This article is is meant to inform and educate it’s readers about the effects alcohol has on a persons mind and body. Alcohol is the most widely used drug in the world today, but not without consequences. Lets stop here to consider some of the most devestating:
-About 114 million americans (41% of the population) had at least a can of beer, a glass of wine, or a cocktail; 12-14 million of this group are considered heavy drinkers.
-About 3/4 of the 6 million college students had a drink, and 1/2 of those were heavy drinkers.
In the last two weeks in the US:
-About 16% of 8th grade studentshad five or more drinks at one sitting.
-About 31% of high school seniors had five or more drinks in one sitting.
Yesterday:
-About $220 million dolars was spent at bars, resteraunts, and liquor stores on alcohol.
And unfortunately:
-From 25% to 30% of all US hospital addmissions were due to direct or indirect medical complications from alcohol.
-About 1/2 of the murder victims and 1/2 of the murderers drank alcohol.
-More than 1/2 of the 300 rapes that occured yesterday involved alcohol.
-Alcohol was a factor in 40% of all violent crimes.
And worldwide last year:
-Over 2 million people died due to alcohol.
Alcohol, now the legal drug, has devistating consequences on our society at large. But historically alcohol has been accepted and intertwined with cultural, social, and financial powers. Because beer, wine, and liquor are so widely available and legal in most societies, many people do not think of alcohol as a drug. But it is…one of the most dangerous available today.
Many countries have had periods in there history where alcohol use was restricted or banned completely. Here are a few examples:
-Many Buddhist sects in IUndia prohibited alcohol starting in 500 B.C and continuing to the present day.
-Alcohol was prohibited in ancient Persia by the ruling Islamic culture because of wide spread health problems.
-And of course, official prohibition of alcohol by the US government lasted for 13 years starting in 1919, but was later repealed.
In general, society’s view on heavy drinking is more forgiving than its view on even ocational cocaine, heroin, or LSD use. But we must not forgett, that alcohol is a powerful psychoactive drug and is classified as a central nervous system depressant.
It is important to know how alcohol is absorbed in the body. Though most drugs must be passed into the intestines for absorption, alcohol is one of the few that is partially absorbed through the stomach
Women absorb alcohol differently than men. In men about 20% of alcohol is absorbed by the stomach wall while in women there is almost no absorption by the stomach. A woman who weighs the same as a man and drinks the same amount as a man absorbs 30% more alcohol and feels its effects faster and more intensely.
Three reasons why:
-Women have a lower percentage of body water than men, so there is less water to dilute the alcohol.
-Women have fewer enzymes in the stomach to break down the alcohol, so less alcohol is metabolized before getting into the blood.
-Changes in hormone levels during menstruation effect the rate of alcohol metabolism.
For this reason chronic alcohol use causes more physical damage to women than men. Female alcoholics have death rates 50-100% higher than male alcoholics.
There are five levels of use classified for alcohol use. The first is known as experimentation. This is generaly use for curiosity with no drug seeking behavior. The second level is known as social recreational use. This is best described as sporadic infrequent use with no established drinking pattern. The third level of use is habituation. With habituation there is an established pattern of use with no real negative consequences. The fourth level is Abuse. People who abuse alcohol have continued use despite negative consequences. The fith level of use is addiction. Addiction is a Compulsion to use, inability to stop use, and major life dysfunction with continued use.
The following is a chart showing the symptoms of alcohol use starting with .00 blood alcohol level and ending with .50 blood alcohol level.
.00 BAC
Lowered inhibitions, feelings of relaxation
Some loss of muscular coordination
Decreased alertness
Reduced social inhibitions
Impaired ability to drive
Further loss of coordination
Slowed reaction time
Clumsiness, exaggerated emotions
Unsteadiness, standing or walking
Exaggerated emotions
Slurred speech
Severe intoxication
Inability to walk without help
Confused speech
Incapacitated, loss of feeling
Difficulty to rouse
Life threatening unconsciousness
Coma
Death from lung or heart failure
.50 BAC
Blackouts are another common symptom for heavy drinkers. During a blackout a person is awake and conscious and seems to be acting normal but afterwards cannot recall anything. Blackouts are caused by an alcohol induced electrochemical disruption of the brain, not passing out or losing consciousness.
You can think of it as an electrical short, only in your brain. This short resuslts in reduced amplitude of the brain wave p3 or p300. Blackouts are often an early indicator or marker for alcoholism.
Just like with any other drug, tolerance begins to happen in the body after continued drinking. Tolerance is the bodys natural adaptation to forieghn substances put in the body. There are four ways the body adapts to the effects of alcohol and protects itself:
-Dispositional tolerance: The body changes the way it metabolizes alcohol. As a person drinks over a period of time the liver adapts to create more enzymes to process the alcohol more quickly. This process accelerates the natural aging of the liver and eventually lead to liver damage and disease.
-Pharmacodynamic tolerance: Brain neurons and other cells become more resistant to the effects of alcohol.
-Behavioral tolerance: Drinkers learn how to handle there liquor by changing there behavior or trying to act sober.
-Acute tolerance: The body’s way of providing instant protection to the poisoness effects of ethanol.
With long term heavy drinking, detoxification from alcohol is common. Some common symptoms of alcohol withdraw include rapid pulse or sweating, hand tremors, insomnia, nausea or vomiting, transient visual, tactile, or auditory hallucinations and illusions, psychomotor agitation, anxiety, 10-33% suffer grandmal seizures, and 5% of serious cases of detox experience DT’s, delirium tremens. They can last 3-10 days, untreated 10-20% die
Liver disease is very common amongst heavy drinkers as well. 10-35% of heavy drinkers develop alcoholic hepatitis. 10-20% develop cirrhosis of the liver. 10-24,000 people die in the U.S. each year due to cirrhosis of the liver.
Alcohol can wreak havock on the digestive system. For instance, common digestive problems include acid stomach, diarrhea, peptic ulcers, gastritis (stomach inflammation), irritation of the esophagus, pancreas, and small intestine. Serious disorders like ulcers, stomach hemorrhage, gastrointestinal bleeding are linked to heavy drinking as well.
Alcohol abuse has horrible effects on the cardiovascular system. Cardiovascualr disease is a common killer amongst alcoholic. Some of these include heart disease like hypertension (high blood pressure) and cardiac arrhythmias (abnormal irregular heart rythims). An enlarged, flabby and inefficient heart is found in heavy drinkers. For most, heavy drinking increases the risk of stroke.
The nervous system is severly effected by alcohol, and can have some of its most debilitating effects on the brain and its higher functions. Both physical brain damage and impair mental abilities have been linked to advanced alcoholism. Alcohol limits the brains ability to use oxygen, causing brain cells to die.
Chronic high doses of alcohol causes direct damage to nerve cells. Brain atrophy (loss of brain tissue) has been discovered in 50-100% of alcoholics. Dementia (deterioration of intellectual ability, faulty memory, and disorientation) is also a known consequence of heavy drinking.
The more we are educated about the effects of alcohol, the better choices we can make as a whole. Recognizing alcohol for the dangerous drug it is and passing this knowlege down to our family and friends, can possibly prevent serious consequences for our children and loved oned.
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