Being a student athlete I decided to further pursue my research on the effects of alcohol on an athletes' body. I have always had the assumption that alcohol has many negative effects when it comes to the performance of an athlete, but now that I am on a college campus and see the abundance of drinking that takes place it has intrigued me to find out more. I personally am not a drinker, but I do want to understand the effects more so that I may have the opportunity to help someone else understand the results alcohol has on our bodies. Unfortunately, I have seen on a few occasions athletes' that have gone out drinking the night or two before an event and watched their performance decline compared to what they were capable of. Not all athletes' performances are effected by alcohol consumption, but I have seen some take hits before. The reason I feel qualified to write on this topic is because I am an athlete, and I have been around athletes' that consume alcohol so I want to be able to better understand what it does to the body, and being an athlete makes it that much more interesting since we are relied on to perform daily.

Throughout my research I used three main sources that I found helpful, the first being one from the UC San Diego Athletics Department titled "Alcohol and Athletic Performance." Although there were many helpful facts contained in this article, the main purpose of UC San Diego was trying to convince their student athletes not to consume alcohol. Alcohol can cause many short term and long term issues within our body and as student athletes' you cannot afford to be anything less than 100% physically prepared to perform. UC San Diego went as far as saying death was a possibility if alcohol consumption was not removed from their lifestyle, if not at least trimmed down. The major values of the article were to inform the athletes of UC San Diego specifically of what sort of alcohol consumption effects will take place on the body, but also it mainly wanted to scare them out of doing it anymore. Although the UC San Diego Athletics Department is a credible source, they were biased in the fact that they were completely against alcohol consumption of athletes. They strongly believed that the only effects of alcohol were negative, especially when referring to the bodies of athletes'.

The next article that I discovered pertaining to my research was one from the BoxLife magazine "Effects of Alcohol on Sports Performance," a health magazine pertaining to athletes. BoxLife was precise on telling readers the main facts of alcohol consumption. Dehydration, energy loss, liver failure are all things that could take place due to an abundance of alcohol intake. Specific numbers and facts about alcohol were included throughout this article, mostly to inform the readers what the effects were. The major value of this article was to give readers insight on how alcohol may affect their bodies. The BoxLife magazine was effective in being straight to the point and not fluffing their article in any way. The source is credible, because a doctor provided many of the facts given in the article. This article was not in any way bias because there was no persuasion anywhere in the writing. Its purpose was purely to state facts and inform readers the effects alcohol has on our bodies.

The last article "How Does Alcohol Effect Your Athletic Performance" was found from the company Drinkaware which was designed to help people understand the effects alcohol has on the body, and how they can be helped if struggling from alcohol temptations. Throughout this article BoxLife argued that your chances of dehydration, energy reduction, and liver failure increased from an abundance of alcohol consumption. Drinkaware's main reason for this article was to inform readers about the effects of alcohol. The main value of this article was to take away the facts provided, and try to have athletes help themselves from reading it. The article is credible, and is not biased because just like BoxLife, Drinkaware was simply providing athletes' insight on the effects of alcohol consumption, and they were not trying to persuade athletes' to stop drinking like UC San Diego was trying to do.

The reason why I chose to write about this topic is because it is a very arguable situation among college campuses. There are many athletes' that believe alcohol plays no role on their performance, and then there are the athletes' that believe it plays a major role. Amongst the articles, there are definitely similarities in the fact that all three articles believe alcohol has an effect on athlete's performance. One of the articles informed, the other article argued, and the third tried persuading the readers to not consume alcohol because of the negative effects it has. I believe after the research I still feel strongly about not consuming alcohol, especially due to the fact I am an athlete and I understand the negative effects it could have on me. As I further my research, I am going to want to find more specific arguments and see if anyone has actually tested their performance with and without alcohol in their systems. 

