Does Drinking Alcohol Stunt Your Growth?

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Dr. David Thomas. I'm a practicing psychotherapist with the Whitford Thomas Group in Tampa, Florida here to discuss does the use of alcohol stunt your growth? As far as I have been able to ascertain that there is no clear certainly hard evidence to support the hypotheses that alcohol stunts your growth. Certainly with young folks because the brain is continually developing drinking alcohol can significantly effect ones brain to develop in a healthy fashion but does it effect your growth or stunt your growth? I guess the question I would want an individual to look at here is that certainly a moderate level of alcohol would produce certainly if you are over the age of 21 a moderate level of alcohol would produce you know as far as I can tell very few symptoms but often times one's view of what moderate use is is different from person to person so the question is does alcohol question stunt your growth a better question is are you drinking so much alcohol that you are concerned that it is effecting anything in your system? It is very clear at this point that a moderate use of alcohol for individuals who are over 21 produces virtually no negative consequences. It doesn't mean there cannot be some social ramifications if you have family members and the sort who really don't like alcohol or there is alcohol dependency or alcoholism in your family but as far as whether or not it stunts your growth, the answer is no. The question you want to ask yourself again is are you drinking so much alcohol that you have concern that it may effect your body in some negative way that is the question you want to begin to look at for yourself. I hope this information has been helpful to you. From Tampa, Florida I'm Dr. David Thomas."