Alcohol

What is it?

Alcohol is a psychoactive (mind altering) drug that affects the way we think and behave. It is a depressant that slows down our heart rate, breathing, thoughts and actions. There are many different types of alcoholic beverages made from fermented or distilled grains, fruits or vegetables. These beverages are available in our local liquor stores as beers, which usually contain approximately 5% alcohol, wines with approximately 12%, and spirits (hard liquor) with approximately 40% alcohol.

How does it work?

When you drink alcohol, it is absorbed into your bloodstream through the stomach and small intestine. It then travels through the body to your brain. There it slows down activity between the nerve cells on the brain’s “pleasure pathway.” This usually makes you feel more relaxed. However, moderate amounts of alcohol can also make you feel energized. In small amounts, alcohol can make you feel more sociable and talkative. In larger quantities, this may continue, but as our inhibitions disappear, so does your balance, vision, coordination and ability to make important decisions. Alcohol has different effects on different people. It’s not just a matter of how many drinks you consume. Your blood alcohol content (BAC) is affected also by your size and gender. Other things that influence how alcohol will affect you are your past experiences with alcohol, personality and emotions, and your present mood and surroundings. It takes about one hour for these effects of one standard drink to wear off. Two drinks take about two hours to wear off, and so on.

What are the associated risks and health effects?

Sometimes, when discussing alcohol and health, we forget that there can sometimes be some benefits. Just as alcohol can be both beneficial and harmful to your physical health, drinking alcohol can have a dual effect on your social life. For instance, a few drinks can temporarily boost your self-confidence or reduce anxiety but, just as easily, a few more can lead you to take unnecessary risks such as having unprotected sex. Being too intoxicated can also leave you less in control of your own bodies and behaviour, leading to embarrassing actions you may regret later or not even remember because of how alcohol can “black out” your ability to recall what happened. Even light drinking can affect your abilities. Your coordination and speech may be slower, and you may have problems with balance and vision. This is why it’s dangerous to drive a car after drinking even one drink. It’s also dangerous to take a ride with a driver who’s been drinking. A ‘hangover’ from drinking alcohol may cause nausea, vomiting and headaches lasting for 8-12 hours after drinking. For younger men and women, and in particular those who drink more than the recommended weekly limits, alcohol can increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and several types of cancer. Over time, drinking large amounts of alcohol can also cause cirrhosis, where the liver stops functioning properly, It can also cause health problems, such as stomach ulcers, liver disease or brain damage. Heavy alcohol use by women can lead to fertility problems, and alcohol can be transferred from a mother into the baby’s system. Any amount of alcohol can cause problems with the baby’s growth and brain development. 

Alcohol poisoning If you drink too much in a short amount of time, you can develop alcohol poisoning, which affects your breathing, heart rate and gag reflex, and at worst can lead to coma and even death. A helpful tip to prevent alcohol poisoning is to pace yourself. Avoid having more than one drink per hour, and eat foods high in protein while drinking to slow the absorption of alcohol. If someone you know is showing signs of alcohol poisoning, call 911 right away. Remain with the person. If able to help further, try to wake up the person who has passed out. If they do not regain consciousness, roll them onto their side into the recovery position so they won’t choke if they throw up. This is especially important if the person’s skin is pale, blue or cold, or if their breathing is irregular or too slow or shallow (less than 8 breaths per minute or more than 10 seconds between breaths). 

When is drinking a problem? Drinking alcohol is a problem when it negatively affects your life or the lives of others. Many people imagine this refers to people who consume alcohol “all day everyday,” but even small amounts of alcohol can sometimes cause us problems with relationships, money or the law. Even if you normally drink responsibly you could drink too much and make poor decisions. What’s important to recognize is that the issue of “problem drinking” is not necessarily the alcohol itself but the adverse consequences of harmful drinking patterns. One consequence that can develop is tolerance. This happens when it takes more and more alcohol to experience the same physical effects. If you drink regularly, you can develop another type of problem called dependence. This means that you need alcohol to cope with daily life.

Acknowledgments