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc., and David B. Merrill, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)