This book should be required reading for everyone who drinks alcohol, especially the young. It can literally save lives.

Jeff Cox, Contributing Editor of The Wine News and author of The Organic Cook's Bible

In this thoroughly documented tome, toxicologist Dasgupta covers everything you ever wanted to know about alcohol-and more. Alcoholics' brains get lighter. About half of U.S. adults drink regularly, and one in five always abstain. Women should consume no more than one drink a day, and men no more than two. Alcohol increases the risk of heart disease and cancer. And some energy drinks contain low levels of alcohol. A helpful, scary chart shows the many common medications-from Prozac to Robitussin-that can interact poorly with alcohol....Overall, it's a definitive guide that should be available to everyone, including those who want to understand the science behind a friend's or relative's substance abuse. And that's a lot of people: Dasgupta notes that 30.4 percent of U.S. adults consume more than two drinks a day. Anyone who reads this book won't want to be among them.

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