With school coming to an end and exams a week away, many students believe that now is the time to get partying and drinking out of their systems by having fun with friends before summer.

What many students don’t know is that alcohol affects the body in many ways that aren’t beneficial to studying and test-taking.

Christen Menzel, a licensed chemical dependency counselor and the coordinator of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Center at SMU, said most students don’t understand how detrimental alcohol is to the body.

“Alcohol can potentially damage more parts of the body than most other drugs out there,” Manzel said.

According to the surgeon general’s office, alcohol is the most serious public health problem on American college campuses today. Along with these serious problems comes serious health issues.

Alcohol slows down brain activity because alcohol affects alertness, judgment, coordination, forgetfulness, confusion and reaction time. Drinking also increases the risk of falls and accidents.

John Sanger, director of the center, believes that drinking, especially around exam time, is damaging to students’ health.

“Heavy drinking interferes with abstract reasoning ability and learning skills,” Sanger said. “Not to mention it also affects your immune system, which makes you more susceptible to illness.”

Alcohol not only causes immediate health problems and depressed brain activity, it also has many long-term affects on the body if one drinks quite often for a long time.

Liver disease, heart disease, certain forms of cancer and pancreatitis are some common diseases that result from alcohol abuse.

So whether students drink just the week before an exam or all the time, they are at risk for health problems. If students want to put their best effort forth for final exams, sleep, a healthy diet and alcohol-free living will help them perform their best.